A white campion flower. Image credit: Roman Adler (CC BY 4.0)
Destroying habitats can reduce the size of local populations of many plants and animals. For plants, a smaller population means a greater chance of inbreeding, where individual plants that are closely related to each other mate and produce offspring. Inbreeding often results in offspring that are weaker than their parents which can reduce the plant’s chance of survival.
Many plants rely on animals to help them to breed. For example, bees carry pollen – containing the male sex cell – to other flowers which then fertilize the plant to produce seeds. Flowers use a wide range of attributes to attract animals such as their colour, scent and providing them with food. However, inbreeding may alter these characteristics which could make it harder for inbred plants to reproduce, meaning that populations would end up shrinking even faster.
To test this theory, Schrieber et al. studied flowers from white campions which use moths to breed. Inbred plants had smaller and fewer flowers, and had a different smell. In particular, they produced less of a chemical scent that is known to attract moths at night. Schrieber et al. then tracked moths visiting a mixed population of inbred and control plants. Fewer moths visited the inbred flowers, particularly the ones that were female. This shows that inbreeding may accelerate population loss and extinction by making flowers less attractive to animals.
This work highlights the impact habitat destruction has on plants and shows how species can decline rapidly as populations shrink. This could help to support conservation efforts and inform ecology models to better understand our effect on the environment.
