View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Elsevier - Publisher Connector SAAB Annual Meeting Abstracts 389 ATP. Many Proteaceae, including Banksia and Hakea species, are aDepartment of Botany, Faculty of Science, Charles University readily killed by P fertilisation (P-toxicity). The extreme P in Prague, Benátská 2, CZ-128 01 Prague, Czech Republic sensitivity of H. prostrata (Proteaceae) is due to its very low bInstitute of Botany, Academy of Sciences of the Czech capacity to reduce its P-uptake capacity at elevated P levels in Republic, Průhonice 1, CZ-252 43 Průhonice, Czech Republic the rhizosphere. This low capacity to down-regulate P uptake cDepartment of Botany and Zoology, Stellenbosch University, capacity is therefore in tune with the P-impoverished soil Private Bag X1, Matieland 7602, South Africa conditions in Western Australia. dDepartment of Conservation Ecology, Stellenbosch Univer- sity, Private Bag X1, Matieland 7602, South Africa doi:10.1016/j.sajb.2009.02.015 Flow cytometry (FCM) is a high-throughput technology that simultaneously measures and analyses multiple parameters of individual particles (e.g., cells, nuclei). Over the last decade, applications of FCM in plant population and evolutionary Seeds, seedlings and phosphorus biology, ecology, and biosystematics have expanded dramati- cally both in frequency and scope, primarily addressing ques- B. Lamont, P. Groom tions of phenotypic manifestation, spatial distribution and Centre for Ecosystem Diversity and Dynamics, Department of evolutionary significance of genome duplication (polyploidy) Environmental Biology, Curtin University, Perth 6845, Australia and chromosomal variation (aneuploidy). The unsurpassed speed and reliability of estimating differences in nuclear DNA We review the phosphorus (P) nutrition of seeds, seedlings content by FCM paves the way for large-scale surveys at the and young plants in Mediterranean-climate South Africa and landscape, population, individual and tissue levels. Representa- Australia. We focus on the most studied group in both regions, tive sampling has made it possible to gain novel insights into the the Proteaceae. P is translocated from the vascular system to the extent of intra- and inter-population ploidy variation, niche fruits and then efficiently (90%) to the maturing seeds. 50% of differentiation, and ecological preferences of particular cyto- the above-ground P in Banksia hookeriana resides in the stored types. The technique is also ideally suited for the detection and seeds. Total P storage per seed is a function of seed size and in quantification of rare evolutionary episodes. Another attractive turn a function of time to maturation (positively) and soil feature of FCM is the possibility to reformulate former taxo- fertility (negatively) Seed P is stored in organic form as nomic concepts and propose robust classifications based on a phytates. Seeds of 20 species of Proteoideae in the Cape weigh detailed understanding of population structure and phenotypic on average 50 mg with 0.4% P while those of Grevilleoideae in variation of polyploid groups under investigation. Discrimina- Australia weigh 130 mg with 1.4% P, suggesting that soils are tion among homoploid taxa and their hybrids, based on more P-impoverished in Australia. P is transferred efficiently differences in genome size, is another unique aspect of FCM. (95%) from the cotyledons to the seedling in two Hakea spp In combination with molecular and phenotypic approaches, (seed weight N20 mg, PN0.2 mg) in their own soil and account FCM promises qualitative advances in our understanding of for 75% of their P after 3 months of growth. For small-seeded genome multiplication and the population biology of vascular species (b5 mg, Pb0.05 mg), most P content is sourced from plants. Particular research avenues will be documented by case the soil in that time. We interpret high seed P as enabling studies from various floras, including some running projects in species to maximise carbon gain from the shoots when soil-P the Cape floristic region, with special emphasis on the key sources are low. Much of the carbon is then translocated to the geophytic genus Oxalis. roots to maximise elongation as a drought-avoiding device. Small seeds produce small seedlings that are more drought- doi:10.1016/j.sajb.2009.02.017 tolerant. Banksia seedlings can develop a root system N2m deep in the first growing season, and by 18 months most internal P of even large-seeded species has been derived from the soil by efficient uptake mechanisms. The non-African oil-flowers and their bees: A brief survey doi:10.1016/j.sajb.2009.02.016 S. Vogel University of Vienna, Austria Flow cytometry and its applications in plant population The four existing oil-flower domains of the world: the biology, ecology and biosystematics: New prospects for the Holarctic, the Paleotropic, the Capensis and the Neotropic, Cape flora have almost independently evolved and show little overlap. They represent an instructive example of convergency. Most J. Sudaa,b, J. Loureiroa,b, P. Trávníčeka,b, J. Rauchováa,b, oil-collecting bees as well as their oil-producing plant P. Víta,b, T. Urfusa,b, M. Kubešováa,b, L.L. Dreyerc, hosts of the Old World are not related to those of the New K.C. Oberlanderc, P. Westerc, F. Roetsd World. Nevertheless, all participants of this mutualism have 390 SAAB Annual Meeting Abstracts characteristic traits in common: The plant hosts (ca. 1300 Climate change, drought and biodiversity: An ecophysiological species of 10 families are known) are pollinated by bees perspective (melittophilous) and constitute a special group that usually lacks nectaries (except Cucurbitaceae) and produces instead a A.G. West liquid, high energy reward consisting uniformly of one class Department of Integrative Biology, University of California of relatively hydrophilic acyloxy-fatty acids with chain Berkeley, Berkeley CA 94720, United States lengths of 14–18 carbon atoms, usually bound as mono- or Department of Botany, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch diglycerides. They are produced by special, often paired 7701, South Africa floral gland fields (elaiophores), which may be epidermal epithelia or trichome cushions located on various floral parts. A seeming certainty of climate change is that changes in Certain bees, always the females, collect the oil with their temperature and precipitation will impact ecosystem water specially equipped legs or the ventral metasoma. The mouth balance. In the Mediterranean-type climate zone of South Africa, parts are never involved except in rare cases of direct future climate simulations predict warmer temperatures and a ingestion. The oil, mixed with pollen of the oil host or from reduction in precipitation, leading to more frequent and intense non-oil flowers, is exclusively used as provision for the periods of drought. A change in the duration and intensity of larvae and, in addition, often serves as a solidifying material drought is likely to have profound impacts on the highly diverse for sealing the brood cell walls. Adults of both sexes take up and endemic flora of the Cape Floral Region (CFR), as this flora nectar from non-oil flowers for their own nutrition. Oil may have radiated in relatively mesic and stable climate flower systems are rare among the other flower guilds. The conditions. However, uncertainty in climate predictions (parti- paleotropic system extends from SE-Asia to New Guinea and cularly for precipitation) coupled with a poor understanding of Australia, but is also represented in tropical Africa. The species responses to drought, leaves us with very little concrete mutualism between the cucurbitaceous, mostly dioecious information about what the specific impacts may actually be. genera Thladiantha and Momordica is exclusively visited by Thus, the challenge facing ecologists is to understand, mechan- the bee genus Ctenoplectra. The females mop the large istically rather than correlatively, how species will respond to trichome fields by sweeping their metasoma across. A changes in the water balance and to do this in a region with palearctic/nearctic system is constituted by the association extraordinary levels of plant diversity. Can obtaining ecophy- of Lysimachia (Primulaceae, Subgenus Lysimachia)withthe siological data help improve our understanding of what lies melittid genus Macropis. These bees harvest the oil with the ahead for fynbos plants in the face of climate change? Using a front and middle leg pairs from the trichomatic elaiophore recently developed theoretical framework by McDowell and covering the staminal column of the host. The complex has colleagues (2008), together with new data from experimental its centre in China but extends to Europe and (Subgenus studies in the fynbos, I explore the potential for improving our Seleucia) to North America. The largest oil flower domain estimates of drought-related impacts in the CFR. I show the is neotropical and is distributed from Texas as far as Pata- potential for detecting categories of plant responses to drought gonia. The host plants evolved here include members of that will improve our ability to predict the impacts of future 7 families: Malpighiaceae (36 genera), Krameriaceae (Kra- climate in the region, and highlight areas where improvements in meria), Solanaceae (Nierembergia), Scrophulariaceae (4 our knowledge are needed. genera), Calceolariaceae (Calceolaria), Iridaceae (4) and Or- chidaceae (b9). Their guests are throughout endemic