Biology subjects

Brundrett, M.

Publications and source records attributed to Brundrett, M..

4 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Seasonal climatic impacts on orchid productivity in an urban ecosystem

Context: The global diversity hotspot in Southwest Australia has >480 orchids facing increasing threats from climate extremes, fire and habitat decline. Aims: To develop effective and consistent tools for measuring climate impacts on productivity in a diverse urban orchid community. Methods: Annual variations in flower and seed production for 17 orchids were determined using thousands of records over a decade with extreme climate variability. Key results: Rainfall deficits and temperatures in autumn, winter and spring increased substantially over 125 years. Seasonal climate anomalies reduced flowering and seed production for orchids, but this varied between species and seasons. These effects were summarised by climate response (CRI) and sensitivity (CSI) indexes. Early or late flowering species were most vulnerable to seasonal drought, but warm dry conditions promoted visually deceptive pollination. CRIs were strongly correlated with orchid pollination syndromes and flowering times. Effects on mycorrhizal fungi and pollinators were also observed. Extrapolating climate trends to 2100 predicted further impacts on orchid productivity (5-40%). Conclusions: Orchid climate responses were substantial, complex and deeply integrated with key traits such as pollination, phenology and fire responses. Implications: Research in an urban climate observatory produced a climate analysis framework potentially relevant to all orchids and other biota.

Plant Biology↗

bioRxiv2022

Mimicking orchids lure bees from afar with exaggerated ultraviolet signals

O_LIFlowers have many sensory traits to appeal to pollinators, including ultraviolet (UV) absorbing markings, which are well known for attracting bees at close proximity (e.g. < 1 m). While striking UV signals have been thought to attract pollinators also at greater distances of meters, how the signals impact the plant pollination success over distance remains unknown. Here we report the case of the Australian orchid Diuris brumalis, a non-rewarding species, pollinated by bees via mimicry of rewarding pea plant Daviesia decurrens. When distant from the pea plant, Diuris brumalis was hypothesized to enhance pollinator attraction by exaggerately mimicking the floral ultraviolet (UV) reflecting patterns of its model. C_LIO_LIBy experimentally modulating floral UV reflectance with a UV screening solution, we quantified the orchid pollination success at variable distance from the model plants. C_LIO_LIWe demonstrate that the deceptive orchid Diuris brumalis attracts bee pollinators by emphasizing the visual stimuli, which mimic the floral UV signalling of the rewarding model D. decurrens. Moreover, the exaggerated UV reflectance of D. brumalis flowers impacted pollinators visitation at an optimal distance from D. decurrens, and the effect decreased when orchids were too close or too far away from the model. C_LIO_LIOur findings show that salient UV flower signalling plays a functional role in visual floral mimicry, likely exploiting perceptual gaps in bee neural coding, and mediates the plant pollination success at much greater spatial scales than previously expected. C_LI

ecology↗

bioRxiv2019

FungalRoot: Global online database of plant mycorrhizal associations

O_LIThe urgent need to better understand profound impacts of mycorrhizas on functioning of terrestrial ecosystems, along with recent debates on resolving plant mycorrhizal associations, indicate that there is a great need for a comprehensive data of plant mycorrhizal associations able to support testing of ecological, biogeographic and phylogenetic hypotheses.\nC_LIO_LIHere present a database, FungalRoot, which summarizes publicly available data on plant mycorrhizal type and intensity of root colonization by mycorrhizal fungi, accompanied by rich meta-data. We collected and digitized data on plant mycorrhizal colonization intensity published until April 2019 in 9 globally most important languages. The data were assessed for quality and updated for plant taxonomy.\nC_LIO_LIThe FungalRoot database contains 36,303 species by site observations for 14,870 plant species, tripling the previously available amount in any compilation. The great majority of ectomycorrhizal and ericod mycorrhizal plants are trees and shrubs, 92% and 85% respectively. The majority of arbuscular mycorrhizal and of non-mycorrhizal plant species are herbaceous (50% and 70%).\nC_LIO_LIBesides acting as a compilation of referenced observations, our publicly available database provides a recommendation list of plant mycorrhizal status for ecological and evolutionary analyses to promote research on the links between above- and belowground biodiversity and functioning of terrestrial ecosystems.\nC_LI

ecology↗

bioRxiv2018

Human-induced decrease of ectomycorrhizal vegetation led to loss in global soil carbon content

Vegetation impacts on ecosystem functioning are mediated by mycorrhiza, a plant-fungal association formed by most plant species. Ecosystems dominated by distinct mycorrhizal types differ strongly in their biogeochemistry. Quantitative analyses of mycorrhizal impacts on ecosystem functioning are hindered by the absence of information on mycorrhizal distribution. We present the first global high-resolution maps of vegetation biomass distribution among main types of mycorrhizal associations. Arbuscular, ecto-, ericoid and non-mycorrhizal vegetation store 241{+/-}15, 100{+/-}17, 7{+/-}1.8 and 29 {+/-} 5.5 GT carbon in aboveground biomass, respectively. Soil carbon stocks in both topsoil and subsoil are positively related to the biomass fraction of ectomycorrhizal plants in the community, though the strength of this relationship varies across biomes. We show that human-induced transformations of Earths ecosystems have reduced ectomycorrhizal vegetation, with potential knock-on effects on terrestrial carbon stocks. Our work provides a benchmark for spatially explicit global quantitative assessments of mycorrhizal impacts on ecosystem functioning and biogeochemical cycles.\n\nOne Sentence SummaryFirst maps of the global distribution of mycorrhizal plants reveal global losses of ectomycorrhizal vegetation, and quantitative links between mycorrhizal vegetation patterns and terrestrial carbon stocks.

ecology↗