Tropical Plant-Pollinator Interactions

Tropical forests are being cut down at alarming rates, but we don't know very much about how this deforestation is affecting the pollinators and their ability to facilitate plant reproduction. We are currently doing research in the Panama Canal region on the plant-disperser interactions of a tropical tree species called Miconia affinis. 

A Trigona muzoensis bee pollinates a Miconia affinis inflorescence in Gamboa, Panama. May 2016.

Up to 90% of tropical plants depend on pollinators to reproduce.

Ecologist Nelson Jaen measures the diameter of a Miconia affinis fruit. Photo by Leonardo Simmons.

We use seed traps to catch fruits that fall from trees or are dropped by seed dispersers like birds. Photo/Animation by Leonardo Simmons.

Check out our publications on this topic: Castilla et al. 2017, O’Connell et al. 2018

When it is flowering, Miconia affinis is visited mostly by bees. Miconia affinis bursts into flower for 2 days at a time and when it does, the forest fills with a strong perfume smell and you can hear the trees buzzing with pollinators from meters away. I filmed these pollinators on Cerro Azul, Panama in May of 2016 while doing fieldwork.