
The purple-throated carib among heliconias: now replaced by other speciesAndrew Peacock / Getty Images
Two types of heliconia—plants with ornate red and orange flowers in the same family as the banana—found on the Caribbean island of Dominica had just one pollinator: a hummingbird known as a purple-throated carib (Eulampis jugularis). In September 2017, however, three-quarters of the bird’s population was wiped out by Hurricane Maria, which also destroyed buildings, caused power outages, and killed 33 residents in the region. The result was a change in the plant’s reproduction cycle, according to a study by an international group that includes Brazilian ecologists Mauro Galetti of São Paulo State University (UNESP) and Fernando Gonçalves, who is doing a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. After the hurricane, the team observed four other bird species visiting the flowers. Fears of the hummingbird going extinct were allayed. “It’s not always simple—the phenomenon breaks the coadaptive relationship, meaning other individuals can pollinate the plant, taking over from species that have declined,” Gonçalves told Agência Bori. “The evolutionary trajectory can fluctuate. It is not as restricted as we thought.” Now, the group intends to evaluate the impacts of natural phenomena on the evolutionary behavior of other species. “We are monitoring other hurricanes in the region so that we can visit and understand the consequences” (New Phytologist, July 11; Agência Bori, July 12).
Republish