植物与传粉者相互作用的研究及其意义

Studies on plant-pollinator interaction and its significances

生物多样性是生物及其与环境形成的生态复合体以及与此相关的各种生态过程的总和（蒋志刚等,1997）,不仅体现在物种类别的多样性,而且体现在生态过程的复杂多样。认识生物多样性,特别是试图了解生物多样性的起源和形成机制,离不开生物与环境、生物与生物之间相互作用的研究。

The majority of flowering plants and crops rely in whole or part on animals for pollination. The mutualism between plants and pollinators has attracted ecologists and evolutionists to use this type of interspecific interaction as a model system to study species adaptation and diversification since Charles Darwin. Recent debate on the nature of pollination systems call for studies of this interaction at different levels, ranging from single species to entire communities in a given area. At the species level, detailed studies suggest that floral traits are under selection from mutualists and antagonists as well as the physical environment. In contrast, studies at community-level are rare, but recent analyses indicate considerable spatial and temporal variation in both generalized and specialized pollination systems. This special issue of Biodiversity Science focuses on plant-pollinator interaction, presenting current research status in this area from China. Papers include floral traits and pollinator behaviors addressed by phenotypic manipulation, estimates of pollen removal and receipt, anatomy of flowers, histochernistry analysis and spatial and temporal comparison. The taxa being investigated include wild orchid and cultivated legume, endemic, endangered and invasive species with diverse sexual systems. These thirteen experimental studies and three reviews show the development of pollination biology in China and expose how to facilitate our understanding of the critical ecological processes underlying interspeciflc interaction in both natural and agricultural ecosystems.