Luis Navarro

University of Vigo | UVIGO · Department of Plant Biology and Soil Sciences

Aim Mutualistic interactions between plants and animals are fundamental for the maintenance of natural communities and the ecosystem services they provide. However, particularly in human‐dominated island ecosystems, introduced species may alter mutualistic interactions. Based on an extensive dataset of plant–frugivore interactions, we mapped and an...

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) or drones, allow to map and inspect terrain in inaccessible locations and avoid the intrusion in protected environmental areas in a short period, implementing a methodology with high reproducibility. Given its effectivity, drone photometry appears as a unique technique to contrast over time sedimentation patterns alo...

Many flowers exhibit phenotypic plasticity. By inducing the production of several phenotypes, plasticity may favour the rapid exploration of different regions of the floral morphospace. We investigated how plasticity drives Moricandia arvensis, a species displaying within-individual floral polyphenism, across the floral morphospace of the entire Br...

Detailed knowledge about the geographical pathways followed by propagules from their source to the invading populations, ie the route of invasion, provides information about the history of the invasion process and the origin and genetic composition of the invading populations. This is especially interesting in cases where other factors such as repr...

Many flowers exhibit phenotypic plasticity. By inducing the production of several phenotypes, plasticity may favour the rapid exploration of different regions of the floral morphospace. We investigated how plasticity drives Moricandia arvensis, a species displaying within‐individual floral polyphenism, across the floral morphospace of the entire Br...

Understanding the impact of global warming on plant species in mountain areas is crucial to develop successful conservation actions. These plant communities survived drastic limate shifts throughout geological times and it is possible that lineages more resilient to these fluctuations have been selected. However, current climate is changing quickly...

En el proyecto PRIOCONEX estamos estudiando el género endémico peninsular Petrocoptis por dos razones. Por un lado la mayoría de sus especies gozan de algún grado de protección. Por otro lado permite el estudio de la especiación ligada a la especificidad al substrato. El estudio de las semillas aporta información sobre la ecología de las plantas y...

Phenotypic convergence, the independent evolution of similar traits, is ubiquitous in nature, happening at all levels of biological organizations and in most kinds of living beings. Uncovering its mechanisms remains a fundamental goal in biology. Evolutionary theory considers that convergence emerges through independent genetic changes selected ove...

Floral development depends on multifactor processes related to genetic, physiological, and ecological pathways. Plants respond to herbivores by activating mechanisms aimed at tolerating, compensating, or avoiding loss of biomass and nutrients, and thereby survive in a complex landscape of interactions. Thus, plants need to overcome trade-offs betwe...

Results of germination protocols in 2 Petrocoptis species in Bask Country. PRIONEX project.

Líneas maestras del proyecto PRIOCONEX

Within the theoretical framework of the correlation pleiades, floral phenotypic integration has been proposed as a consequence of selection mediated by pollinators acting on floral characters. Here, we analyzed that assumption by studying the floral biology and pollination of the late-winter species Narcissus bulbocodium L. We found that the flower...

Nectar robbers are animals that extract nectar through holes made in floral tissues. This behaviour has a wide spectrum of consequences for the plant that range from negative, to neutral, to positive according to life history traits of the interacting organisms and the ecological mechanisms involved. Lonicera etrusca has long tubular flowers produc...

Even though plants represent an essential part of our lives offering exploitational, supporting and cultural services, we know very little about the biology of the rarest and most threatened plant species, and even less about their conservation status. Rapid changes in the environment and climate, today more pronounced than ever, affect their fitne...

Phenotypic plasticity, the ability of a genotype of producing different phenotypes when exposed to different environments, may impact ecological interactions. We study here how within-individual plasticity in Moricandia arvensis flowers modifies its pollination niche. During spring, this plant produces large, cross-shaped, UV-reflecting lilac flowe...

The reproductive systems of invasive species play a key role in determining their geographical distributions. Oxalis pes-caprae is a clonal, polyploid, heterostylous, plant native to South Africa, but now invasive in all major Mediterranean climatic regions. Here, we extend earlier surveys in the Western Mediterranean basin of floral morph ratios,...

Background: Little information is available about life history of páramo plants such as phenology and plant-animal interactions. Aims: We analysed phenological patterns of flowering and characterised the structure of a plant-pollinator network in a Venezuelan páramo in order to identify key species in this ecosystem. Methods: We counted the number...

A common characteristic of alien plant invasions is the founder effect, resulting in low genetic variability and thus limited sexual reproduction. In some circumstances, asexual reproduction helps to overcome this hindrance, especially in coastal areas exposed to extreme weather events that help produce plant fragments acting as propagules. Spartin...

The overgrowth and shading of several alien species along the European Atlantic coast are expected to reduce photosynthesis of maerl, decreasing its growth and fitness. In this work, three shade levels (0, 20 and 50%) were set up under laboratory conditions to simulate different competitive scenarios potentially affecting maerl beds. Live individua...

The overgrowth and shading of several alien species along the European Atlantic coast are expected to reduce photosynthesis of maerl, decreasing its growth and fitness. In this work, three shade levels (0, 20 and 50%) were set up under laboratory conditions to simulate different competitive scenarios potentially affecting maerl beds. Live individua...

Outreach video created by us on the results of our paper Mammal diversity influences the carbon cycle trough trophic interactions in the Amazon ISAN 0000-0004-9A36-0000-O-0000-0000-2. 2017

The c. 12,000 islands and islets that encompass the Mediterranean basin represent a biodiversity hotspot. They have been disconnected from each other and from the continent for hundreds of thousands to millions of years and entail a high incidence of endemic plant species, with values that can exceed 20% of the local flora. Despite this, relatively...

Premise of the study: Populations of heterostylous species are characterized by two or three floral morphs with reciprocal positioning of stigmas and anthers. Theoretical models predict equal morph frequencies (isoplethy) when disassortative mating is prevalent in populations, but biased morph ratios may occur when variation in the expression of h...

Nectar robbers use a hole made in the perianth to extract nectar. Since robbers may modify plant fitness, they play an important role by driving evolution on floral traits, shaping population structure and influencing community dynamics. Although nectar robbing is widespread in angiosperms, the causes and ecological implications of this behaviour o...

Heterostyly is a floral polymorphism that increases pollination efficiency by promoting cross-pollination and reducing pollen wastage. Efficiency in pollination has been related to plant investment in gamete production and to the pollen to ovule ratio (P/O), which has been proposed as an indication of the likelihood of enough pollen grains reaching...

A dispersión de sementes é lendaria, pois regula a dinámica das comunidades de plantas e animais. As redes ecolóxicas permítenos estudar a estructura e funcionamento dos ecosistemas, permitindo ollar ao mesmo tempo as “árbores e o bosque”. Numerosos estudos amosaron os efeitos negativos da actividade antrópica sobre as propiedades das redes de inte...

Biological invasions offer optimal scenarios to study evolutionary changes under contemporary timescales. After long-distance dispersal, exotic species have to cope with strong mate limitation, and shifts towards uniparental reproduction have been hypothesized to be selectively advantageous. Oxalis pes-caprae is a clonal tristylous species native t...

Herbivory has been long considered an important component of plant-animal interactions that influences the success of invasive species in novel habitats. One of the most important hypotheses linking herbivory and invasion processes is the enemy-release hypothesis, in which exotic plants are hypothesized to suffer less herbivory and fitness-costs in...

Funnel plot of sample size (control + treatment) and effect size (Hedges’ d) of flower herbivory on plant fitness. Each dot corresponds to a report. The horizontal line indicates the mean effect size of the global analysis. (JPG)

Path diagram showing the number of cases on each category. (JPG)

Additional information for unpublished data. (DOCX)

Background and aims: Nectar robbers affect host fitness in different ways and by different magnitudes, both directly and indirectly, and potentially constitute an important part of pollination interactions. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of nectar robbing on several variables that characterize the reproductive success of Lonicera e...

Starting in 2009, ARCOPOL is a family of three consecutive ERDF funded projects framed in the Atlantic Area Transnational Programme aimed at improving the preparedness, response and mitigation capabilities of local and regional authorities to accidental coastal pollution. At present, ARCOPOLplatform is contributing to this objective through the cap...

Genetic diversity in populations of invasive species is influenced by a variety of factors including reproductive systems, ploidy level, stochastic forces associated with colonization, and multiple introductions followed by admixture. Here, we compare genetic variation in native and introduced populations of the clonal plant Oxalis pes-caprae to in...

The effects of the present biodiversity crisis have been largely focused on the loss of species. However, a missed component of biodiversity loss that often accompanies or even precedes species disappearance is the extinction of ecological interactions. Here, we propose a novel model that (i) relates the diversity of both species and interactions a...

In heterostylous plants, both stylar polymorphism and incompatibility system favor legitimate pollination among individuals. Weak or partial expression of incompatibility may ensure progeny when mates or pollinators are scarce in unstable habitats, but under these conditions plants with heteromorphic incompatibility would be in disadvantage. In thi...

Heterostyly is a genetic polymorphism in which plant populations possess two (distyly) or three (tristyly) morphs with flowers differing reciprocally in stigma and anther height. Sex organ deployment has been described as being highly variable among and within species of several distylous taxa belonging to different taxonomic groups. However, the n...

Reproduction is a key factor for the successful establishment and spread of introduced species. Oxalis pes-caprae is a tristylous species with a self-and morph-incompatibil-ity sexual system that, in the invaded range of the western Mediterranean Basin, has been found to reproduce asexually because only the pentaploid, short-styled morph (5x S-morp...

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Removal of invasive species often benefits biological diversity allowing ecosystems' recovery. However, it is important to assess the functional roles that invaders may have established in their new areas to avoid unexpected results from species elimination. Invasive animal-pollinated plants may affect the plant–pollination interactions by changing...

Plant-pollinator interactions are one of the most important and variable mutualisms having major implications for plant fitness. The present study evaluates the interactions between an endemic milkwort, Polygala vayredae, and its floral visitors by studying the temporal variability, foraging behaviour and effectiveness of floral visitors in three p...

The impacts of exotic plants on the pollination and reproductive success of natives have been widely reported; however, in spite of its importance for the invasive process, the role of native plants in the pollination and reproduction of exotic plants has been less explored. To fill this gap, we compared the patterns of pollination and reproductive...

Comparative correlational studies of brain size and ecological traits (e.g. feeding habits and habitat complexity) have increased our knowledge about the selective pressures on brain evolution. Studies conducted in bats as a model system assume that shared evolutionary history has a maximum effect on the traits. However, this effect has not been qu...

Oxalis pes-caprae, a tristylous flowering plant native to South Africa, is described in the western Mediterranean basin as an asexual—only 5x short-styled morph (5x S-morph) invasive weed losing all mating partners after introduction. The objective of this study was to reassess the patterns of floral morph and cytotype distribution and the sexual r...

Reciprocal herkogamy (heterostyly) is an example of extreme relevance of accuracy of the location of the sexual organs within some floral systems. It involves the reciprocal positioning of anthers and stigmas in flowers of different plants within the same population, and the accuracy of this positioning is important to promote out-cross pollination...

The geographical distribution, population structure and pollination ecology are key aspects in the conservation and management of rare orchids. Here, we address these aspects and the main threats affecting the endangered Cuban orchid Broughtonia cubensis. This rewardless orchid is self-compatible, but pollinator dependent. However, seed production...

Although seaborne transport growth is crucial for the development of coastal regions, it also represents a real threat for water resources and coastal zones. This has been demonstrated by a number of large scale accidents that have occurred in the last decades, incidents involving the release of HNS have occurred worldwide and also specifically in...

Reproduction is a key factor for the successful establishment and spread of introduced species. Oxalis pes-caprae is a tristylous species with a self-and morph-incompatibil-ity sexual system that, in the invaded range of the western Mediterranean Basin, has been found to reproduce asexually because only the pentaploid, short-styled morph (5x S-morp...

In family Rubiaceae distyly is very common, and large variation in heterostyly characteristics has been previously documented. Analysis of these variations, even within a species, is very useful to our understanding of the evolutionary process that caused this polymorphism. For this reason, the goal of this study is to investigate the floral morpho...

Hermaphrodite flowers usually possess floral traits to avoid the negative effects derived from inbreeding depression and/or self-interference between pollen export and reception, both acting as the main selective pressures on those floral traits. The avoidance of self-interference is widely accepted as the primary force promoting the separation bet...

Aim We estimated the patterns of seed deposition provided by the eyed lizard, Timon lepidus, and evaluated whether these patterns can be generalized across plant species with different traits (fruit and seed size) and spatial distributions. Location Monteagudo Island, Atlantic Islands National Park (north-western Spain). Methods We radio-tracked se...

A new orchid species, Tetramicra riparia is described from eastern Cuba. The new taxon has intermediate traits between the two subgenera of Tetramicra currently accepted. In fact, the most useful feature to distinguish T. riparia from its congeneric species (the combination of a repent growing habit with a completely entire labellum) is also the ma...

When fruit resources in tropical forests are scarce, frugivorous birds might track fruiting by expanding their home-ranges or by moving. We tested whether the abundance of the Yellow-legged Thrush (Turdus flavipes) and White-necked Thrush (T. albicollis) is correlated with the fruiting of the dominant palm tree (Juçara Palm, Euterpe edulis) and fru...

Aim. Ecological interactions are among the most important biotic factors influencing the processes of speciation and extinction. Our aim was to test whether diversification rates of New World Noctilionoidea bats are associated with specialization for frugivory, and how this pattern differs between the mainland and the West Indies. Location. The New...

Heterostyly is a floral polymorphism characterized by the reciprocal position of stamens and stigmas in different flower morphs in a population. This reciprocal herkogamy is usually associated with an incompatibility system that prevents selfing and intra-morph fertilization, termed a heteromorphic incompatibility system. In different evolutionary...

According to Darwin, the reciprocal position of sexual whorls in heterostylous plants enhances disassortative pollen transfer between different floral morphs. It is believed that greater reciprocity between morphs will promote more efficient transfer of pollen. Additionally, efficient pollination will act as a selective force in achieving greater r...