Handbook of protocols for standardized measurements of floral traits for pollinators in temperate communities

Floral traits describe organs or structures directly related to plant reproduction, and they are essential to understanding plant–pollinator interactions, notably for conservation purposes. The growth of plant trait-based approaches lies in the availability of data shared by the international research community on dedicated platforms, as well as in protocols compiled in handbooks on how to measure these traits in a standardized way. Floral traits are important pieces that are missing from these handbooks, likely due to the complexity of flower morphology. Here, we present a handbook of standardized protocols dedicated to floral traits that can be applied to a wide set of temperate plant species to quantify these traits at the scale of plant communities. The 24 floral traits are grouped into three categories: visual and olfactory cues, accessibility and resources. We also provide four additional features related to flower abundance and phenology that we recommend measuring to scale up individual species' trait values to overall plant communities. By collecting these floral traits in a standardized way, we promote applications in the context of community ecology to predict the diversity of pollinator communities, identify the effects of environmental changes and study plant–pollinator networks.

For financial support of this study, we thank the French research group GDR Pollineco no. 2058 (itself funded by INEE-CNRS and the French Ministry of Environment MTECT). This study was partly funded by the Grand Est region, regional water agencies (Rhin-Meuse, Rhône-Méditerranée-Corse and Seine-Normandie) and DREAL Grand Est (project ‘Grand Nancy Terre de pollinisateurs’). A.E-V. was supported by the Long-term research development project of the Czech Academy of Sciences (RVO 67985939).

Peer reviewed