Thermography data for: Variations of floral temperature in changing weather conditions

Abstract

1.    Floral temperature is a flower characteristic that has potential to impact the fitness of flowering plants and their pollinators. Likewise, the presence of floral temperature patterns, areas of contrasting temperature across the flower, can have similar impacts on the fitness of both mutualists.
2.    It is currently poorly understood how floral temperature changes under the influence of different weather conditions, and how floral traits may moderate these changes. Such weather dependency will impact how stable floral temperatures are over time and their utility to plant and pollinator. Stability of floral temperatures cues is likely to facilitate effective plant-pollinator interactions and play a role in the plant’s reproductive success.  
3.    We use thermal imaging to monitor how floral temperatures and temperature patterns of four flower species (Cistus ‘snow fire’ and ‘snow white’, Coreopsis verticillata and Geranium psilostemon) change with several weather variables (illumination, temperature; windspeed; cloud cover; humidity and pressure) during times that pollinators are active.
4.     All weather variables influenced floral temperature in one or more species. The directionality of these relationships were similar across species. In all species light conditions (illumination) had the greatest influence on floral temperatures overall, and in generation of contrasting temperatures between parts of the flower, temperature patterns. The effect sizes of other weather variables were lower and more varied across the four species. Most likely, floral traits such as pigmentation and structure influence these relationships between weather conditions and generation of floral temperatures. 
5.    Synthesis: Floral temperatures and the extent to which flowers showed contrasting temperature patterns were influenced predominantly by light conditions. However, several weather variables had additional, lesser, influences. Furthermore, differences in floral traits, likely pigmentation and structure, likely resulted in differences in temperature responses to given conditions between species and different parts of the same flower. However, floral temperatures and contrasting temperature patterns that are sufficiently elevated for detection by pollinators were maintained across most conditions if flowers received moderate illumination. This suggests the presence of elevated floral temperature and contrasting temperature patterns are fairly constant and may have potential to influence plant-pollinator interactions across weather conditions.

Guide to use

This dataset includes the thermal images (thermographs) collected as part of the publication 'Variations of floral temperature in changing weather conditions'. For further details on how these thermal images were collected see the main text of that publication, listed in related publications of this dataset. These thermographs were used to generate the floral temperature dataset analyzed in this study. This floral temperature dataset, 'Data for: Variations of floral temperature in changing weather conditions', is also listed as a related publication of this thermograph dataset.

For a detailed explanation of the dataset content and format, see the word document 'Thermograph Data Guide.docx' enclosed in this dataset.