Sign in

Jérôme Burkiewicz

@jeromeburkiewicz.bsky.social
661 followers 113 following 19 posts

Ph.D. student in Simon Joly lab working on the evolution of flower morphology in an urbanization context 🌸 🐝 🌳🏙️| Interested in flower evolution, pollination, plant reproduction, local adaptation and conservation.

PostsRepliesMedia
Jérôme Burkiewicz @jeromeburkiewicz.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
Sepal shape was affected by urbanization in the field, with longer and more curved nectar spurs, but not in the common garden experiment, indicating a plastic response to urbanization. Corolla shape was not affected by urbanization.
100
Jérôme Burkiewicz @jeromeburkiewicz.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
Bumblebee size was also positively correlated with the genetic component of sepal size. This suggests that bumblebee size is a key selective agent acting on Impatiens capensis sepal size.
100
Jérôme Burkiewicz @jeromeburkiewicz.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
The genetic component of sepal size paralleled this result, the variation in sepal size following the one in bumblebee size. But in the field, this genetic differentiation was masked by phenotypic plasticity, revealing a case of counter-gradient variation and making evolution harder to detect!
100
Jérôme Burkiewicz @jeromeburkiewicz.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
We found that bumblebees were the main pollinator of I. capensis. However, the species pollinating was different in urban and natural habitats. Because of interspecific and intraspecific differences, bumblebees were larger in urban habitats of the Quebec and Montreal regions.
100
Jérôme Burkiewicz @jeromeburkiewicz.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
We combined field and common garden experiments to study flower evolution in natural and urban habitats, disentangling plastic from genetic responses. We surveyed pollinators and flower morphology of Impatiens capensis in 16 populations across the Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa, and Toronto regions.
100
Jérôme Burkiewicz @jeromeburkiewicz.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
We used I. capensis as a study system because it's an annual plant and a pollination generalist: different functional groups of pollinators visit the flowers, and urbanization may change the partner involved in the interaction, potentially exerting different selective pressures. 📸 J.Burkiewicz
100