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Hederström V, Ekroos J, Friberg M, Krausl T, Opedal ØH, Persson AS, Petrén H, Quan Y, Smith HG, Clough Y. Pollinator-mediated effects of landscape-scale land use on grassland plant community composition and ecosystem functioning - seven hypotheses. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc 2024; 99:675-698. [PMID: 38118437 DOI: 10.1111/brv.13040] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/29/2022] [Revised: 12/05/2023] [Accepted: 12/07/2023] [Indexed: 12/22/2023]
Abstract
Environmental change is disrupting mutualisms between organisms worldwide. Reported declines in insect populations and changes in pollinator community compositions in response to land use and other environmental drivers have put the spotlight on the need to conserve pollinators. While this is often motivated by their role in supporting crop yields, the role of pollinators for reproduction and resulting taxonomic and functional assembly in wild plant communities has received less attention. Recent findings suggest that observed and experimental gradients in pollinator availability can affect plant community composition, but we know little about when such shifts are to be expected, or the impact they have on ecosystem functioning. Correlations between plant traits related to pollination and plant traits related to other important ecosystem functions, such as productivity, nitrogen uptake or palatability to herbivores, lead us to expect non-random shifts in ecosystem functioning in response to changes in pollinator communities. At the same time, ecological and evolutionary processes may counteract these effects of pollinator declines, limiting changes in plant community composition, and in ecosystem functioning. Despite calls to investigate community- and ecosystem-level impacts of reduced pollination, the study of pollinator effects on plants has largely been confined to impacts on plant individuals or single-species populations. With this review we aim to break new ground by bringing together aspects of landscape ecology, ecological and evolutionary plant-insect interactions, and biodiversity-ecosystem functioning research, to generate new ideas and hypotheses about the ecosystem-level consequences of pollinator declines in response to land-use change, using grasslands as a focal system. Based on an integrated set of seven hypotheses, we call for more research investigating the putative pollinator-mediated links between landscape-scale land use and ecosystem functioning. In particular, future research should use combinations of experimental and observational approaches to assess the effects of changes in pollinator communities over multiple years and across species on plant communities and on trait distributions both within and among species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Veronica Hederström
- Centre for Environmental and Climate Science, Lund University, Sölvegatan 37, Lund, 223 62, Sweden
| | - Johan Ekroos
- Centre for Environmental and Climate Science, Lund University, Sölvegatan 37, Lund, 223 62, Sweden
| | - Magne Friberg
- Department of Biology, Lund University, Sölvegatan 37, Lund, 223 62, Sweden
| | - Theresia Krausl
- Centre for Environmental and Climate Science, Lund University, Sölvegatan 37, Lund, 223 62, Sweden
| | - Øystein H Opedal
- Department of Biology, Lund University, Sölvegatan 37, Lund, 223 62, Sweden
| | - Anna S Persson
- Centre for Environmental and Climate Science, Lund University, Sölvegatan 37, Lund, 223 62, Sweden
| | - Hampus Petrén
- Department of Biology, Lund University, Sölvegatan 37, Lund, 223 62, Sweden
| | - Yuanyuan Quan
- Centre for Environmental and Climate Science, Lund University, Sölvegatan 37, Lund, 223 62, Sweden
| | - Henrik G Smith
- Centre for Environmental and Climate Science, Lund University, Sölvegatan 37, Lund, 223 62, Sweden
- Department of Biology, Lund University, Sölvegatan 37, Lund, 223 62, Sweden
| | - Yann Clough
- Centre for Environmental and Climate Science, Lund University, Sölvegatan 37, Lund, 223 62, Sweden
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Tommasi N, Biella P, Maggioni D, Fallati L, Agostinetto G, Labra M, Galli P, Galimberti A. DNA metabarcoding unveils the effects of habitat fragmentation on pollinator diversity, plant-pollinator interactions, and pollination efficiency in Maldive islands. Mol Ecol 2023; 32:6394-6404. [PMID: 35651283 DOI: 10.1111/mec.16537] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/30/2021] [Revised: 04/26/2022] [Accepted: 05/05/2022] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Habitat fragmentation affects biodiversity, but with unclear effects on pollinators and their interactions with plants in anthropized landscapes. Islands could serve as open air laboratories, suitable to disentangle how land-use alteration impacts pollination ecology. In Maldive islands we investigated how pollinator richness, plant-pollinator interactions and pollination efficiency are influenced by the green area fragmentation (i.e., gardens and semi-natural patches). Moreover, we considered the mediating role of pollinator body size and the plant trait of being invasive in shaping interactions. To do this, we surveyed pollinator insects from 11 islands representing a gradient of green area fragmentation. A DNA metabarcoding approach was adopted to identify the pollen transported by pollinators and characterize the plant-pollinator interactions. We found that intermediate levels of green area fragmentation characterized pollinator communities and increased their species richness, while decreasing interaction network complexity. Invasive plants were more frequently found on pollinator bodies than native or exotic noninvasive ones, indicating a concerningly higher potential for pollen dispersal and reproduction of the former ones. Intriguingly, pollinator body size mediated the effect of landscape alteration on interactions, as only the largest bees expanded the foraging diet in terms of plant richness in the transported pollen at increasing fragmentation. In parallel, the pollination efficiency increased with pollinator species richness in two sentinel plants. This study shows that moderate landscape fragmentation of green areas shapes many aspects of the pollination ecosystem service, where despite interactions being less complex and mediated by pollinator body size, pollinator insect biodiversity and potential plant reproduction are supported.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicola Tommasi
- ZooplantLab, Department of Biotechnology and Biosciences, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
- INFN Sezione Milano Bicocca, Milan, Italy
| | - Paolo Biella
- ZooplantLab, Department of Biotechnology and Biosciences, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
| | - Davide Maggioni
- Earth and Environmental Science Department, University of Milano Bicocca, Milan, Italy
- MaRHE Center (Marine Research and High Education Center), Magoodhoo, Maldives
| | - Luca Fallati
- Earth and Environmental Science Department, University of Milano Bicocca, Milan, Italy
- MaRHE Center (Marine Research and High Education Center), Magoodhoo, Maldives
| | - Giulia Agostinetto
- ZooplantLab, Department of Biotechnology and Biosciences, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
| | - Massimo Labra
- ZooplantLab, Department of Biotechnology and Biosciences, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
- INFN Sezione Milano Bicocca, Milan, Italy
| | - Paolo Galli
- Earth and Environmental Science Department, University of Milano Bicocca, Milan, Italy
- MaRHE Center (Marine Research and High Education Center), Magoodhoo, Maldives
| | - Andrea Galimberti
- ZooplantLab, Department of Biotechnology and Biosciences, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
- INFN Sezione Milano Bicocca, Milan, Italy
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3
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Russo L, Stout JC. Manipulating network connectance by altering plant attractiveness. PeerJ 2023; 11:e16319. [PMID: 38025756 PMCID: PMC10640842 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.16319] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/26/2023] [Accepted: 09/28/2023] [Indexed: 12/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Background Mutualistic interactions between plants and their pollinating insects are critical to the maintenance of biodiversity. However, we have yet to demonstrate that we are able to manage the structural properties of these networks for the purposes of pollinator conservation and preserving functional outcomes, such as pollination services. Our objective was to explore the extent of our ability to experimentally increase, decrease, and maintain connectance, a structural attribute that reflects patterns of insect visitation and foraging preferences. Patterns of connectance relate to the stability and function of ecological networks. Methods We implemented a 2-year field experiment across eight sites in urban Dublin, Ireland, applying four agrochemical treatments to fixed communities of seven flowering plant species in a randomized block design. We spent ~117 h collecting 1,908 flower-visiting insects of 92 species or morphospecies with standardized sampling methods across the 2 years. We hypothesized that the fertilizer treatment would increase, herbicide decrease, and a combination of both maintain the connectance of the network, relative to a control treatment of just water. Results Our results showed that we were able to successfully increase network connectance with a fertilizer treatment, and maintain network connectance with a combination of fertilizer and herbicide. However, we were not successful in decreasing network connectance with the herbicide treatment. The increase in connectance in the fertilized treatment was due to an increased species richness of visiting insects, rather than changes to their abundance. We also demonstrated that this change was due to an increase in the realized proportion of insect visitor species rather than increased visitation by common, generalist species of floral visitors. Overall, this work suggests that connectance is an attribute of network structure that can be manipulated, with implications for management goals or conservation efforts in these mutualistic communities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laura Russo
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA
| | - Jane C. Stout
- Department of Botany, University of Dublin, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland
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4
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Allen-Perkins A, García-Callejas D, Bartomeus I, Godoy O. Structural asymmetry in biotic interactions as a tool to understand and predict ecological persistence. Ecol Lett 2023; 26:1647-1662. [PMID: 37515408 DOI: 10.1111/ele.14291] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/26/2023] [Revised: 06/29/2023] [Accepted: 07/05/2023] [Indexed: 07/30/2023]
Abstract
A universal feature of ecological systems is that species do not interact with others with the same sign and strength. Yet, the consequences of this asymmetry in biotic interactions for the short- and long-term persistence of individual species and entire communities remains unclear. Here, we develop a set of metrics to evaluate how asymmetric interactions among species translate to asymmetries in their individual vulnerability to extinction under changing environmental conditions. These metrics, which solve previous limitations of how to independently quantify the size from the shape of the so-called feasibility domain, provide rigorous advances to understand simultaneously why some species and communities present more opportunities to persist than others. We further demonstrate that our shape-related metrics are useful to predict short-term changes in species' relative abundances during 7 years in a Mediterranean grassland. Our approach is designed to be applied to any ecological system regardless of the number of species and type of interactions. With it, we show that is possible to obtain both mechanistic and predictive information on ecological persistence for individual species and entire communities, paving the way for a stronger integration of theoretical and empirical research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alfonso Allen-Perkins
- Departamento de Ingeniería Eléctrica, Electrónica, Automática y Física Aplicada, ETSIDI, Technical University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain
| | - David García-Callejas
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand
- Landcare Research, Lincoln, New Zealand
| | | | - Oscar Godoy
- Departamento de Biología, Instituto Universitario de Ciencias del Mar (INMAR), Universidad de Cádiz, Puerto Real, Spain
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5
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Vizentin-Bugoni J, Maruyama PK. To rewire or not to rewire: To what extent rewiring to surviving partners can avoid extinction? J Anim Ecol 2023; 92:1676-1679. [PMID: 37670422 DOI: 10.1111/1365-2656.13972] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/02/2023] [Accepted: 06/13/2023] [Indexed: 09/07/2023]
Abstract
Research Highlight: Leimberger, K.G., Hadley, A.S., & Betts, M.G. (2023). Plant-hummingbird pollination networks exhibit minimal rewiring after experimental removal of a locally abundant plant species. Journal of Animal Ecology, https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.13935. In this paper, Leimberger, Hadley and Betts (2023) explore the effects of removing a locally abundant plant species on plant-hummingbird pollination networks. They experimentally prevented access of hummingbirds to flowers of Heliconia tortuosa and assessed subsequent changes in the interactions between plants and hummingbirds. Their main hypothesis postulated that the loss of a highly connected species would lead to interaction rewiring and niche expansions by hummingbirds, decreasing individual, species and network specialization. However, they found that the overall structure of the plant-hummingbird networks remains mostly unaltered, with limited rewiring and minimal changes in specialization. The main contributions of this study can be summarized as (i) it adds to a limited number of manipulative studies on the capacity of species to rewire their interactions following the loss of partners, and importantly, it is the first study from the tropics and with vertebrate pollinators, for which experimental studies at appropriate scales is intrinsically more challenging; and (ii) innovates by evaluating change in specialization for the individual level, carried out through pollen sampling on the body of hummingbirds. The limited change in species interactions highlights that network stability through interaction rewiring may have been overestimated in previous studies, calling for further manipulative studies in the field. At the same time, it also indicated that even the loss of a highly abundant plant species has an overall small effect on network structure. Thus, this study contributes timely findings regarding the capacity of ecological communities to respond to species extinctions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jeferson Vizentin-Bugoni
- Laboratório de Ecologia de Interações & Programa de Pós-Graduação em Biodiversidade Animal, Departamento de Ecologia Zoologia e Genética, Universidade Federal de Pelotas-UFPel, Pelotas, Brazil
| | - Pietro Kiyoshi Maruyama
- Centro de Síntese Ecológica e Conservação, Departamento de Genética, Ecologia e Evolução, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais-UFMG, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
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6
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Blanchard G, Munoz F. Revisiting extinction debt through the lens of multitrophic networks and meta‐ecosystems. OIKOS 2022. [DOI: 10.1111/oik.09435] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Grégoire Blanchard
- AMAP, Univ. Montpellier, CIRAD, CNRS, INRAE, IRD Montpellier France
- AMAP, IRD, Herbier de Nouvelle Calédonie Nouméa Nouvelle Calédonie
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Peel K, Evans D, Emary C. Ternary network models for disturbed ecosystems. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2022; 9:220619. [PMID: 36303942 PMCID: PMC9597174 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.220619] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/10/2022] [Accepted: 09/30/2022] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
The complex network of interactions between species makes understanding the response of ecosystems to disturbances an enduring challenge. One commonplace way to deal with this complexity is to reduce the description of a species to a binary presence-absence variable. Though convenient, this limits the patterns of behaviours representable within such models. We address these shortcomings by considering discrete population models that expand species descriptions beyond the binary setting. Specifically, we focus on ternary (three-state) models which, alongside presence and absence, additionally permit species to become overabundant. We apply this ternary framework to the robustness analysis of model ecosystems and show that this expanded description permits the modelling of top-down extinction cascades emerging from consumer pressure or mesopredator release. Results therefore differ significantly from those seen in binary models, where such effects are absent. We also illustrate how this method opens up the modelling of ecosystem disturbances outside the scope of binary models, namely those in which species are externally raised to overabundance. Our method therefore has the potential to provide a richer description of ecosystem dynamics and their disturbances, while at the same time preserving the conceptual simplicity of familiar binary approaches.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kieran Peel
- School of Mathematics, Statistics and Physics, Newcastle University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne NE1 7RU, UK
| | - Darren Evans
- Natural and Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne NE1 7RU, UK
| | - Clive Emary
- School of Mathematics, Statistics and Physics, Newcastle University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne NE1 7RU, UK
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8
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Vizentin-Bugoni J, Sperry JH, Kelley JP, Foster JT, Drake DR, Case SB, Gleditsch JM, Hruska AM, Wilcox RC, Tarwater CE. Mechanisms underlying interaction frequencies and robustness in a novel seed dispersal network: lessons for restoration. Proc Biol Sci 2022; 289:20221490. [PMID: 36100025 PMCID: PMC9470274 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2022.1490] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/31/2021] [Accepted: 08/15/2022] [Indexed: 12/25/2022] Open
Abstract
As human-caused extinctions and invasions accumulate across the planet, understanding the processes governing ecological functions mediated by species interactions, and anticipating the effect of species loss on such functions become increasingly urgent. In seed dispersal networks, the mechanisms that influence interaction frequencies may also influence the capacity of a species to switch to alternative partners (rewiring), influencing network robustness. Studying seed dispersal interactions in novel ecosystems on O'ahu island, Hawai'i, we test whether the same mechanisms defining interaction frequencies can regulate rewiring and increase network robustness to simulated species extinctions. We found that spatial and temporal overlaps were the primary mechanisms underlying interaction frequencies, and the loss of the more connected species affected networks to a greater extent. Further, rewiring increased network robustness, and morphological matching and spatial and temporal overlaps between partners were more influential on network robustness than species abundances. We argue that to achieve self-sustaining ecosystems, restoration initiatives can consider optimal morphological matching and spatial and temporal overlaps between consumers and resources to maximize chances of native plant dispersal. Specifically, restoration initiatives may benefit from replacing invasive species with native species possessing characteristics that promote frequent interactions and increase the probability of rewiring (such as long fruiting periods, small seeds and broad distributions).
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Affiliation(s)
- Jeferson Vizentin-Bugoni
- Departamento de Ecologia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Avenue Bento Gonçalves 9500, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul 91501-970, Brazil
- US Army Corps of Engineers, Engineer Research Development Center, 2902 Newmark Dr, Champaign, IL 61826, USA
- Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1102 South Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
- Department of Zoology and Physiology, University of Wyoming, 1000 East University Avenue, Laramie, WY 82071, USA
| | - Jinelle H. Sperry
- US Army Corps of Engineers, Engineer Research Development Center, 2902 Newmark Dr, Champaign, IL 61826, USA
- Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1102 South Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
| | - J. Patrick Kelley
- Department of Zoology and Physiology, University of Wyoming, 1000 East University Avenue, Laramie, WY 82071, USA
| | - Jeffrey T. Foster
- Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Biomedical Sciences, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824, USA
| | - Donald R. Drake
- School of Life Sciences, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA
| | - Samuel B. Case
- Department of Zoology and Physiology, University of Wyoming, 1000 East University Avenue, Laramie, WY 82071, USA
| | - Jason M. Gleditsch
- Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1102 South Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
- Integrative Ecology Laboratory, Center for Biodiversity, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA
| | - Amy M. Hruska
- Department of Botany, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA
- Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Edgewater, MD 21037, USA
| | - Rebecca C. Wilcox
- Department of Zoology and Physiology, University of Wyoming, 1000 East University Avenue, Laramie, WY 82071, USA
| | - Corey E. Tarwater
- Department of Zoology and Physiology, University of Wyoming, 1000 East University Avenue, Laramie, WY 82071, USA
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9
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Morozumi C, Loy X, Reynolds V, Schiffer A, Morrison B, Savage J, Brosi B. Simultaneous niche expansion and contraction in plant–pollinator networks under drought. OIKOS 2022. [DOI: 10.1111/oik.09265] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Connor Morozumi
- Program in Population Biology, Ecology and Evolution, Emory Univ. Atlanta GA USA
| | - Xingwen Loy
- Program in Population Biology, Ecology and Evolution, Emory Univ. Atlanta GA USA
- Southeastern Center for Conservation, Atlanta Botanical Garden Atlanta GA USA
| | - Victoria Reynolds
- School of Biological Sciences, Univ. of Queensland Brisbane QLD Australia
| | - Annie Schiffer
- Dept of Environmental Sciences, Emory Univ. Atlanta GA USA
- Dept of Biology, Univ. of Washington Seattle WA USA
| | - Beth Morrison
- Dept of Environmental Sciences, Emory Univ. Atlanta GA USA
| | - Jade Savage
- Dept of Biological Sciences, Bishop's Univ. Sherbrooke QC Canada
| | - Berry Brosi
- Dept of Environmental Sciences, Emory Univ. Atlanta GA USA
- Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory Crested Butte CO USA
- Dept of Biology, Univ. of Washington Seattle WA USA
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10
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Klečka J, Mikát M, Koloušková P, Hadrava J, Straka J. Individual-level specialisation and interspecific resource partitioning in bees revealed by pollen DNA metabarcoding. PeerJ 2022; 10:e13671. [PMID: 35959478 PMCID: PMC9359135 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.13671] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/03/2021] [Accepted: 06/12/2022] [Indexed: 01/17/2023] Open
Abstract
It is increasingly recognised that intraspecific variation in traits, such as morphology, behaviour, or diet is both ubiquitous and ecologically important. While many species of predators and herbivores are known to display high levels of between-individual diet variation, there is a lack of studies on pollinators. It is important to fill in this gap because individual-level specialisation of flower-visiting insects is expected to affect their efficiency as pollinators with consequences for plant reproduction. Accordingly, the aim of our study was to quantify the level of individual-level specialisation and foraging preferences, as well as interspecific resource partitioning, in three co-occurring species of bees of the genus Ceratina (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Xylocopinae), C. chalybea, C. nigrolabiata, and C. cucurbitina. We conducted a field experiment where we provided artificial nesting opportunities for the bees and combined a short-term mark-recapture study with the dissection of the bees' nests to obtain repeated samples from individual foraging females and complete pollen provisions from their nests. We used DNA metabarcoding based on the ITS2 locus to identify the composition of the pollen samples. We found that the composition of pollen carried on the bodies of female bees and stored in the brood provisions in their nests significantly differed among the three co-occurring species. At the intraspecific level, individual females consistently differed in their level of specialisation and in the composition of pollen carried on their bodies and stored in their nests. We also demonstrate that higher generalisation at the species level stemmed from larger among-individual variation in diets, as observed in other types of consumers, such as predators. Our study thus reveals how specialisation and foraging preferences of bees change from the scale of individual foraging bouts to complete pollen provisions accumulated in their nests over many days. Such a multi-scale view of foraging behaviour is necessary to improve our understanding of the functioning of plant-flower visitor communities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jan Klečka
- Institute of Entomology, Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, České Budějovice, Czech Republic
| | - Michael Mikát
- Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Pavla Koloušková
- Institute of Entomology, Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, České Budějovice, Czech Republic
| | - Jiří Hadrava
- Institute of Entomology, Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, České Budějovice, Czech Republic,Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Jakub Straka
- Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
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11
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Bain JA, Dickson RG, Gruver AM, CaraDonna PJ. Removing flowers of a generalist plant changes pollinator visitation, composition, and interaction network structure. Ecosphere 2022. [DOI: 10.1002/ecs2.4154] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Justin A. Bain
- Negaunee Institute for Plant Conservation Science and Action Chicago Botanic Garden Glencoe Illinois USA
- Plant Biology and Conservation Northwestern University Evanston Illinois USA
- Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory Crested Butte Colorado USA
| | - Rachel G. Dickson
- Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory Crested Butte Colorado USA
- Division of Biological Sciences University of Montana Missoula Montana USA
| | - Andrea M. Gruver
- Negaunee Institute for Plant Conservation Science and Action Chicago Botanic Garden Glencoe Illinois USA
- Plant Biology and Conservation Northwestern University Evanston Illinois USA
| | - Paul J. CaraDonna
- Negaunee Institute for Plant Conservation Science and Action Chicago Botanic Garden Glencoe Illinois USA
- Plant Biology and Conservation Northwestern University Evanston Illinois USA
- Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory Crested Butte Colorado USA
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12
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Merging theory and experiments to predict and understand coextinctions. Trends Ecol Evol 2022; 37:886-898. [DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2022.06.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/25/2022] [Revised: 06/06/2022] [Accepted: 06/09/2022] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
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13
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Biella P, Tommasi N, Guzzetti L, Pioltelli E, Labra M, Galimberti A. City climate and landscape structure shape pollinators, nectar and transported pollen along a gradient of urbanization. J Appl Ecol 2022. [DOI: 10.1111/1365-2664.14168] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/25/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Paolo Biella
- ZooPlantLab, Department of Biotechnology and Biosciences University of Milano‐Bicocca Milan Italy
| | - Nicola Tommasi
- ZooPlantLab, Department of Biotechnology and Biosciences University of Milano‐Bicocca Milan Italy
- Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare ‐ Sez. Milano Bicocca Milan Italy
| | - Lorenzo Guzzetti
- ZooPlantLab, Department of Biotechnology and Biosciences University of Milano‐Bicocca Milan Italy
| | - Emiliano Pioltelli
- ZooPlantLab, Department of Biotechnology and Biosciences University of Milano‐Bicocca Milan Italy
| | - Massimo Labra
- ZooPlantLab, Department of Biotechnology and Biosciences University of Milano‐Bicocca Milan Italy
- Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare ‐ Sez. Milano Bicocca Milan Italy
| | - Andrea Galimberti
- ZooPlantLab, Department of Biotechnology and Biosciences University of Milano‐Bicocca Milan Italy
- Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare ‐ Sez. Milano Bicocca Milan Italy
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14
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Gallmann J, Schüpbach B, Jacot K, Albrecht M, Winizki J, Kirchgessner N, Aasen H. Flower Mapping in Grasslands With Drones and Deep Learning. FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE 2022; 12:774965. [PMID: 35222449 PMCID: PMC8864122 DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2021.774965] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/13/2021] [Accepted: 12/20/2021] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Manual assessment of flower abundance of different flowering plant species in grasslands is a time-consuming process. We present an automated approach to determine the flower abundance in grasslands from drone-based aerial images by using deep learning (Faster R-CNN) object detection approach, which was trained and evaluated on data from five flights at two sites. Our deep learning network was able to identify and classify individual flowers. The novel method allowed generating spatially explicit maps of flower abundance that met or exceeded the accuracy of the manual-count-data extrapolation method while being less labor intensive. The results were very good for some types of flowers, with precision and recall being close to or higher than 90%. Other flowers were detected poorly due to reasons such as lack of enough training data, appearance changes due to phenology, or flowers being too small to be reliably distinguishable on the aerial images. The method was able to give precise estimates of the abundance of many flowering plant species. In the future, the collection of more training data will allow better predictions for the flowers that are not well predicted yet. The developed pipeline can be applied to any sort of aerial object detection problem.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Beatrice Schüpbach
- Agricultural Landscape and Biodiversity Group, Agroscope, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Katja Jacot
- Agricultural Landscape and Biodiversity Group, Agroscope, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Matthias Albrecht
- Agricultural Landscape and Biodiversity Group, Agroscope, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Jonas Winizki
- Agricultural Landscape and Biodiversity Group, Agroscope, Zurich, Switzerland
| | | | - Helge Aasen
- Department of Agricultural Science, ETH Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Remote Sensing Team, Division Agroecology and Environment, Agroscope, Zurich, Switzerland
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15
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Fatemi Nasrollahi FS, Gómez Tejeda Zañudo J, Campbell C, Albert R. Relationships among generalized positive feedback loops determine possible community outcomes in plant-pollinator interaction networks. Phys Rev E 2021; 104:054304. [PMID: 34942827 DOI: 10.1103/physreve.104.054304] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/10/2021] [Accepted: 10/15/2021] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Abstract
Attractors in Boolean network models representing complex systems such as ecological communities correspond to long-term outcomes (e.g., stable communities) in such systems. As a result, identifying efficient methods to find and characterize these attractors allows for a better understanding of the diversity of possible outcomes. Here we analyze networks that model mutualistic communities of plant and pollinator species governed by Boolean threshold functions. We propose a novel attractor identification method based on generalized positive feedback loops and their functional relationships in such networks. We show that these relationships determine the mechanisms by which groups of stable positive feedback loops collectively trap the system in specific regions of the state space and lead to attractors. Put into the ecological context, we show how survival units-small groups of species in which species can maintain a specific survival state-and their relationships determine the final community outcomes in plant-pollinator networks. We find a remarkable diversity of community outcomes: up to an average of 43 attractors possible for networks with 100 species. This diversity is due to the multiplicity of survival units (up to 34) and stable subcommunities (up to 14). The timing of species influx or outflux does not affect the number of attractors, but it may influence their basins of attraction.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | - Réka Albert
- Department of Physics, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA.,Department of Biology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16801, USA
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16
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O'Connell DP, Fusi M, Djamaluddin R, Rajagukguk BB, Bachmid F, Kitson JJN, Dunnett Z, Trianto A, Tjoa AB, Diele K, Evans DM. Assessing mangrove restoration practices using species‐interaction networks. Restor Ecol 2021. [DOI: 10.1111/rec.13546] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Darren P. O'Connell
- School of Biology and Environmental Science University College Dublin Dublin D04 N2E5 Ireland
- School of Natural and Environmental Sciences Newcastle University Newcastle Upon Tyne NE1 7RU UK
| | - Marco Fusi
- School of Applied Sciences Edinburgh Napier University Edinburg EH11 4BN U.K
| | - Rignolda Djamaluddin
- Faculty of Fisheries and Marine Science Sam Ratulangi University Manado North Sulawesi 95115 Indonesia
| | - Bulfrit B. Rajagukguk
- Faculty of Fisheries and Marine Science Sam Ratulangi University Manado North Sulawesi 95115 Indonesia
| | - Fihri Bachmid
- Faculty of Fisheries and Marine Science Sam Ratulangi University Manado North Sulawesi 95115 Indonesia
| | - James J. N. Kitson
- School of Natural and Environmental Sciences Newcastle University Newcastle Upon Tyne NE1 7RU UK
| | - Zoe Dunnett
- School of Natural and Environmental Sciences Newcastle University Newcastle Upon Tyne NE1 7RU UK
| | - Agus Trianto
- Faculty of Fisheries and Marine Sciences Diponegoro University Semarang Central Java 50275 Indonesia
| | - Aiyen B. Tjoa
- Faculty of Agriculture Tadulako University Palu Central Sulawesi 94148 Indonesia
| | - Karen Diele
- School of Applied Sciences Edinburgh Napier University Edinburg EH11 4BN U.K
| | - Darren M. Evans
- School of Natural and Environmental Sciences Newcastle University Newcastle Upon Tyne NE1 7RU UK
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17
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da Silva Goldas C, Podgaiski LR, Veronese Corrêa da Silva C, Abreu Ferreira PM, Vizentin-Bugoni J, de Souza Mendonça M. Structural resilience and high interaction dissimilarity of plant-pollinator interaction networks in fire-prone grasslands. Oecologia 2021; 198:179-192. [PMID: 34773161 DOI: 10.1007/s00442-021-05071-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/27/2021] [Accepted: 10/26/2021] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Fire is a frequent disturbance in most grasslands around the world, being key for the structure and dynamics of the biodiversity in such ecosystems. While grassland species may be resilient, little is known on how plant-pollinator networks reassemble after fire. Here, we investigate the structure and dynamics of plant-pollinator networks and the variation in species roles over a 2-year post-fire chronosequence on grassland communities in Southern Brazil. We found that both network specialization and modularity were similar over the chronosequence of time-since-fire, but in freshly burnt areas, there were more species acting as network hubs. Species roles exhibited high variation, with plant and pollinator species shifting roles along the post-disturbance chronosequence. Interaction dissimilarity was remarkably high in networks irrespective of times-since-fire. Interaction dissimilarity was associated more with rewiring than with species turnover, indicating that grassland plant and pollinator species are highly capable of switching partners. Time-since-fire had little influence on network structure but influenced the identity and diversity of pollinators playing key roles in the networks. These findings suggest that pollination networks in naturally fire-prone ecosystems are highly dynamic and resilient to fire with both plants and pollinators being highly capable of adjusting their interactions and network structure after disturbance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Camila da Silva Goldas
- Laboratório de Ecologia de Interações, Departamento de Ecologia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, UFRGS, Avenida Bento Gonçalves 9500, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, 91540-000, Brazil.
| | - Luciana Regina Podgaiski
- Laboratório de Ecologia de Interações, Departamento de Ecologia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, UFRGS, Avenida Bento Gonçalves 9500, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, 91540-000, Brazil
| | - Carolina Veronese Corrêa da Silva
- Laboratório de Ecologia de Interações, Departamento de Ecologia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, UFRGS, Avenida Bento Gonçalves 9500, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, 91540-000, Brazil
| | - Pedro Maria Abreu Ferreira
- Laboratório de Ecologia de Interações, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, PUCRS, Avenida Ipiranga 6681, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, 90619-900, Brazil
| | - Jeferson Vizentin-Bugoni
- Programa de Pós-Graduação Em Ecologia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, UFRGS, Avenida Bento Gonçalves 9500, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, 91540-000, Brazil
| | - Milton de Souza Mendonça
- Laboratório de Ecologia de Interações, Departamento de Ecologia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, UFRGS, Avenida Bento Gonçalves 9500, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, 91540-000, Brazil
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18
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Fantinato E, Sonkoly J, Török P, Buffa G. Patterns of pollination interactions at the community level are related to the type and quantity of floral resources. Funct Ecol 2021. [DOI: 10.1111/1365-2435.13915] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Edy Fantinato
- Department of Environmental Sciences, Informatics and Statistics University Ca' Foscari of Venice Venice Italy
| | - Judit Sonkoly
- Department of Ecology University of Debrecen Debrecen Hungary
- MTA‐DE Lendület Functional and Restoration Ecology Research Group Debrecen Hungary
| | - Péter Török
- Department of Ecology University of Debrecen Debrecen Hungary
- MTA‐DE Lendület Functional and Restoration Ecology Research Group Debrecen Hungary
- Polish Academy of Sciences Botanical Garden ‐ Center for Biological Diversity Conservation in Powsin Warszawa Poland
| | - Gabriella Buffa
- Department of Environmental Sciences, Informatics and Statistics University Ca' Foscari of Venice Venice Italy
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19
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Harnessing the Power of Metabarcoding in the Ecological Interpretation of Plant-Pollinator DNA Data: Strategies and Consequences of Filtering Approaches. DIVERSITY 2021. [DOI: 10.3390/d13090437] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/27/2023]
Abstract
Although DNA metabarcoding of pollen mixtures has been increasingly used in the field of pollination biology, methodological and interpretation issues arise due to its high sensitivity. Filtering or maintaining false positives, contaminants, and rare taxa or molecular features could lead to different ecological results. Here, we reviewed how this choice has been addressed in 43 studies featuring pollen DNA metabarcoding, which highlighted a very high heterogeneity of filtering methods. We assessed how these strategies shaped pollen assemblage composition, species richness, and interaction networks. To do so, we compared four processing methods: unfiltering, filtering with a proportional 1% of sample reads, a fixed threshold of 100 reads, and the ROC approach (Receiver Operator Characteristic). The results indicated that filtering impacted species composition and reduced species richness, with ROC emerging as a conservative approach. Moreover, in contrast to unfiltered networks, filtering decreased network Connectance and Entropy, and it increased Modularity and Connectivity, indicating that using cut-off thresholds better describes interactions. Overall, unfiltering might compromise reliable ecological interpretations, unless a study targets rare species. We discuss the suitability of each filtering type, plead for justifying filtering strategies on biological or methodological bases and for developing shared approaches to make future studies more comparable.
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20
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Zhang M, He F. Plant breeding systems influence the seasonal dynamics of plant-pollinator networks in a subtropical forest. Oecologia 2021; 195:751-758. [PMID: 33566166 DOI: 10.1007/s00442-021-04863-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/19/2020] [Accepted: 01/19/2021] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
Temporal dynamics of plant-pollinator interactions inform the mechanisms of community assembly and stability. However, most studies on the dynamics of pollination networks do not consider plant reproductive traits thus offering poor understanding of the mechanism of how networks maintain stable structure under seasonal changes in flower community. We studied seasonal dynamics of pollination networks in a subtropical monsoon forest in China with a clear rainy season (April-September) and dry season (October-March) over 2 consecutive years. We constructed dioecy-ignored networks (combining visitations to dioecious male and female plants by ignoring the difference between dioecious and hermaphroditic plants) and dioecy-considered networks (excluding those visitations that only occurred either on dioecious male or female plants) for eight sampling sessions for each season. Although flower richness and flower abundance were higher in the rainy season than in the dry season, no pronounced seasonal difference was found in network specialization, nestedness and modularity for both networks. There were only significant differences in plant community robustness and pollinator specialization between seasons for dioecy-considered networks but not for dioecy-ignored networks. Furthermore, we found the flower abundance of dioecious and hermaphrodite plants mostly showed trade-off variation between rainy and dry seasons. Our results suggest various plant reproductive traits affect the temporal dynamics of pollination networks, which should be considered for conservation of plant-pollinator interactions in forest communities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Minhua Zhang
- ECNU-Alberta Joint Lab for Biodiversity Study, Zhejiang Tiantong Forest Ecosystem National Observation and Research Station, School of Ecological and Environmental Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, 200241, China
| | - Fangliang He
- ECNU-Alberta Joint Lab for Biodiversity Study, Zhejiang Tiantong Forest Ecosystem National Observation and Research Station, School of Ecological and Environmental Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, 200241, China.
- Department of Renewable Resources, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, T6G 2H1, Canada.
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