Dataset Information

Effects of temporal floral resource availability and non-crop habitats on broad bean pollination.

ABSTRACT:

Context

Flowering plants can enhance wild insect populations and their pollination services to crops in agricultural landscapes, especially when they flower before the focal crop. However, characterizing the temporal availability of specific floral resources is a challenge.

Objectives

Developing an index for the availability of floral resources at the landscape scale according to the specific use by a pollinator. Investigating whether detailed and temporally-resolved floral resource maps predict pollination success of broad bean better than land cover maps.

Methods

We mapped plant species used as pollen source by bumblebees in 24 agricultural landscapes and developed an index of floral resource availability for different times of the flowering season. To measure pollination success, patches of broad bean (Vicia faba), a plant typically pollinated by bumblebees, were exposed in the center of selected landscapes.

Results

Higher floral resource availability before bean flowering led to enhanced seed set. Floral resource availability synchronous to broad bean flowering had no effect. Seed set was somewhat better explained by land cover maps than by floral resource availability, increasing with urban area and declining with the cover of arable land.

Conclusions

The timing of alternative floral resource availability is important for crop pollination. The higher explanation of pollination success by land cover maps than by floral resource availability indicates that additional factors such as habitat disturbance and nesting sites play a role in pollination. Enhancing non-crop woody plants in agricultural landscapes as pollen sources may ensure higher levels of crop pollination by wild pollinators such as bumblebees.

Supplementary information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10980-022-01448-2.

SUBMITTER: Eckerter PW

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9122849 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Effects of temporal floral resource availability and non-crop habitats on broad bean pollination.

Eckerter Philipp W PW Albrecht Matthias M Bertrand Colette C Gobet Erika E Herzog Felix F Pfister Sonja C SC Tinner Willy W Entling Martin H MH

Landscape ecology 20220430 6

<h4>Context</h4>Flowering plants can enhance wild insect populations and their pollination services to crops in agricultural landscapes, especially when they flower before the focal crop. However, characterizing the temporal availability of specific floral resources is a challenge.<h4>Objectives</h4>Developing an index for the availability of floral resources at the landscape scale according to the specific use by a pollinator. Investigating whether detailed and temporally-resolved floral resour ...[more]

PMID: 35611158

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Project description:Wild bees are important pollinators in many ecosystems threatened by anthropogenic disturbance. Urban development can reduce and degrade natural habitat for bees and other pollinators. However, some researchers suggest that cities could also provide refuge for bees, given that agricultural intensification may pose a greater risk. In this study, we surveyed bee communities at 15 farms and gardens across an urban-rural gradient in southeastern Michigan, USA to evaluate the effect of urbanization on bees. We examined how floral resources, bee functional traits, temperature, farm size, and the spatial scale of analysis influence bee response to urbanization. We found that urbanization positively affected bee diversity and evenness but had no effect on total abundance or species richness. Additionally, urbanization altered bee community composition via differential effects on bee species and functional groups. More urbanized sites supported a greater number of exotic, above-ground nesting, and solitary bees, but fewer eusocial bees. Blooming plant species richness positively influenced bee species diversity and richness. Furthermore, the amount of available floral resources was positively associated with exotic and eusocial bee abundances. Across sites, nearly 70% of floral resources were provided by exotic plants, most of which are characterized as weedy but not invasive. Our study demonstrates that urbanization can benefit some bee species and negatively impact others. Notably, Bombus and Lasioglossum (Dialictus), were two important pollinator groups negatively affected by urbanization. Our study supports the idea that urban environments can provide valuable habitat for diverse bee communities, but demonstrates that some bees are vulnerable to urbanization. Finally, while our results indicate that increasing the abundance and richness of floral resources could partially compensate for negative effects of urbanization on bees, the effectiveness of such measures may be limited by other factors, such as urban warming.

Dataset Information

Effects of temporal floral resource availability and non-crop habitats on broad bean pollination.

Context

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Supplementary information

Publications

Effects of temporal floral resource availability and non-crop habitats on broad bean pollination.

Similar Datasets

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