scholarly journals Nocturnal pollinators strongly contribute to pollen transport of wild flowers in an agricultural landscape

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. 20190877 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard E. Walton ◽  
Carl D. Sayer ◽  
Helen Bennion ◽  
Jan C. Axmacher
Keyword(s):  
Agricultural Landscape ◽  
Agricultural Landscapes ◽  
Wild Plant ◽  
Conservation Strategies ◽  
Pollination Services ◽  
Pollen Transport ◽  
Plant Families ◽  
Nocturnal Pollinators ◽  
Flower Visiting ◽  
Plant Pollinator

Dramatic declines in diurnal pollinators have created great scientific interest in plant–pollinator relationships and associated pollination services. Existing literature, however, is generally focused on diurnal pollinating insect taxa, especially on Apidae (Hymenoptera) and Syrphidae (Diptera) pollinators, while nocturnal macro-moths that comprise extremely species-rich flower-visiting families have been largely neglected. Here, we report that in agricultural landscapes, macro-moths can provide unique, highly complex pollen transport links, making them vital components of overall wild plant–pollinator networks in agro-ecosystems. Pollen transport occurred more frequently on the moths' ventral thorax rather than on their mouthparts that have been traditionally targeted for pollen swabbing. Pollen transport loads suggest that nocturnal moths contribute key pollination services for several wild plant families in agricultural landscapes, in addition to providing functional resilience to diurnal networks. Severe declines in richness and abundance of settling moth populations highlight the urgent need to include them in future management and conservation strategies within agricultural landscapes.

scholarly journals Farmland biodiversity: wildflower-sown islands within arable fields and grassy field margins both promote spider diversity

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamara Rischen ◽  
Katharina Geisbüsch ◽  
Daniel Ruppert ◽  
Klaus Fischer
Keyword(s):  
Agricultural Landscape ◽  
Agricultural Landscapes ◽  
Added Value ◽  
Conservation Strategies ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Conservation Value ◽  
Field Margins ◽  
Farmland Biodiversity ◽  
Power Pole

Abstract Agricultural intensification and the concomitant landscape homogenization is leading to a worldwide decline in farmland biodiversity. Non-crop habitats in agroecosystems may counteract the loss of arthropods such as spiders and thus contribute to sustainable agriculture. However, the effectiveness of field margins and set-aside wildflower-sown patches in maintaining spider diversity is not well understood. Here, we investigated the effects of three different non-crop habitats, namely field margins, set-aside wildflower-sown patches under power poles (‘power pole islands’), and grassland fallows on spider diversity as compared to wheat fields in an agricultural landscape in western Germany. Using pitfall trapping and suction sampling, we show that species richness and overall conservation value were higher in non-crop habitats than in wheat fields. Interestingly, field margins and power pole islands differed from long-term grassland fallows only in conservation value, which was significantly higher in grassland fallows. Species assemblages differed considerably between grassland fallows, field margins and power pole islands, and wheat fields, documenting the added value of using different conservation strategies. Implications for insect conservation Small-scale non-crop habitats adjacent to wheat fields were surprisingly effective in promoting spider diversity in an agricultural landscape, with field margins and power pole islands being equally effective. To maximize overall diversity in agricultural landscapes, we propose a combination of larger long-term fallows and smaller non-crop habitats such as field margins or set-aside wildflower-sown patches.

scholarly journals Landscape heterogeneity of peasant-managed agricultural matrices

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana L. Urrutia ◽  
Cecilia González-González ◽  
Emilio Mora Van Cauwelaert ◽  
Julieta A. Rosell ◽  
Luis García Barrios ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Biodiversity Conservation ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Agricultural Landscape ◽  
Landscape Heterogeneity ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Agricultural Landscapes ◽  
Conservation Strategies ◽  
Agricultural Matrix ◽  
Wildlife Migration ◽  
Managed Landscapes

ABSTRACTIn agricultural landscapes, management practices and other environmental and social factors shape complex agroecological matrices. In turn, the structure of such matrices impacts both agricultural activities and biodiversity conservation, for instance, by mediating wildlife migration between agricultural and habitat patches. One way to characterize a matrix, its potential role in biodiversity conservation, and how its descriptors change across different spatial scales, is characterizing heterogeneity metrics and systematically examining how such metrics change with grain size and landscape extent. However, these methods have rarely been applied to tropical, peasant-managed landscapes, even though this type of landscape occupies most of the agricultural surface in or near biodiversity hotspots. We focus on a peasant-managed agricultural landscape in Oaxaca, Mexico, for which we mapped and quantified the land-use classes and evaluated heterogeneity metrics. We also examined the response of heterogeneity metrics to changes in grain and extent scales. This allowed us to further understand the structure and conservation potential of the agroecological matrix in this type of landscape, to broadly compare this landscape with other agricultural landscapes in North America, and to recommend specific landscape metrics for different types of studies involving agricultural matrices. We conclude that this type of agricultural matrix is ideal to pursue joint agricultural and conservation strategies in an integrated landscape.

The Bee Community of Cannabis sativa and Corresponding Effects of Landscape Composition

2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 197-202
Author(s):  
Nathaniel Ryan Flicker ◽  
Katja Poveda ◽  
Heather Grab
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Species Richness ◽  
Agricultural Landscape ◽  
Cannabis Sativa ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Flowering Phenology ◽  
Landscape Composition ◽  
Agricultural Landscapes ◽  
Phenotypic Traits ◽  
Pollination Services

Abstract Industrial hemp, Cannabis sativa (Cannabaceae), is a newly introduced and rapidly expanding crop in the American agricultural landscape. As an exclusively wind-pollinated crop, hemp lacks nectar but produces an abundance of pollen during a period of floral dearth in agricultural landscapes. These pollen resources are attractive to a range of bee species but the diversity of floral visitors and their use of hemp across a range of agricultural contexts remains unclear. We made repeated sweep net collections of bees visiting hemp flowers on farms in New York, which varied in both landscape context and phenotypic traits of hemp varieties. We identified all bee visitors to the species level and found that hemp supported 16 different bee species. Landscape simplification negatively impacted the abundance of bees visiting hemp flowers but did not affect the species richness of the community. Plant height, on the other hand, was strongly correlated with bee species richness and abundance for hemp plots with taller varieties attracting a broader diversity of bee species. Because of its temporally unique flowering phenology, hemp has the potential to provide a critical nutritional resource to a diverse community of bees during a period of floral scarcity and thereby may help to sustain agroecosystem-wide pollination services for other crops in the landscape. As cultivation of hemp increases, growers, land managers, and policy makers should consider its value in supporting bee communities and take its attractiveness to bees into account when developing pest management strategies.

scholarly journals Hedgerows Have a Barrier Effect and Channel Pollinator Movement in the Agricultural Landscape

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felix Klaus ◽  
Julia Bass ◽  
Lisa Marholt ◽  
Birte Müller ◽  
Björn Klatt ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Agricultural Landscape ◽  
Pollen Dispersal ◽  
Agricultural Landscapes ◽  
Fluorescent Dye ◽  
Natural Habitats ◽  
Pollination Services ◽  
Landscape Elements ◽  
Mobile Species ◽  
Management Plans ◽  
Linear Landscape Elements

Abstract Agricultural intensification and the subsequent fragmentation of semi-natural habitats severely restrict pollinator and pollen movement threatening both pollinator and plant species. Linear landscape elements such as hedgerows are planted for agricultural and conservation purposes to increase the resource availability and habitat connectivity supporting populations of beneficial organisms such as pollinators. However, hedgerows may have unexpected effects on plant and pollinator persistence by not just channeling pollinators and pollen along, but also restricting movement across the strip of habitat. Here, we tested how hedgerows influence pollinator movement and pollen flow. We used fluorescent dye particles as pollen analogues to track pollinator movement between potted cornflowers Centaurea cyanus along and across a hedgerow separating two meadows. The deposition of fluorescent dye was significantly higher along the hedgerow than across the hedgerow and into the meadow, despite comparable pollinator abundances. The differences in pollen transfer suggest that hedgerows can affect pollinator and pollen dispersal by channeling their movement and acting as a permeable barrier. We conclude that hedgerows in agricultural landscapes can increase the connectivity between otherwise isolated plant and pollinator populations (corridor function), but can have additional, and so far unknown barrier effects on pollination services. Functioning as a barrier, linear landscape elements can impede pollinator movement and dispersal, even for highly mobile species such as bees. These results should be considered in future management plans aiming to enhance the persistence of threatened pollinator and plant populations by restoring functional connectivity and to ensure sufficient crop pollination in the agricultural landscape.

scholarly journals Responses of bats to landscape transformation in an Andean agricultural landscape

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariana Vélez-Orozco ◽  
Laura M. Romero ◽  
John H. Castaño ◽  
Jaime A. Carranza-Quiceno ◽  
Jairo Pérez-Torres ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Landscape ◽  
Agricultural Landscape ◽  
Insect Pest ◽  
Agricultural Landscapes ◽  
Conservation Strategies ◽  
Current Debate ◽  
Forest Fragments ◽  
Insect Pest Control ◽  
Control Pollination ◽  
Bat Diversity

AbstractThe current debate on the future of biodiversity gives rise to the need to integrate agricultural landscapes into conservation strategies. Bats are an important component of vertebrate diversity in many terrestrial landscapes where they provide invaluable and important ecosystem services to human societies such as insect pest control, pollination and seed dispersal. Here we study bat diversity and abundance in three landscapes representing a transformational gradient (continuous forests, forest fragments and crops) in an Andean agricultural scenario known as Colombia’s “Coffee Cultural Landscape”. We captured 1146 bats from 32 species and 4 families. The bat diversity and abundance in this landscape were high, especially for frugivorous bats, but there were no differences among the three transformational landscapes. However, some species were captured differentially between landscapes, suggesting that these landscapes have characteristics that influence the relative abundance of bats. Additionally, body weight and sex affect the abundance of some species in forest fragments and crops.

scholarly journals Weather Variables Affecting the Behaviour of Insect Flower Visitors and Main Pollinators of Erythroxylum myrsinites Martius (Erythroxylaceae)

Sociobiology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
pp. 5451
Author(s):  
Rafael Barbizan Sühs ◽  
Alexandre Somavilla ◽  
Eduardo Luís Hettwer Giehl
Keyword(s):  
Solar Radiation ◽  
Atmospheric Pressure ◽  
Basic Research ◽  
Weather Variables ◽  
Flower Visitors ◽  
Species Dominance ◽  
Pollen Transport ◽  
Number Of Visits ◽  
Flower Visiting ◽  
Plant Pollinator

Basic research assessing environmental effects on entire pollinator communities are still uncommon, particularly for rare and commercially unattractive plant-pollinator partners. We investigated the community of flower visitors of Erythroxylum myrsinites to check for potential pollinators and to check the extent of weather influence of visitor behaviour, registered as the number of visitors attending flowers of E. myrsinites. We then calculated species’ dominance and constancy and assessed location of pollen attachment in each visitor’s body. We correlated weather variables with the composition and abundance of visits carried out by the entire community and by most constant and dominant species. The wasps Polybia sericea, P. ignobilis and P. fastidiosuscula showed the highest values of constancy, dominance and attached pollen. There was a community-level effect of atmospheric pressure, solar radiation and wind speed on the number of visits. Atmospheric pressure affected the number of visits of eudominant species P. fastidiosuscula and P. sericea, while solar radiation affected the number of visits of P. ignobilis. Our results demonstrate the influence of weather variables on flower visiting insects and suggest the importance of native wasps in pollen transport and pollination, a relationship that should be further studied under the worldwide bee pollination decline.

scholarly journals Conserving predators across agricultural landscapes in Colombia: habitat use and space partitioning by jaguars, pumas, ocelots and jaguarundis

Oryx ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 54 (4) ◽  
pp. 554-563 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valeria Boron ◽  
Panteleimon Xofis ◽  
Andres Link ◽  
Esteban Payan ◽  
Joseph Tzanopoulos
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Habitat Use ◽  
Oil Palm ◽  
Agricultural Landscape ◽  
Agricultural Landscapes ◽  
Conservation Strategies ◽  
Space Partitioning ◽  
Natural Habitats ◽  
Positive Effect ◽  
Felid Species

AbstractLoss and degradation of natural habitats continue to increase across the tropics as a result of agricultural expansion. Consequently, there is an urgent need to understand their effects, and the distribution and habitat requirements of wildlife within human-modified landscapes, to support the conservation of threatened species, such as felids. We combined camera trapping and land cover data into occupancy models to study the habitat use and space partitioning by four sympatric felid species in an agricultural landscape in Colombia. Land use in the area includes cattle ranching and oil palm cultivation, the latter being an emerging land use type in the Neotropics. Factors determining species occupancy were the presence of wetlands for jaguars (positive effect); water proximity for pumas (positive effect); and presence of pastures for ocelots and jaguarundis (negative effect). Only ocelots were occasionally recorded in oil palm areas. Our results suggest that to align development with the conservation of top predators it is crucial to maintain areas of forest and wetland across agricultural landscapes and to restrict agricultural and oil palm expansion to modified areas such as pastures, which are of limited conservation value. Because there is no spatial segregation between the felid species we studied, conservation strategies that benefit all of them are possible even in modified landscapes.

Orchestrated Flowering and Interspecific Facilitation: Key Factors in the Maintenance of the Main Pollinator of Coexisting Threatened Species of Andean Wax Palms (Ceroxylon spp.)

2020 ◽  
Vol 105 (3) ◽  
pp. 281-299
Author(s):  
Javier Carreño-Barrera ◽  
Luis Alberto Núñez-Avellaneda ◽  
Maria José Sanín ◽  
Artur Campos D. Maia
Keyword(s):  
Conservation Status ◽  
Population Decline ◽  
Floral Biology ◽  
Fruit Production ◽  
Biological Data ◽  
Fruit Yield ◽  
Insect Species ◽  
Individual Species ◽  
Pollination Services ◽  
Flower Visiting

Solitary, dioecious, and mostly endemic to Andean cloud forests, wax palms (Ceroxylon Bonpl. ex DC. spp.) are currently under worrisome conservation status. The establishment of management plans for their dwindling populations rely on detailed biological data, including their reproductive ecology. As in the case of numerous other Neotropical palm taxa, small beetles are assumed to be selective pollinators of wax palms, but their identity and relevance in successful fruit yield were unknown. During three consecutive reproductive seasons we collected data on population phenology and reproductive and floral biology of three syntopic species of wax palms native to the Colombian Andes. We also determined the composition of the associated flower-visiting entomofauna, quantifying the extent of the role of individual species as effective pollinators through standardized value indexes that take into consideration abundance, constancy, and pollen transport efficiency. The studied populations of C. parvifrons (Engel) H. Wendl., C. ventricosum Burret, and C. vogelianum (Engel) H. Wendl. exhibit seasonal reproductive cycles with marked temporal patterns of flower and fruit production. The composition of the associated flower-visiting entomofauna, comprised by ca. 50 morphotypes, was constant across flowering seasons and differed only marginally among species. Nonetheless, a fraction of the insect species associated with pistillate inflorescences actually carried pollen, and calculated pollinator importance indexes demonstrated that one insect species alone, Mystrops rotundula Sharp, accounted for 94%–99% of the effective pollination services for all three species of wax palms. The sequential asynchronous flowering of C. parvifrons, C. ventricosum, and C. vogelianum provides an abundant and constant supply of pollen, pivotal for the maintenance of large populations of their shared pollinators, a cooperative strategy proven effective by high fruit yield rates (up to 79%). Reproductive success might be compromised for all species by the population decline of one of them, as it would tamper with the temporal orchestration of pollen offer.

scholarly journals The Relict Ecosystem of Maytenus senegalensis subsp. europaea in an Agricultural Landscape: Past, Present and Future Scenarios

Land ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Antonio J. Mendoza-Fernández ◽  
Fabián Martínez-Hernández ◽  
Esteban Salmerón-Sánchez ◽  
Francisco J. Pérez-García ◽  
Blas Teruel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Plant Communities ◽  
Ecological Niche ◽  
Agricultural Landscape ◽  
Agricultural Landscapes ◽  
Eastern Coast ◽  
Ecological Value ◽  
Distribution Models ◽  
European Continent ◽  
Major Interest ◽  
Maytenus Senegalensis

Maytenus senegalensis subsp. europaea is a shrub belonging to the Celastraceae family, whose only European populations are distributed discontinuously along the south-eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula, forming plant communities with great ecological value, unique in Europe. As it is an endangered species that makes up plant communities with great palaeoecological significance, the development of species distribution models is of major interest under different climatic scenarios, past, present and future, based on the fact that the climate could play a relevant role in the distribution of this species, as well as in the conformation of the communities in which it is integrated. Palaeoecological models were generated for the Maximum Interglacial, Last Maximum Glacial and Middle Holocene periods. The results obtained showed that the widest distribution of this species, and the maximum suitability of its habitat, occurred during the Last Glacial Maximum, when the temperatures of the peninsular southeast were not as contrasting as those of the rest of the European continent and were favored by higher rainfall. Under these conditions, large territories could act as shelters during the glacial period, a hypothesis reflected in the model’s results for this period, which exhibit a further expansion of M. europaea’s ecological niche. The future projection of models in around 2070, for four Representative Concentration Pathways according to the fifth report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, showed that the most favorable areas for this species would be Campo de Dalías (southern portion of Almería province) as it presents the bioclimatic characteristics of greater adjustment to M. europaea’s ecological niche model. Currently, some of the largest specimens of the species survive in the agricultural landscapes in the southern Spain. These areas are almost totally destroyed and heavily altered by intensive agriculture greenhouses, also causing a severe fragmentation of the habitat, which implies a prospective extinction scenario in the near future.

scholarly journals Predation on Drosophila suzukii within Hedges in the Agricultural Landscape

Insects ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 305
Author(s):  
Alexandra Siffert ◽  
Fabian Cahenzli ◽  
Patrik Kehrli ◽  
Claudia Daniel ◽  
Virginie Dekumbis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Agricultural Landscape ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Agricultural Landscapes ◽  
Gut Content ◽  
Drosophila Suzukii ◽  
Natural Habitats ◽  
Host Fruit ◽  
Molecular Gut Content Analysis ◽  
Wild Fruits ◽  
Diverse Community

The invasive Drosophila suzukii feeds and reproduces on various cultivated and wild fruits and moves between agricultural and semi-natural habitats. Hedges in agricultural landscapes play a vital role in the population development of D. suzukii, but also harbor a diverse community of natural enemies. We investigated predation by repeatedly exposing cohorts of D. suzukii pupae between June and October in dry and humid hedges at five different locations in Switzerland. We sampled predator communities and analyzed their gut content for the presence of D. suzukii DNA based on the COI marker. On average, 44% of the exposed pupae were predated. Predation was higher in dry than humid hedges, but did not differ significantly between pupae exposed on the ground or on branches and among sampling periods. Earwigs, spiders, and ants were the dominant predators. Predator communities did not vary significantly between hedge types or sampling periods. DNA of D. suzukii was detected in 3.4% of the earwigs, 1.8% of the spiders, and in one predatory bug (1.6%). While the molecular gut content analysis detected only a small proportion of predators that had fed on D. suzukii, overall predation seemed sufficient to reduce D. suzukii populations, in particular in hedges that provide few host fruit resources.

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