scholarly journals Identification of plant species for pollinator restoration in the Northern Prairies

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana Bizecki Robson ◽  
Cary Hamel ◽  
Rebekah Neufeld
Keyword(s):  
Plant Species ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Late Summer ◽  
Floral Resources ◽  
Prairie Restoration ◽  
Species Accumulation Curves ◽  
Pollinating Insects ◽  
Accumulation Curves ◽  
Plant Pollinator ◽  
Insect Visitors

Research on diurnal plant–pollinator interactions indicates that a small number of generalist plants provide a disproportionately high amount of floral resources to pollinating insects. Identifying these generalist plants would help prairie restoration specialists select species that will provide forage for the majority of pollinator taxa. Field research in three Canadian fescue (Festuca hallii) prairie preserves that were at most 3.3 km away from each other was conducted in 2014 and 2015 to create pooled, weighted, plant–insect visitor matrices for each site. Using these matrices, generalization (G) scores were calculated for each plant species to help assess their importance to wild insect visitors as this method controls for differences in insect abundances over the year. The three species with the highest average generalization scores were Solidago rigida, Erigeron glabellus and Symphyotrichum laeve. Species accumulation curves were created to determine how many plant species would need to be present before most pollinator taxa would have at least one acceptable forage species. This research indicates that the 16 plant species (33% of the total) with the highest average generalization scores were visited by 90% of the observed pollinator taxa. To detect exceptionally attractive plant species while accounting for natural differences in abundance, we calculated the insect, bee and fly visitation rates per inflorescence. There was several specialized plant species that were visited frequently by bees. Most of these specialized plants had purple or yellow, tubular flowers, and bloomed in mid to late summer when bee populations were most numerous. 

scholarly journals Insect Visitation to Wildflowers in the Endangered Garry Oak, Quercus garryana, Ecosystem of British Columbia

2005 ◽  
Vol 119 (2) ◽  
pp. 245 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. L. Parachnowitsch ◽  
E. Elle
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Plant Species ◽  
Quercus Garryana ◽  
Chi Squared ◽  
Insect Visitation ◽  
Introduced Honeybee ◽  
Pollinating Insects ◽  
Basic Biology ◽  
Oak Ecosystem ◽  
Plant Pollinator

The Garry Oak Ecosystem (GOE) is a fragmented and endangered ecosystem in Canada, and is currently the focus of conservation and restoration efforts in British Columbia. However, little is known about the basic biology of GOE forbs, or their relationships with pollinating insects. We monitored wildflowers and their insect visitors in 25 quadrats within a 25 × 25 metre plot, located in a fragment of the GOE near Duncan, British Columbia, for six weeks (the majority of the flowering period). Overall, 21 native and non-native forb species flowered in our quadrats during the survey, and we observed an additional six forb species flowering outside of our quadrats. Eight forbs were visited within quadrats by a total of 13 insect taxa, identified to morphospecies. Visits by eight additional morphospecies were observed outside of the quadrats. In general, visitation was low; however, most insect morphospecies were observed visiting more than one plant species, and most plant species were visited by more than one insect morphospecies, suggesting that pollination may be generalised in this community. A Chi-squared analysis indicated that insect visitation was not proportional to the relative abundance of forbs, with higher than expected visitation to Common camas (Camassia quamash), and no observed visits to 11 species, most with very small (putatively unattractive) flowers. The most frequent insect visitor was the introduced Honeybee, Apis mellifera, followed by native mason bees (Osmia spp.) and mining bees (Andrena spp.). Our observations provide baseline data for future, detailed studies that should investigate the importance of plant-pollinator mutualisms for sustainability of populations and communities in this rare ecosystem.

scholarly journals Physiological effects of climate warming on flowering plants and insect pollinators and potential consequences for their interactions

2013 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 418-426 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victoria L. Scaven ◽  
Nicole E. Rafferty
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Warming ◽  
Scale Up ◽  
Flowering Plants ◽  
Floral Resources ◽  
Physiological Effects ◽  
Pollination Success ◽  
Insect Pollinators ◽  
Pollinating Insects ◽  
Plant Pollinator

Abstract Growing concern about the influence of climate change on flowering plants, pollinators, and the mutualistic interactions between them has led to a recent surge in research. Much of this research has addressed the consequences of warming for phenological and distributional shifts. In contrast, relatively little is known about the physiological responses of plants and insect pollinators to climate warming and, in particular, how these responses might affect plant-pollinator interactions. Here, we summarize the direct physiological effects of temperature on flowering plants and pollinating insects to highlight ways in which plant and pollinator responses could affect floral resources for pollinators, and pollination success for plants, respectively. We also consider the overall effects of these responses on plant-pollinator interaction networks. Plant responses to warming, which include altered flower, nectar, and pollen production, could modify floral resource availability and reproductive output of pollinating insects. Similarly, pollinator responses, such as altered foraging activity, body size, and life span, could affect patterns of pollen flow and pollination success of flowering plants. As a result, network structure could be altered as interactions are gained and lost, weakened and strengthened, even without the gain or loss of species or temporal overlap. Future research that addresses not only how plant and pollinator physiology are affected by warming but also how responses scale up to affect interactions and networks should allow us to better understand and predict the effects of climate change on this important ecosystem service.

scholarly journals Not all interactions are positive: testing how antagonistic interactions impact the robustness of plant-pollinator networks

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather M. Briggs ◽  
Carolyn A. Ayers ◽  
Paul R. Armsworth ◽  
Berry J. Brosi
Keyword(s):  
Plant Species ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Network Robustness ◽  
Floral Resources ◽  
Nectar Robbing ◽  
Full Spectrum ◽  
Pollinator Species ◽  
Plant Pollinator ◽  
Topological Robustness ◽  
Antagonistic Interactions

AbstractGiven ongoing pollinator declines, it is important to understand the dynamics of linked extinctions of plants driven by pollinator extinctions. Topological robustness models focused on this question suggest relatively high robustness of plant species to pollinator species extinctions. Still, existing robustness models typically assume that all interactions in plant-pollinator networks are positive, which is clearly not always the case. For example, many pollinators remove floral resources with-out transferring pollen, or even damage floral structures in the case of nectar robbing. Here we introduce antagonistic interactions into plant-pollinator networks and assess the resilience of plant communities to pollinator species losses. Incorporating antagonistic interactions leads to lower network robustness, i.e. an increased rate of plant species loss (as compared to networks with only mutualistic interactions) in empirical plant-pollinator networks. In conjunction with extinction order, the addition of increasingly antagonistic interactions was idiosyncratic in that it did not always magnify the effects of extinction order across the three networks. These results underscore the importance of considering the full spectrum of interaction outcomes when assessing robustness to coextinctions in plant-pollinator networks, as well as other ecological systems.

scholarly journals Testing how antagonistic interactions impact the robustness of plant-pollinator networks

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather Briggs ◽  
Carolyn A. Ayers ◽  
Paul R. Armsworth ◽  
Berry J. Brosi
Keyword(s):  
Plant Species ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Network Robustness ◽  
Floral Resources ◽  
Nectar Robbing ◽  
Full Spectrum ◽  
Pollinator Species ◽  
Plant Pollinator ◽  
Topological Robustness ◽  
Antagonistic Interactions

Given ongoing pollinator declines, it is important to understand the dynamics of linked extinctions of plants driven by pollinator extinctions. Topological robustness models focused on this question suggest relatively high robustness of plant species to pollinator species extinctions. Still, existing robustness models typically assume that all interactions in plant-pollinator networks are positive, which is clearly not always the case. For example, many pollinators remove floral resources without transferring pollen, or even damage floral structures in the case of nectar robbing. Here we introduce antagonistic interactions into plant-pollinator networks and assess the resilience of plant communities to pollinator species losses. Incorporating antagonistic interactions leads to lower network robustness, i.e. an increased rate of plant species loss (as compared to networks with only mutualistic interactions) in empirical plant-pollinator networks. In conjunction with extinction order, the addition of increasingly antagonistic interactions was idiosyncratic in that it did not always magnify the effects of extinction order across the three networks. These results underscore the importance of considering the full spectrum of interaction outcomes when assessing robustness to coextinctions in plant-pollinator networks, as well as other ecological systems.

Small areas of wildflower grassland in urban areas support significant species richness and abundance of pollinating insects

2020 ◽  
Vol 71 (2) ◽  
pp. 103-119
Author(s):  
Louise Hutchinson ◽  
John Norrey ◽  
Alex Lockton ◽  
Emma Coulthard
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Plant Species ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Plant Species Richness ◽  
Solitary Bees ◽  
Flowering Plant ◽  
Floral Resources ◽  
Urban Green Spaces ◽  
Small Areas ◽  
Pollinating Insects

1. Diversity of invertebrate pollinators is essential in supporting flowering plant species richness, including agricultural crops. In the UK, losses are reported for bees, hoverflies, butterflies and moths. Urban green spaces are essential refugia for these groups, and restoration of these areas can improve pollinator diversity through improved floral resources.<br/> 2. Our research aimed to compare two differently managed areas of urban amenity grassland for their insect pollinators, with transect surveys of butterflies, bumblebees, solitary bees and hoverflies.<br/> 3. Our results revealed that even in an urban matrix, a small area of wildflower meadow had significantly higher insect abundance and species richness than a comparable amenity grassland. Both abundance and species richness of pollinating insects was positively related to floral species richness.<br/> 4. The wildflower grassland supported a number of notable solitary bee species and numerous hoverflies, although visitation by solitary bees was confined to only a small number of flowering plants, exhibiting visitation specialisation; however many of these plant species were not visited by other taxa.

scholarly journals Non-native honey bees disproportionately dominate the most abundant floral resources in a biodiversity hotspot

2019 ◽  
Vol 286 (1897) ◽  
pp. 20182901 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keng-Lou James Hung ◽  
Jennifer M. Kingston ◽  
Adrienne Lee ◽  
David A. Holway ◽  
Joshua R. Kohn
Keyword(s):  
Honey Bee ◽  
Plant Species ◽  
Honey Bees ◽  
Ecological Impacts ◽  
Floral Resources ◽  
Natural Ecosystems ◽  
Foraging Patterns ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Introduced Range ◽  
Plant Pollinator

Most plant–pollinator mutualisms are generalized. As such, they are susceptible to perturbation by abundant, generalist, non-native pollinators such as the western honey bee ( Apis mellifera ), which can reach high abundances and visit flowers of many plant species in their expansive introduced range. Despite the prevalence of non-native honey bees, their effects on pollination mutualisms in natural ecosystems remain incompletely understood. Here, we contrast community-level patterns of floral visitation by honey bees with that of the diverse native pollinator fauna of southern California, USA. We show that the number of honey bees visiting plant species increases much more rapidly with flower abundance than does that of non-honey bee insects, such that the percentage of all visitors represented by honey bees increases with flower abundance. Thus, honey bees could disproportionately impact the most abundantly blooming plant species and the large numbers of both specialized and generalized pollinator species that they sustain. Honey bees may preferentially exploit high-abundance floral resources because of their ability to recruit nest-mates; these foraging patterns may cause native insect species to forage on lower-abundance resources to avoid competition. Our results illustrate the importance of understanding foraging patterns of introduced pollinators in order to reveal their ecological impacts.

scholarly journals Long-legged bees make adaptive leaps: linking adaptation to coevolution in a plant–pollinator network

2017 ◽  
Vol 284 (1862) ◽  
pp. 20171707 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anton Pauw ◽  
Belinda Kahnt ◽  
Michael Kuhlmann ◽  
Denis Michez ◽  
Graham A. Montgomery ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Plant Species ◽  
Evolutionary Divergence ◽  
Large Network ◽  
Independent Contrasts ◽  
Leg Length ◽  
Phylogenetically Independent Contrasts ◽  
Explained Variance ◽  
Spur Length ◽  
Plant Pollinator ◽  
Selective Environment

Adaptation is evolution in response to natural selection. Hence, an adaptation is expected to originate simultaneously with the acquisition of a particular selective environment. Here we test whether long legs evolve in oil-collecting Rediviva bees when they come under selection by long-spurred, oil-secreting flowers. To quantify the selective environment, we drew a large network of the interactions between Rediviva species and oil-secreting plant species. The selective environment of each bee species was summarized as the average spur length of the interacting plant species weighted by interaction frequency. Using phylogenetically independent contrasts, we calculated divergence in selective environment and evolutionary divergence in leg length between sister species (and sister clades) of Rediviva . We found that change in the selective environment explained 80% of evolutionary change in leg length, with change in body size contributing an additional 6% of uniquely explained variance. The result is one of four proposed steps in testing for plant–pollinator coevolution.

scholarly journals Xerodrymionorientale mediterraneum gorges of the Karatag river

2021 ◽  
Vol 38 ◽  
pp. 00022
Author(s):  
Sayfiddin Khairiddin Davlatov ◽  
Rakhmatullo Boboevich Sattorov ◽  
Jamoliddin Murotalievich Bobokalonov
Keyword(s):  
Characteristic Feature ◽  
High Altitude ◽  
Genetic Resources ◽  
Plant Species ◽  
Field Research ◽  
The State ◽  
Pistacia Vera ◽  
Wild Fruit ◽  
Middle Mountains ◽  
First Time

The Karatag gorge is one of the natural areas where valuable genetic resources (wild, fruit and many valuable species) are preserved. A characteristic feature of the region is the richness of the diversity of flora and vegetation, where the main formations of Tajik vegetation are noted (maple, hazel, almond, frame, juniper). The article summarizes the results of the authors’ field research on the study of the state of xerophilic forests in the Karatag gorge. For the first time, the authors cite original materials on the phytocenology of all formations of this type of composition. According to the results of our research, the Shibleak communities in the study area are distributed in high-altitude belts from low-hilly 600–800 m to middle mountains 800–1800, 2000 m. The main formations of this type in the study area are: Acer regelii, Crataegus pontica, Celtis caucasic, Pistacia vera, Amygdalis bucharica, Ampelopsis vitifolia, Atraphaxis pyrifolia. As a result of the study, 340 plant species, 6 formations and more than 25 vegetation associations were identified in the composition of the flora of this type of the study area.

scholarly journals The endophytic community of Dactylis glomerata

2007 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 69-73
Author(s):  
Sánchez Márquez ◽  
G.F. Bills ◽  
I. Zabalgogeazcoa
Keyword(s):  
Fungal Endophytes ◽  
Dactylis Glomerata ◽  
Molecular Methods ◽  
Sampling Effort ◽  
Species Accumulation Curves ◽  
Species Accumulation ◽  
Unknown Species ◽  
Ecological Roles ◽  
Accumulation Curves ◽  
Endophytic Community

Morphological and molecular methods were used to identify the endophytic mycobiota of the grass Dactylis glomerata. Fungal endophytes belonging to 109 different species were isolated from asymptomatic plants sampled in different ecosystems in Spain. Species accumulation curves showed that most species commonly infecting this grass have been identified, but the number of singleton species occasionally infecting the plants is likely to increase with more sampling effort. A large endophytic assemblage consisting of fungi with diverse ecological roles, and potentially unknown species was found in a small number of plants. Keywords: endophytes, Dactylis glomerata, diversity, abundance

scholarly journals Invasive plants as a factor of floristic diversity degradation in Deliblato sands SNR

2020 ◽  
pp. 27-46
Author(s):  
Anja Kalinic ◽  
Ivana Bjedov ◽  
Dragica Obratov-Petkovic ◽  
Jelena Tomicevic-Dubljevic
Keyword(s):  
Plant Species ◽  
Invasive Plants ◽  
Invasive Plant ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Floristic Diversity ◽  
Invasive Plant Species ◽  
Protection Measures ◽  
Expert Interview

The floristic diversity of Deliblato sands SNR is significantly endangered by the spread of invasive plants. In addition to field research, which included the collection of plant material in the area of Deliblato sands SNR, primary and secondary data was collected in this paper. The primary data for the purposes of this study was obtained by applying a questionnaire technique to the management of the protected area - PE ?Vojvodinasume? and an expert interview technique to a representative of the Provincial Institute for Nature Conservation. The secondary data was collected to gain a better and broader understanding of the management of Deliblato sands SNR. Based on the field investigations, the analysis of primary and secondary data on invasive plant species was also recognized as a key threatening factor. An analysis of the floristic structure and composition of these plant species, their origin, as well as the manner of their propagation and reproduction was carried out, in order to make a recommendation on the preventive measures for the protection and suppression of invasive plant species and to improve the habitat. In the area of Deliblato sands SNR, 39 invasive plant species (4,33% of the total flora) were found with different invasiveness categories, among which herbaceous, annual, North American species from the Compositae family prevail. Protection measures include the mapping of habitats of invasive species, establishing cooperation with managers and scientific institutions, constant monitoring of endangered habitats and plant species, as well as the creation of a special sector responsible for enhancing biodiversity.

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