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Cavigliasso P, Phifer CC, Adams EM, Flaspohler D, Gennari GP, Licata JA, Chacoff NP. Spatio-temporal dynamics of landscape use by the bumblebee Bombus pauloensis (Hymenoptera: Apidae) and its relationship with pollen provisioning. PLoS One 2020; 15:e0216190. [PMID: 32639984 PMCID: PMC7343142 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0216190] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/15/2019] [Accepted: 06/09/2020] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Understanding how bees use resources at a landscape scale is essential for developing meaningful management plans that sustain populations and the pollination services they provide. Bumblebees are important pollinators for many wild and cultivated plants, and have experienced steep population declines worldwide. Bee foraging behavior can be influenced by resource availability and bees’ lifecycle stage. To better understand these relationships, we studied the habitat selection of Bombus pauloensis by tracking 17 queen bumblebees with radio telemetry in blueberry fields in Entre Ríos province, Argentina. To evaluate land use and floral resources used by bumblebees, we tracked bees before and after nest establishment and estimated home ranges using minimum convex polygons and kernel density methods. We also classified the pollen on their bodies to identify the floral resources they used from the floral species available at that time. We characterized land use for each bee as the relative proportion of GPS points inside of each land use. Bumblebees differed markedly in their movement behavior in relation to pre and post nest establishment. Bees moved over larger areas, and mostly within blueberry fields, before nest establishment. In contrast, after establishing the nest, the bees preferred the edges near forest plantations and they changed the nutritional resources to prefer wild floral species. Our study is the first to track queen bumblebee movements in an agricultural setting and relate movement changes across time and space with pollen resource availability. This study provides insight into the way bumblebee queens use different habitat elements at crucial periods in their lifecycle, showing the importance of mass flowering crops like blueberry in the first stages of queen’s lifecycle, and how diversified landscapes help support bee populations as their needs changes during different phases of their lifecycle.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pablo Cavigliasso
- Programa Nacional Apícola, Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria, Concordia, Entre Ríos, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- * E-mail:
| | - Colin C. Phifer
- School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science, Michigan Technological University. Houghton, Michigan, United States of America
| | - Erika M. Adams
- School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science, Michigan Technological University. Houghton, Michigan, United States of America
| | - David Flaspohler
- School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science, Michigan Technological University. Houghton, Michigan, United States of America
| | - Gerardo P. Gennari
- Programa Nacional Apícola, Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria, Famaillá, Tucumán, Argentina
| | - Julian A. Licata
- Programa Nacional Apícola, Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria, Concordia, Entre Ríos, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Natacha P. Chacoff
- Instituto de Ecología Regional, CONICET-Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, Tucumán, Argentina
- Facultad de Ciencias Naturales e Instituto Miguel Lillo, Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, Tucumán, Argentina
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Nicholson CC, Ward KL, Williams NM, Isaacs R, Mason KS, Wilson JK, Brokaw J, Gut LJ, Rothwell NL, Wood TJ, Rao S, Hoffman GD, Gibbs J, Thorp RW, Ricketts TH. Mismatched outcomes for biodiversity and ecosystem services: testing the responses of crop pollinators and wild bee biodiversity to habitat enhancement. Ecol Lett 2019; 23:326-335. [PMID: 31797535 DOI: 10.1111/ele.13435] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/26/2019] [Revised: 09/28/2019] [Accepted: 10/19/2019] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Supporting ecosystem services and conserving biodiversity may be compatible goals, but there is concern that service-focused interventions mostly benefit a few common species. We use a spatially replicated, multiyear experiment in four agricultural settings to test if enhancing habitat adjacent to crops increases wild bee diversity and abundance on and off crops. We found that enhanced field edges harbored more taxonomically and functionally abundant, diverse, and compositionally different bee communities compared to control edges. Enhancements did not increase the abundance or diversity of bees visiting crops, indicating that the supply of pollination services was unchanged following enhancement. We find that actions to promote crop pollination improve multiple dimensions of biodiversity, underscoring their conservation value, but these benefits may not be spilling over to crops. More work is needed to identify the conditions that promote effective co-management of biodiversity and ecosystem services.
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Affiliation(s)
- Charlie C Nicholson
- Gund Institute for Environment, University of Vermont, Burlington, 05405, VT, USA.,Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, University of Vermont, Burlington, 05405, VT, USA.,Department of Entomology and Nematology, University of California, Davis, 95616, CA, USA
| | - Kimiora L Ward
- Department of Entomology and Nematology, University of California, Davis, 95616, CA, USA.,Institute for Applied Ecology, Santa Fe, 87505, NM, USA
| | - Neal M Williams
- Department of Entomology and Nematology, University of California, Davis, 95616, CA, USA
| | - Rufus Isaacs
- Department of Entomology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, 48824, MI, USA
| | - Keith S Mason
- Department of Entomology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, 48824, MI, USA.,Department of Geography, Environment and Spatial Sciences, Michigan State University, East Lansing, 48824, MI, USA
| | - Julianna K Wilson
- Department of Entomology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, 48824, MI, USA
| | - Julia Brokaw
- Department of Entomology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, 48824, MI, USA.,Department of Entomology, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, 55455, MN, USA
| | - Larry J Gut
- Department of Entomology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, 48824, MI, USA
| | - Nikki L Rothwell
- Northwest Michigan Horticultural Research Center, Traverse City, 49684, MI, USA
| | - Thomas J Wood
- Department of Entomology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, 48824, MI, USA.,Laboratory of Zoology, University of Mons, Mons, 7000, Belgium
| | - Sujaya Rao
- Department of Entomology, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, 55455, MN, USA.,Department of Crop and Soil Science, Oregon State University, Corvallis, 97331, OR, USA
| | - George D Hoffman
- Department of Crop and Soil Science, Oregon State University, Corvallis, 97331, OR, USA
| | - Jason Gibbs
- Department of Entomology, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, R3T 2N2, MB, Canada
| | - Robbin W Thorp
- Department of Entomology and Nematology, University of California, Davis, 95616, CA, USA
| | - Taylor H Ricketts
- Gund Institute for Environment, University of Vermont, Burlington, 05405, VT, USA.,Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, University of Vermont, Burlington, 05405, VT, USA
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McArt SH, Miles TD, Rodriguez-Saona C, Schilder A, Adler LS, Grieshop MJ. Floral Scent Mimicry and Vector-Pathogen Associations in a Pseudoflower-Inducing Plant Pathogen System. PLoS One 2016; 11:e0165761. [PMID: 27851747 PMCID: PMC5113062 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0165761] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/05/2016] [Accepted: 10/17/2016] [Indexed: 01/29/2023] Open
Abstract
Several fungal plant pathogens induce 'pseudoflowers' on their hosts to facilitate insect-mediated transmission of gametes and spores. When spores must be transmitted to host flowers to complete the fungal life cycle, we predict that pseudoflowers should evolve traits that mimic flowers and attract the most effective vectors in the flower-visiting community. We quantified insect visitation to flowers, healthy leaves and leaves infected with Monilinia vaccinii-corymbosi (Mvc), the causative agent of mummy berry disease of blueberry. We developed a nested PCR assay for detecting Mvc spores on bees, flies and other potential insect vectors. We also collected volatiles from blueberry flowers, healthy leaves and leaves infected with Mvc, and experimentally manipulated specific pathogen-induced volatiles to assess attractiveness to potential vectors. Bees and flies accounted for the majority of contacts with flowers, leaves infected with Mvc and healthy leaves. Flowers were contacted most often, while there was no difference between bee or fly contacts with healthy and infected leaves. While bees contacted flowers more often than flies, flies contacted infected leaves more often than bees. Bees were more likely to have Mvc spores on their bodies than flies, suggesting that bees may be more effective vectors than flies for transmitting Mvc spores to flowers. Leaves infected with Mvc had volatile profiles distinct from healthy leaves but similar to flowers. Two volatiles produced by flowers and infected leaves, cinnamyl alcohol and cinnamic aldehyde, were attractive to bees, while no volatiles manipulated were attractive to flies or any other insects. These results suggest that Mvc infection of leaves induces mimicry of floral volatiles, and that transmission occurs primarily via bees, which had the highest likelihood of carrying Mvc spores and visited flowers most frequently.
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Affiliation(s)
- Scott H. McArt
- Department of Entomology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, 14853, United States of America
| | - Timothy D. Miles
- School of Natural Sciences, California State University–Monterey Bay, Seaside, California, 93955, United States of America
| | - Cesar Rodriguez-Saona
- Department of Entomology, Philip E. Marucci Center, Rutgers University, Chatsworth, New Jersey, 08019, United States of America
| | - Annemiek Schilder
- Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, 48824, United States of America
| | - Lynn S. Adler
- Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts, 01003, United States of America
| | - Matthew J. Grieshop
- Department of Entomology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, 48824, United States of America
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Rodriguez-Saona C, Parra L, Quiroz A, Isaacs R. Variation in highbush blueberry floral volatile profiles as a function of pollination status, cultivar, time of day and flower part: implications for flower visitation by bees. ANNALS OF BOTANY 2011; 107:1377-1390. [PMID: 21498566 PMCID: PMC3101143 DOI: 10.1093/aob/mcr077] [Citation(s) in RCA: 44] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/19/2010] [Revised: 01/05/2011] [Accepted: 02/22/2011] [Indexed: 05/29/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND AIMS Studies of the effects of pollination on floral scent and bee visitation remain rare, particularly in agricultural crops. To fill this gap, the hypothesis that bee visitation to flowers decreases after pollination through reduced floral volatile emissions in highbush blueberries, Vaccinium corymbosum, was tested. Other sources of variation in floral emissions and the role of floral volatiles in bee attraction were also examined. METHODS Pollinator visitation to blueberry flowers was manipulated by bagging all flowers within a bush (pollinator excluded) or leaving them unbagged (open pollinated), and then the effect on floral volatile emissions and future bee visitation were measured. Floral volatiles were also measured from different blueberry cultivars, times of the day and flower parts, and a study was conducted to test the attraction of bees to floral volatiles. KEY RESULTS Open-pollinated blueberry flowers had 32 % lower volatile emissions than pollinator-excluded flowers. In particular, cinnamyl alcohol, a major component of the floral blend that is emitted exclusively from petals, was emitted in lower quantities from open-pollinated flowers. Although, no differences in cinnamyl alcohol emissions were detected among three blueberry cultivars or at different times of day, some components of the blueberry floral blend were emitted in higher amounts from certain cultivars and at mid-day. Field observations showed that more bees visited bushes with pollinator-excluded flowers. Also, more honey bees were caught in traps baited with a synthetic blueberry floral blend than in unbaited traps. CONCLUSIONS Greater volatile emissions may help guide bees to unpollinated flowers, and thus increase plant fitness and bee energetic return when foraging in blueberries. Furthermore, the variation in volatile emissions from blueberry flowers depending on pollination status, plant cultivar and time of day suggests an adaptive role of floral signals in increasing pollination of flowers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cesar Rodriguez-Saona
- Department of Entomology, P.E. Marucci Center for Blueberry & Cranberry Research & Extension, Rutgers University, Chatsworth, NJ 08019, USA.
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