Search

Shiitake mushroom (Lentinula edodes) is one of the most commonly consumed mushrooms and an important forest product in Japan. In outdoor log cultivation of shiitake, colonization of logs by wild fu...

We investigated the ecological traits of emerging adults and the boring density in

Response diversity to environmental change among species is important for the maintenance of ecosystem services, but response diversity to changes in multiple environmental parameters is largely unexplored. Here, we examined how insect visitations to buckwheat flowers differ among species groups in response to changes in multiple weather variables and landscape structures.We found differences in responses to changes in weather conditions among insect taxonomic groups visiting buckwheat flowers. Specifically, beetles, butterflies, and wasps were more active in sunny and/or high-temperature conditions, whereas ants and flies showed the opposite pattern. Furthermore, responses to weather conditions differed between large and small insects, which agreed with the expectation that optimal temperature for insect activity has a positive association with body size. Response diversity per se was also diverse. For instance, large insects were responsive to temperatures more than small insects while smaller insects were responsive to sunshine duration more than large insects. Responses to spatial variables also differed; large insects were more abundant in fields with surrounding forests and mosaic habitats, whereas small insects were not. We suggest that the “diversity” in “response diversity,” which is a higher-order response diversity, should be a focus of future studies of the biodiversity–ecosystem service relationships.

Recent advances in DNA analysis allow us to identify an unprecedented number of insect samples collected by mass sampling techniques such as insect traps. In these circumstances, a preservative that can be applied from trap to storage is necessary to prevent degradation of DNA before analysis and save on the cost of labor for collecting insects from traps. Propylene glycol has a prominent feature as a trap solution. We aimed to examine the DNA preservability of 98% propylene glycol at 2 weeks and more than 6 months after initial collection in comparison with 99.5% ethanol, which is commonly used for storage of specimens for genetic analysis. We compared amplification performance of PCR targeting a specific region of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene in the orders Hymenoptera, Diptera, and Coleoptera using two extraction methods varying in extraction efficiency. Even after 6 months, more than 75% of samples were recognized to have succeeded in PCR amplification irrespective of preservatives by the extraction method with higher extraction efficiency. It suggested that mitochondrial DNA was preserved in both solutions. However, dim bands in the electrophoreses of PCR products increased with time in extracts by another method with lower extraction efficiency. In Diptera and Coleoptera, the rate of dim bands increased more rapidly for ethanol‐preserved than for propylene glycol‐preserved specimens, indicating higher DNA preservability of propylene glycol over time for these taxa. On the other hand, in Hymenoptera, the preservatives did not affect PCR amplification performance. Considering its safer characteristics and high DNA preservability in a wide range of taxa, propylene glycol can be a promising solution from trapping of insects to storage for genetic analysis.

2017-2018 Belmont Forum and BiodivERsA joint call for research proposals, under the BiodivScen ERA-Net COFUND programme, and with the funding organisations AEI, NWO, ECCyT and NSF Funding information, Allen-Perkins A, Magrach A, Dainese M, Garibaldi LA, Kleijn D, Rader R, Reilly JR, Winfree R, Lundin O, McGrady CM, Brittain C, Biddinger DJ, Artz DR, Elle E, Hoffman G, Ellis JD, Daniels J, Gibbs J, Campbell JW, Brokaw J, Wilson JK, Mason K, Ward KL, Gundersen KB, Bobiwash K, Gut L, Rowe LM, Boyle NK, Williams NM, Joshi NK, Rothwell N, Gillespie RL, Isaacs R, Fleischer SJ, Peterson SS, Rao S, Pitts-Singer TL, Fijen T, Boreux V, Rundlöf M, Viana BF, Klein AM, Smith HG, Bommarco R, Carvalheiro LG, Ricketts TH, Ghazoul J, Krishnan S, Benjamin FE, Loureiro J, Castro S, Raine NE, de Groot GA, Horgan FG, Hipólito J, Smagghe G, Meeus I, Eeraerts M, Potts SG, Kremen C, García D, Miñarro M, Crowder DW, Pisanty G, Mandelik Y, Vereecken NJ, Leclercq N, Weekers T, Lindstrom SAM, Stanley DA, Zaragoza-Trello C, Nicholson CC, Scheper J, Rad C, Marks EAN, Mota L, Danforth B, Park M, Bezerra ADM, Freitas BM, Mallinger RE, Oliveira da Silva F, Willcox B, Ramos DL, D da Silva E Silva F, Lázaro A, Alomar D, González-Estévez MA, Taki H, Cariveau DP, Garratt MPD, Nabaes Jodar DN, Stewart RIA, Ariza D, Pisman M, Lichtenberg EM, Schüepp C, Herzog F, Entling MH, Dupont YL, Michener CD, Daily GC, Ehrlich PR, Burns KLW, Vilà M, Robson A, Howlett B, Blechschmidt L, Jauker F, Schwarzbach F, Nesper M, Diekötter T, Wolters V, Castro H, Gaspar H, Nault BA, Badenhausser I, Petersen JD, Tscharntke T, Bretagnolle V, Willis Chan DS, Chacoff N, Andersson GKS, Jha S, Colville JF, Veldtman R, Coutinho J, Bianchi FJJA, Sutter L, Albrecht M, Jeanneret P, Zou Y, Averill AL, Saez A, Sciligo AR, Vergara CH, Bloom EH, Oeller E, Badano EI, Loeb GM, Grab H, Ekroos J, Gagic V, Cunningham SA, Åström J, Cavigliasso P, Trillo A, Classen A, Mauchline AL, Montero-Castaño A, Wilby A, Woodcock BA, Sidhu CS, Steffan-Dewenter I, Vogiatzakis IN, Herrera JM, Otieno M, Gikungu MW, Cusser SJ, Nauss T, Nilsson L, Knapp J, Ortega-Marcos JJ, González JA, Osborne JL, Blanche R, Shaw RF, Hevia V, Stout J, Arthur AD, Blochtein B, Szentgyorgyi H, Li J, Mayfield MM, Woyciechowski M, Nunes-Silva P, Halinski de Oliveira R, Henry S, Simmons BI, Dalsgaard B, Hansen K, Sritongchuay T, O'Reilly AD, Chamorro García FJ, Nates Parra G, Magalhães Pigozo C, Bartomeus I

Animal pollination is a vital ecosystem service, and wild bees are essential providers of this service for both crops and wild flowering plants. The early successional stage of a plantation, which can be dominated by grasses and herbaceous plant species, can provide a habitat for various species of wild bees. We sampled bees from 13 early successional plantation patches of different sizes, ranging from 1.3 to 10 ha. We then applied a hierarchical community model to infer species richness/abundance–area relationships. The results showed that estimates of population densities of individual species were unchanged with respect to area, suggesting that smaller patches can have the same value per area as larger patches. Estimated species richness increased rapidly for the small range of patch sizes examined. Total abundance was found to linearly increase with area. The inclusion of random site effects into the model resulted in significant density variations among patches; therefore, patch area was not the only determining factor of species abundance. These outcomes in relation to management operations for forests and plantations suggest that small patches of early successional forest contribute to conserve and restore wild bee diversity.

This article investigates the shadow value of resilience in complex natural lands acting as wild pollinator habitats. We capture the linkage between pollination services in crop production and habitat conditions in the surrounding natural land with a bioeconomic model. Our case study is buckwheat, which is produced in the hilly and mountainous region of central Japan and is greatly dependent on diverse fauna for pollination services. We model the mechanism of regime shifts in ecosystems consisting of buckwheat fields and the surrounding natural land with a threshold estimation model. We then find that the forest around the crop fields, which serves as a habitat for wild pollinators, is a determinant of an ecological threshold that causes regime shifts. We calculate the shadow value of resilience provided by forest habitat around a unit of buckwheat field to be $9,796, implying that the total value of resilience in complex natural land amounts to half of the stock price of buckwheat land. This overlooked value gives us useful insights on the sustainable use of ecosystems, including both pollinator‐mediated crop fields and habitats for pollinators.

Models and data used to describe species–area relationships confound sampling with ecological process as they fail to acknowledge that estimates of species richness arise due to sampling. This compromises our ability to make ecological inferences from and about species–area relationships. We develop and illustrate hierarchical community models of abundance and frequency to estimate species richness. The models we propose separate sampling from ecological processes by explicitly accounting for the fact that sampled patches are seldom completely covered by sampling plots and that individuals present in the sampling plots are imperfectly detected. We propose a multispecies abundance model in which community assembly is treated as the summation of an ensemble of species‐level Poisson processes and estimate patch‐level species richness as a derived parameter. We use sampling process models appropriate for specific survey methods. We propose a multispecies frequency model that treats the number of plots in which a species occurs as a binomial process. We illustrate these models using data collected in surveys of early‐successional bird species and plants in young forest plantation patches. Results indicate that only mature forest plant species deviated from the constant density hypothesis, but the null model suggested that the deviations were too small to alter the form of species–area relationships. Nevertheless, results from simulations clearly show that the aggregate pattern of individual species density–area relationships and occurrence probability–area relationships can alter the form of species–area relationships. The plant community model estimated that only half of the species present in the regional species pool were encountered during the survey. The modeling framework we propose explicitly accounts for sampling processes so that ecological processes can be examined free of sampling artefacts. Our modeling approach is extensible and could be applied to a variety of study designs and allows the inclusion of additional environmental covariates.

The idea that noncrop habitat enhances pest control and represents a win–win opportunity to conserve biodiversity and bolster yields has emerged as an agroecological paradigm. However, while noncrop habitat in landscapes surrounding farms sometimes benefits pest predators, natural enemy responses remain heterogeneous across studies and effects on pests are inconclusive. The observed heterogeneity in species responses to noncrop habitat may be biological in origin or could result from variation in how habitat and biocontrol are measured. Here, we use a pest-control database encompassing 132 studies and 6,759 sites worldwide to model natural enemy and pest abundances, predation rates, and crop damage as a function of landscape composition. Our results showed that although landscape composition explained significant variation within studies, pest and enemy abundances, predation rates, crop damage, and yields each exhibited different responses across studies, sometimes increasing and sometimes decreasing in landscapes with more noncrop habitat but overall showing no consistent trend. Thus, models that used landscape-composition variables to predict pest-control dynamics demonstrated little potential to explain variation across studies, though prediction did improve when comparing studies with similar crop and landscape features. Overall, our work shows that surrounding noncrop habitat does not consistently improve pest management, meaning habitat conservation may bolster production in some systems and depress yields in others. Future efforts to develop tools that inform farmers when habitat conservation truly represents a win–win would benefit from increased understanding of how landscape effects are modulated by local farm management and the biology of pests and their enemies., This work was supported through the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC) National Science Foundation Award DBI-1052875 for the project “Evidence and Decision-Support Tools for Controlling Agricultural Pests with Conservation Interventions” organized by D.S.K. and R.C.-K

The nematode family Aphelenchoididae is a highly divergent group that contains plant parasites, predators, fungal feeders, and insect parasites. It is taxonomically separated into 7 subfamilies. Although molecular phylogenetic relationships among 6 of the subfamilies have been clarified, the phylogenetic position of the subfamily Entaphelenchinae, which is composed of endoparasites of insects, remains unclear. Here, a new entaphelenchid species, Peraphelenchus orientalis n. sp., was isolated from the body cavities of burying beetles, Nicrophorus quadripunctatus, with a 14% prevalence (5 out of 36). The phylogenetic position of the subfamily within the family Aphelenchoididae was determined using morphological and molecular data for the new species. The rRNA sequences suggested that the new species belongs to Clade 3 of Aphelenchoididae, which mostly consists of predators and insect parasites. Although molecular sequences from other entaphelenchid species were not available, the subfamily appears to be monophyletic. The new species is characterized by the absence of a functional rectum and anus and by the presence of 3 pairs of male genital papillae, a loosely coiled male body, and a W-shaped male spicule. Compared with the original description of Peraphelenchus necrophori, P. orientalis n. sp. has significant typological differences, possibly because of misinterpretations during the original description of P. necrophori. Excluding these questionable characters, i.e., presence-absence of functional rectum and anus and number of male genital papillae, the new species is distinguished from P. necrophori by minor morphological characters and morphometric values.

International audience; Forests are critical habitats for biodiversity and they are also essential for the provision of a wide range of ecosystem services that are important to human well-being. There is increasing evidence that biodiversity contributes to forest ecosystem functioning and the provision of ecosystem services. Here we provide a review of forest ecosystem services including biomass production, habitat provisioning services, pollination, seed dispersal, resistance to wind storms, fire regulation and mitigation, pest regulation of native and invading insects, carbon sequestration, and cultural ecosystem services, in relation to forest type, structure and diversity. We also consider relationships between forest biodiversity and multifunctionality, and trade-offs among ecosystem services. We compare the concepts of ecosystem processes, functions and services to clarify their definitions. Our review of published studies indicates a lack of empirical studies that establish quantitative and causal relationships between forest biodiversity and many important ecosystem services. The literature is highly skewed; studies on provisioning of nutrition and energy, and on cultural services, delivered by mixed-species forests are under-represented. Planted forests offer ample opportunity for optimising their composition and diversity because replanting after harvesting is a recurring process. Planting mixed-species forests should be given more consideration as they are likely to provide a wider range of ecosystem services within the forest and for adjacent land uses. This review also serves as the introduction to this special issue of Biodiversity and Conservation on various aspects of forest biodiversity and ecosystem services.

Ten pollinator policies1. Raise pesticide regulatory standards.2. Promote integrated pest management (IPM).3. Include indirect and sublethal ef ects inGM crop risk assessments.4. Regulate movement of managed pollinators.5. Develop incentives, such as insurance schemes,to help farmers benef t from ecosystemservices instead of agrochemicals.6. Recognize pollination as an agricultural inputin extension services.7. Support diversif ed farming systems.8. Conserve and restore ?green infrastructure?(a network of habitats that pollinators can movebetween) in agricultural and urban landscapes.9. Develop long-term monitoring of pollinatorsand pollination.10. Fund participatory research on improvingyields in organic, diversif ed, and ecologicallyintensif ed farming. Fil: Dicks, Lynn V.. University of East Anglia; Reino Unido Fil: Viana, Blandina. Universidade Federal da Bahia; Brasil Fil: Bommarco, Riccardo. Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences; Suecia Fil: Brosi, Berry. Emory University; Estados Unidos Fil: del Coro Arizmendi, María. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; México Fil: Cunningham, Saul A.. The Australian National University; Australia Fil: Galetto, Leonardo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba; Argentina Fil: Hill, Rosemary. James Cook University. Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation Land and Water; Australia Fil: Lopez, Ariadna V.. Universidade Federal de Pernambuco; Brasil Fil: Pires, Carmen. Embrapa Recursos Genéticos e Biotecnologia; Brasil Fil: Taki, Hisatomo. Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute; Japón Fil: Potts, Simon G.. University of Reading; Reino Unido

The effects of lures containing aphid sex pheromone components (4aS,7S,7aR)-nepetalactone and (1R,4aS,7S,7aR)-nepetalactol on abundance of pea aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum Harris, aphid parasitoids, predators and hyperparasitoids in alfalfa fields were investigated over three years. Although aphid abundance was variable among years, pheromone lure treatment significantly decreased aphid abundance. Among natural enemies of the aphids, only parasitism by the aphid parasitoids Aphidius ervi Haliday and Praon barbatum Mackauer was affected by pheromone lure treatment, with parasitism rates being significantly increased. In contrast, no pheromone lure effects on abundance were detected for predacious species and hyperparasitoids. These results indicate that slow-release formulations of synthetic aphid sex pheromone can attract primary aphid parasitoids and enhance their ability to suppress aphid abundance in the field, and that negative effects on biological control by hyperparasitoids and intraguild predation are not promoted by pheromone lure treatment.

Crop pollination is an essential ecosystem service, which, when provided by wild pollinator species, can be negatively affected by human activities at a landscape scale. Various pollinator species can be affected by landscape factors and/or act at different spatial scales. We investigated whether different landscape factors at different spatial scales are correlated with pollinator abundances and pollination success. We examined common buckwheat, which is a self-incompatible crop species, pollinated by managed honeybees, native honeybees, and wild non-honeybee insects. To determine the effects of landscape factors at different spatial scales, we sampled flower-visiting insects and recorded seed sets. Results from the sampled flower visitors indicated that the abundances of managed honeybees, native honeybees, and wild non-honeybee insects were significantly related to the distance of managed hives, the area of forest cover within a 3-km radius, and the area of forest and grassland cover within a 100-m radius, respectively. Additionally, the latter two influential factors of the landscape, but not the distance of managed hives, showed significant positive correlations with the seed set. These results suggest that considering landscape factors at different spatial scales associated with the characteristics of managed and wild pollinators would help to ensure crop yields.

Many indicators/indices provide information on whether the 2010 biodiversity target of reducing declines in biodiversity have been achieved. The strengths and limitations of the various measures used to assess the success of such measures are now being discussed. Biodiversity dynamics are often evaluated by a single biological population metric, such as the abundance of each species. Here we examined tree population dynamics of 52 families (192 species) at 11 research sites (three vegetation zones) of Japanese old-growth forests using two population metrics: number of stems and basal area. We calculated indices that track the rate of change in all species of tree by taking the geometric mean of changes in population metrics between the 1990s and the 2000s at the national level and at the levels of the vegetation zone and family. We specifically focused on whether indices based on these two metrics behaved similarly. The indices showed that (1) the number of stems declined, whereas basal area did not change at the national level and (2) the degree of change in the indices varied by vegetation zone and family. These results suggest that Japanese old-growth forests have not degraded and may even be developing in some vegetation zones, and indicate that the use of a single population metric (or indicator/index) may be insufficient to precisely understand the state of biodiversity. It is therefore important to incorporate more metrics into monitoring schemes to overcome the risk of misunderstanding or misrepresenting biodiversity dynamics.

To evaluate the role that a trap-nest cover might have on sampling methodologies, the abundance of each species of trap-nesting Hymenoptera and the parasitism rate in a Canadian forest were compared between artificially covered and uncovered traps. Of trap tubes exposed at eight forest sites in six trap-nest boxes, 531 trap tubes were occupied and 1216 individuals of 12 wasp species of four predatory families, Vespidae (Eumeninae), Crabronidae, Sphecidae and Pompilidae emerged over 2 years, and no bee species were found. Results indicated that artificial covering led to a significant increase in the number of nested tubes of Ancistrocerus adiabatus, Ancistrocerus antilope, Ancistrocerus campestris and Auplopus mellipes, and significant effects of covering were not found for the other species. No significant difference in the overall parasitism rate between covered and uncovered traps was noted. These suggested that the covering technique could provide more opportunities for some wasp species to colonize trap nests.

Wild andmanaged bees arewell documented as effective pollinators of global crops of economic importance. However, the contributions by pollinators other than bees have been little explored despite their potential to contribute to crop production and stability in the face of environmental change. Non-bee pollinators include flies, beetles, moths, butterflies, wasps, ants, birds, and bats, among others. Here we focus on non-bee insects and synthesize 39 field studies from five continents that directly measured the crop pollination services provided by non-bees, honey bees, and other bees to compare the relative contributions of these taxa. Non-bees performed 25-50% of the total number of flower visits. Although non-bees were less effective pollinators than bees per flower visit, they made more visits; thus these two factors compensated for each other, resulting in pollination services rendered by non-bees that were similar to those provided by bees. In the subset of studies that measured fruit set, fruit set increased with non-bee insect visits independently of bee visitation rates, indicating that non-bee insects provide a unique benefit that is not provided by bees. We also show that non-bee insects are not as reliant as bees on the presence of remnant natural or seminatural habitat in the surrounding landscape. These results strongly suggest that non-bee insect pollinators play a significant role in global crop production and respond differently than bees to landscape structure, probably making their crop pollination services more robust to changes in land use. Non-bee insects provide a valuable service and provide potential insurance against bee population declines.

We investigated changes in the communities of trap-nesting Hymenoptera in forests in relation to forest loss on a landscape scale and understory conditions on a local habitat scale. Two specific questions were addressed. (1) Do the communities change with degrees of forest loss? (2) Do the communities change with varying local environmental conditions of understory habitats? The study was made in a landscape characterized by distributed forest patches within intensively managed agricultural surroundings. We deployed trap-nests at eight randomly selected sites in forests in summer. To quantify forest loss, the amount of forest coverage was calculated using GIS. To indicate local habitat conditions, the species richness of understory flowering plants was used. All together, 12 species of wasps and no bees were captured. Regression analyses showed that both abundance and species richness of the wasps were not significantly related to forest coverage. However, abundance of trap-nesting wasps was significantly related to species richness of understory plants, but species richness of the wasps was not significantly related to the plants. These results suggest that communities of trap-nesting wasps in forests are influenced more by the local habitat conditions than by forest loss.

Since fallen trees are a key factor in biodiversity and biogeochemical cycling, information about their spatial distribution is of use in determining species distribution and nutrient and carbon cycling in forest ecosystems. Ground-based surveys are both time consuming and labour intensive. Remote-sensing technology can reduce these costs. Here, we used high-spatial-resolution aerial photographs (0.5–1.0 cm per pixel) taken from an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to survey fallen trees in a deciduous broadleaved forest in eastern Japan. In nine sub-plots we found a total of 44 fallen trees by ground survey. From the aerial photographs, we identified 80% to 90% of fallen trees that were >30 cm in diameter or >10 m in length, but missed many that were narrower or shorter. This failure may be due to the similarity of fallen trees to trunks and branches of standing trees or masking by standing trees. Views of the same point from different angles may improve the detection rate because they would provide more opportunity to detect fallen trees hidden by standing trees. Our results suggest that UAV surveys will make it possible to monitor the spatial and temporal variations in forest structure and function at lower cost.

International audience; Planted forests are increasingly contributing wood products and other ecosystem services at a global scale. These forests will be even more important as carbon markets develop and REDD-plus forest programs (forests used specifically to reduce atmospheric emissions of CO2 through deforestation and forest degradation) become common. Restoring degraded and deforested areas with long-rotation planted forests can be accomplished in a manner that enhances carbon storage and other key ecosystem services. Knowledge from natural systems and understanding the functioning novel of ecosystems can be instructive for planning and restoring future forests. Here we summarize information pertaining to the mechanisms by which biodiversity functions to provide ecosystem services including: production, pest control, pollination, resilience, nutrient cycling, seed dispersal, and water quality and quantity and suggest options to improve planted forest management, especially for REDD-plus.

Bees provide essential pollination services that are potentially affected both by local farm management and the surrounding landscape. To better understand these different factors, we modelled the relative effects of landscape composition (nesting and floral resources within foraging distances), landscape configuration (patch shape, interpatch connectivity and habitat aggregation) and farm management (organic vs. conventional and local-scale field diversity), and their interactions, on wild bee abundance and richness for 39 crop systems globally. Bee abundance and richness were higher in diversified and organic fields and in landscapes comprising more high-quality habitats; bee richness on conventional fields with low diversity benefited most from high-quality surrounding land cover. Landscape configuration effects were weak. Bee responses varied slightly by biome. Our synthesis reveals that pollinator persistence will depend on both the maintenance of high-quality habitats around farms and on local management practices that may offset impacts of intensive monoculture agriculture. Bees provide essential pollination services that are potentially affected both by local farm management and the surrounding landscape. To better understand these different factors, we modelled the relative effects of landscape composition (nesting and floral resources within foraging distances), landscape configuration (patch shape, interpatch connectivity and habitat aggregation) and farm management (organic vs. conventional and local-scale field diversity), and their interactions, on wild bee abundance and richness for 39 cropsystems globally. Bee abundance and richness were higher in diversified and organic fields and in landscapes comprising more high-quality habitats; bee richness on conventional fields with low diversity benefited most from high-quality surrounding land cover. Landscape configuration effects were weak. Beeresponses varied slightly by biome. Our synthesis reveals that pollinator persistence will depend on boththe maintenance of high-quality habitats around farms and on local management practices that may offsetimpacts of intensive monoculture agriculture.

Fil: Garibaldi, Lucas Alejandro. Universidad Nacional de Río Negro (Sede Andina) y Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET); Argentina. Fil: Steffan Dewenter, Ingolf. University of Würzburg. Biocentre. Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology; Germany. Fil: Winfree, Rachael. Rutgers University. Evolution and Natural Resources. Department of Ecology; USA. Fil: Aizen, Marcelo A. Universidad Nacional del Comahue. Centro Regional Universitario Bariloche (CRUB). Instituto de Investigaciones en Biodiversidad y Medioambiente (INIBIOMA). Laboratorio Ecotono; Argentina. Fil: Bommarco, Riccardo. Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. Department of Ecology; Sweden. Fil: Cunningham, Saul A. CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences; Australia. Fil: Kremen, Claire. University of California. Environmental Sciences Policy and Management; USA. Fil: Carvalheiro, Luísa G. University of Leeds. School of Biology; UK. Naturalis Biodiversity Center; Netherlands. Fil: Harder, Lawrence D. University of Calgary. Department of Biological Sciences; Canada. Fil: Afik, Ohad. Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment. Department of Entomology; Israel. Fil: Bartomeus, Ignasi. Rutgers University. Department of Entomology, Evolution and Natural Resources; USA. Fil: Benjamin, Faye. Rutgers University. Evolution and Natural Resources. Department of Ecology; USA. Fil: Boreux, Virginie. Leuphana University. Institute of Ecology; Germany. Department of Environmental Systems Science; Switzerland. Fil: Cariveau, Daniel. Rutgers University. Evolution and Natural Resources. Department of Ecology; USA. Fil: Chacoff, Natacha P. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales e IML. Instituto de Ecología Regional; Argentina. Fil: Dudenhöffer, Jan H. Agroscope Reckenholz-Tänikon Research Station ART. Ecological Farming Systems; Switzerland. Fil: Freitas, Breno M. Universidade Federal do Ceará. Departamento de Zootecnia–CCA; Brazil. Fil: Greenleaf, Sarah S. University of California. Environmental Sciences Policy and Management; USA. Fil: Hipólito, Juliana. Universidade Federal da Bahia. Departamento de Zoologia. Instituto de Biologia; Brazil. Fil: Holzschuh, Andrea. University of Würzburg. Biocentre. Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology; Germany. Fil: Howlett, Brad. New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research; New Zealand. Fil: Isaacs, Rufus. Michigan State University. Department of Entomology; USA. Fil: Javorek, Steven K. Atlantic Food and Horticulture Research Centre. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada; Canada. Fil: Kennedy, Christina M. Nature Conservancy. Development by Design Program; USA. Fil: Krewenka, Kristin M. Georg-August-University. Department of Crop Sciences. Agroecology; Germany. Fil: Krishnan, Smitha. ETH Zürich. Department of Environmental Systems Science; Switzerland. Fil: Mandelik, Yael. Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment. Department of Entomology; Israel. Fil: Mayfield, Margaret M. University of Queensland. School of Biological Sciences and Ecology Centre; Australia. Fil: Motzke, Iris. Leuphana University. Ecosystem Functions. Institute of Ecology; Germany. Georg-August-University. Department of Crop Sciences. Agroecology; Germany. Fil: Munyuli, Theodore. National Center for Research in Natural Sciences. Department of Biology; Democratic Republic of Congo. Fil: Nault, Brian A. Cornell University. Department of Entomology. New York State Agricultural Experiment Station; USA. Fil: Otieno, Mark. University of Reading. School of Agriculture, Policy and Development; UK. Fil: Petersen, Jessica. Cornell University. Department of Entomology. New York State Agricultural Experiment Station; USA. Fil: Pisanty, Gideon. Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment. Department of Entomology; Israel. Fil: Potts, Simon G. University of Reading. School of Agriculture, Policy and Development; UK. Fil: Rader, Romina. Stockholm University. Department of Physical Geography and Quaternary Geology; Sweden. Fil: Ricketts, Taylor H. University of Vermont. Gund Institute for Ecological Economics; USA. Fil: Rundlöf, Maj. Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. Department of Ecology; Sweden. Lund University. Department of Biol-ogy; Sweden. Fil: Seymour, Colleen L. South African National Institute of Biodiversity. Applied Biodiversity Research Division; South Africa. Fil: Schüepp, Christof. University of Bern. Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Community Ecology; Switzerland. University of Koblenz-Landau. Ecosystem Analysis; Germany. Fil: Szentgyörgyi, Hajnalka. Jagiellonian University. Institute of Environmental Sciences; Poland. Fil: Taki, Hisatomo. Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute. Department of Forest Entomology; Japan. Fil: Tscharntke, Teja. Georg-August-University. Department of Crop Sciences. Agroecology; Germany. Fil: Vergara, Carlos H. Universidad de las Américas Puebla. Departamento de Ciencias Químico-Biológicas; Mexico. Fil: Viana, Blandina F. Universidade Federal da Bahia. Instituto de Biologia. Departamento de Zoologia; Brazil. Fil: Wanger, Thomas C. Georg-August-University. Department of Crop Sciences. Agroecology; Germany. Fil: Westphal, Catrin. Georg-August-University. Department of Crop Sciences. Agroecology; Germany. Fil: Williams, Neal. University of California. Department of Entomology; USA. Fil: Klein, Alexandra M. Leuphana University. Ecosystem Functions. Institute of Ecology; Germany. The diversity and abundance of wild insect pollinators have declined in many agricultural landscapes. Whether such declines reduce crop yields, or are mitigated by managed pollinators such as honey bees, is unclear. We found universally positive associations of fruit set with flower visitation by wild insects in 41 crop systems worldwide. In contrast, fruit set increased significantly with flower visitation by honey bees in only 14% of the systems surveyed. Overall, wild insects pollinated crops more effectively; an increase in wild insect visitation enhanced fruit set by twice as much as an equivalent increase in honey bee visitation. Visitation by wild insects and honey bees promoted fruit set independently, so pollination by managed honey bees supplemented, rather than substituted for, pollination by wild insects. Our results suggest that new practices for integrated management of both honey bees and diverse wild insect assemblages will enhance global crop yields.

Background The positive relationship between habitat area and species number is considered a fundamental rule in ecology. This relationship predicts that the link number of species interactions increases with habitat area, and structure is related to habitat area. Biological invasions can affect species interactions and area relationships. However, how these relationships change at different spatial scales has remained unexplored. We analysed understory plant–pollinator networks in seven temperate forest sites at 20 spatial scales (radius 120–2020 m) to clarify scale-associated relationships between forest area and plant–pollinator networks. Results The pooled data described interactions between 18 plant (including an exotic) and 89 pollinator (including an exotic) species. The total number of species and the number of interaction links between plant and pollinator species were negatively correlated with forest area, with the highest correlation coefficient at radii of 1520 and 1620 m, respectively. These results are not concordant with the pattern predicted by species–area relationships. However, when associations with exotic species were excluded, the total number of species and the number of interaction links were positively correlated with forest area (the highest correlation coefficient at a radius of 820 m). The network structure, i.e., connectance and nestedness, was also related to forest area (the highest correlation coefficients at radii of 720–820 m), when associations with exotics were excluded. In the study area, the exotic plant species Alliaria petiolata, which has invaded relatively small forest patches surrounded by agricultural fields, may have supported more native pollinator species than initially expected. Therefore, this invasive plant may have altered the original relationships between forest area and plant–pollinator networks. Conclusions Our results demonstrate scale-dependent effects of forest area on the size and structure of plant–pollinator networks. We also suggest that a single exotic plant species can impact plant–pollinator networks, even in temperate continental habitats.

In terrestrial ecosystems, ecological processes and patterns within focal patches frequently depend on their matrix. Crop fields (focal patches) are often surrounded by a mosaic of other land-use types (matrix), which may act as habitats for organisms and differ in terms of the immigration activities of organisms to the fields. We examined whether matrix quality affects wild pollinator abundance in crop fields, given that the species (Apis cerana) generally nest in the cavities of natural trees. We examined fields of a pollination-dependent crop surrounded by plantations and natural forests, which comprised the matrix. Our analysis revealed a clear positive effect of the natural forest on the pollinator abundance, but the plantation forest had little effects. These indicate that agricultural patches are influenced by their matrix quality and the resulting crop pollinator abundance, suggesting the importance of matrix management initiatives such as forest restoration surrounding agricultural fields to improve crop production.

Animal pollination has been recognized as an essential ecosystem function that is potentially under various environmental stresses. We investigated the landscape effects of forest cover at multiple spatial scales on the sexual reproductive success of a common woodland herb in North America, Maianthemum canadense. This species is a self incompatible species and pollinated by insects requiring natural landscapes. Nine populations were selected in deciduous forests within agricultural fields of southern Ontario, Canada. We investigated whether fruiting success decreases as forest cover surrounding the plant populations increases at the landscape scale. Forest cover was quantified by the proportion of forest within six different radii from 250 to 1500 m. Analyses showed relationships with the proportion of forest at 750- and 1000-m radii and fruiting success in populations of M. canadense. These findings suggest potential local extirpation of M. canadense and indicate that forest loss can negatively impact on even some common woodland herbs.

Forest loss has been invoked as a cause for changes in the reproductive success of animal-pollinated woodland plants, associated with changes in their pollinators. To analyze such effects, it is important to include all of the three key players: landscapes, pollinators and a plant. We investigated effects of forest loss on an insect-pollinated plant through landscapes in forested ecosystems to pollinator communities and plant populations. Then we questioned if abundance and species richness in pollinator communities decrease as forest loss increases, and this in turn leads to a decrease in reproductive output of an insect-pollinated plant. We made a study with 12 populations of the bee pollinated herb, Erythronium americanum, in a landscape characterized by scattered fragments of deciduous forest within intensively managed agricultural fields. We also sampled bees as the potential pollinators by pan traps. We quantified the study landscapes using the amount of forest cover and the length of forest edge within each of the six radii (250, 500, 750, 1,000, 1,250 and 1,500 m). Regression analyses showed that the abundance and species richness of all collected bees were positively related to only the forest cover at the radius of 750 m. We also found the positive relationships for the seed set of E. americanum when the forest cover at the same radius and abundance of all collected bees were used as the predictor variables. These results indicate that forest loss causes negative impacts on potential pollinator communities and seed sets of some woodland herbs.

Habitat loss is a major threat to biodiversity and ecosystem function. As habitats are lost, one factor affecting their community structures is the niche-width demand of species, which ranges from specialist to generalist. This study focused on specialist and generalist species in plant-pollinator interactions and tested the hypothesis that plant and pollinator communities become more generalized as habitat loss increases. The study was made in seven selected sites in southern Ontario, Canada, at the level of landscape that is characterized by distributed forests within intensively managed agricultural fields. We quantified both the degree of habitat loss and the degree of specialization/generalization for each of the plant and insect communities using a sampling method of hexagonal transects. Regression analysis indicated a significant relationship between the increase of habitat loss and the shift to generalization in insect, but not in plant, communities. Our results suggest that, in plant-pollinator interactions, insect communities are more sensitive and/or quicker than plant communities to respond to the effects of habitat loss.

Pollination is a broad area of study within biology. For many plants, pollen carried by wind is required for successful seed set. Airborne pollen also affects human health. To foster studies of airborne pollen, we introduce a simple device — the ‘megastigma’ — for collecting pollen from the air. This device is flexible, yielding easily obtained data that can be readily analysed. Thus, it is ideally suited for use in upper level biology courses. Using maize, Zea mays, as our sample study species, we obtained a graph showing daily amounts of pollen in the air. The megastigma can be applied to a wide range of plant species, from herbs to trees, be deployed in a wide variety of ways, and so have potential for many palynological applications.

Animal pollination has been recognized as an essential ecosystem function that is potentially under various environmental stresses. We investigated the landscape effects of forest cover at multiple spatial scales on the sexual reproductive success of a common woodland herb in North America, Maianthemum canadense. This species is a self-incompatible species and pollinated by insects requiring natural landscapes. Nine populations were selected in deciduous forests within agricultural fields of southern Ontario, Canada. We investigated whether fruiting success decreases as forest cover surrounding the plant populations increases at the landscape scale. Forest cover was quantified by the proportion of forest within six different radii from 250 to 1500 m. Analyses showed relationships with the proportion of forest at 750- and 1000-m radii and fruiting success in populations of M. canadense. These findings suggest potential local extirpation of M. canadense and indicate that forest loss can negatively impact on even some common woodland herbs.

Landscape disturbances can affect reproductive performance of animal-pollinated trees. We verified the effects of the loss and fragmentation of natural forests caused by the creation of coniferous plantations on fruit and seed production as well as mating patterns of animal-pollinated trees. We investigated 146 and 134 individual flowering trees of Prunus verecunda (Koidz.) Koehne in 2012 and 2013, respectively, at 12 sites. These sites were at least 1.2 km apart from each other in an 8 × 15-km forestry region, and the composition and configuration of natural forests varied in the study area. The mean outcrossing rate was >0.99 across the sites. Among trees within the sites, the number of fruits per inflorescence was positively correlated with the basal stem area and leaf chlorophyll density of the trees. Among the sites, the mean number of fruits per inflorescence was positively correlated with the site elevation, and the correlated paternity was positively correlated with the mean distance between trees. The sound-seed rate was positively correlated with the natural-forest area among the sites. These results suggest that environments and resources of trees influence their fruit production, that a loss of natural forests increases in embryo mortality, and that a reduction in tree density decreases pollen donor diversity in P. verecunda. Thus, a landscape disturbance may decrease seed production, whereas outbreeding is maintained, and fruit production is not likely to be dependent on the landscape disturbance in this species.