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<div class="moz-text-flowed" style="font-family: -moz-fixed;
font-size: 14px;" lang="x-unicode"><a
class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/07/200716144740.htm">https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/07/200716144740.htm</a>
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Mathiasson, M. E. and S. M. Rehan "Wild bee declines linked to
plant-pollinator network changes and plant species introductions."
2020. Insect Conservation and Diversity n/a(n/a).
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The mutualistic interactions of plant-pollinator networks
provide myriad economic, ecological, and cultural constituents
without which there would be severe environmental and societal
consequences. Plant-pollinator networks are becoming increasingly
vulnerable to disturbance through intensifying anthropogenic land
use and climate change. Wild bees are central to pollination and
documenting unique regional interactions between wild bees and
floral hosts provides powerful insights into local ecology and
biodiversity in addition to the potential to detect temporal
network variation. This study characterises the changes in a
northern New England wild bee plant-pollinator network over the
past 125 years and reveals a striking increase in exotic bee and
plant taxa over time. Here we document that declining wild bee
species have historic ties to threatened and endangered plant
species. These data provide a rare insight into the fragile nature
of plant-pollinator networks. Notable specialist interactions
between native taxa that were recorded in historical networks have
been lost, most likely due to local extirpation of these now
threatened and endangered plant species. Subsequent monitoring and
conservation efforts focused on habitat restoration for declining
wild bee and plant taxa are fundamental to the future preservation
of regional native diversity.
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<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Dr. David W. Inouye
Professor Emeritus
Department of Biology
University of Maryland
Principal Investigator
Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory</pre>
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