[Pollinator] About 94 per cent of wild bee and native plant species networks lost

[David Inouye]

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/07/200716144740.htm

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).
     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.


-- 
Dr. David W. Inouye
Professor Emeritus
Department of Biology
University of Maryland

Principal Investigator
Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory

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