[Pollinator] new paper

[David Inouye]

Congratulations to Silvana, her students, and other NAPPC members for 
this new paper:

Martén-Rodríguez, S., E. J. Cristobal-Pérez, M. H. de 
Santiago-Hernández, G. Huerta-Ramos, L. Clemente-Martínez, G. Krupnick, 
O. Taylor, M. Lopezaraiza-Mikel, F. J. Balvino-Olvera, E. M. 
Sentíes-Aguilar, S. Díaz-Infante, A. Aguirre Jaimes, S. Novais, J. 
Cortés-Flores, J. Lobo-Segura, E. J. Fuchs, O. Delgado-Carrillo, I. 
Ruiz-Mercado, R. Sáyago-Lorenzana, K. Pérez-Arroyo and M. Quesada 
(2025). "Untangling the Complexity of Climate Change Effects on Plant 
Reproductive Traits and Pollinators: A Systematic Global Synthesis." 
Global Change Biology 31(2): e70081.

     Climate change is expected to affect the morphological, 
physiological, and life-history traits of plants and animal pollinators 
due to more frequent extreme heat and other altered weather patterns. 
This systematic literature review evaluates the effects of climate 
change on plant and pollinator traits on a global scale to determine how 
species responses vary among Earth's ecosystems, climate variables, 
taxonomic groups, and organismal traits. We compiled studies conducted 
under natural or experimental conditions (excluding agricultural 
species) and analyzed species response patterns for each trait (advance 
vs. delay or no change for phenology, decrease vs. increase or no change 
for other traits). Climate change has advanced plant and animal 
phenologies across most Earth's biomes, but evidence for temporal 
plant–pollinator mismatches remains limited. Flower production and plant 
reproductive success showed diverse responses to warming and low water 
availability in Alpine and Temperate ecosystems, and a trend for 
increased or neutral responses in Arctic and Tropical biomes. Nectar 
rewards mainly experienced negative effects under warming and drought 
across Alpine and Temperate biomes, but scent emissions increased or 
changed in composition. Life form (woody vs. nonwoody species) did not 
significantly influence trait response patterns to climate change. 
Pollinator fecundity, size, life-history, developmental, and 
physiological traits mostly declined with warming across biomes; 
however, animal abundance and resource acquisition traits showed diverse 
responses. This review identified critical knowledge gaps that limit our 
understanding of the impacts of climate change, particularly in 
tropical/subtropical biomes and southern latitudes. It also highlights 
the urgent need to sample across a greater range of plant families and 
pollinator taxa (e.g., beetles, wasps, vertebrates). The diversity of 
climate change effects should be assessed in the context of other 
anthropogenic drivers of global change that threaten critically 
important pollination interactions.


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

Principal Investigator
Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory