Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Ellis, Emilie E.
• Edmondson, Jill L.
• Maher, Kathryn H.
• Hipperson, Helen
• Campbell, Stuart A.

Titel

Negative effects of urbanisation on diurnal and nocturnal pollen‐transport networks

Ist Teil von

• Ecology letters, 2023-08, Vol.26 (8), p.1382-1393

Ort / Verlag

England: Blackwell Publishing Ltd

Erscheinungsjahr

2023

Quelle

Wiley-Blackwell Journals

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Pollinating insects are declining due to habitat loss and climate change, and cities with limited habitat and floral resources may be particularly vulnerable. The effects of urban landscapes on pollination networks remain poorly understood, and comparative studies of taxa with divergent niches are lacking. Here, for the first time, we simultaneously compare nocturnal moth and diurnal bee pollen‐transport networks using DNA metabarcoding and ask how pollination networks are affected by increasing urbanisation. Bees and moths exhibited substantial divergence in the communities of plants they interact with. Increasing urbanisation had comparable negative effects on pollen‐transport networks of both taxa, with significant declines in pollen species richness. We show that moths are an important, but overlooked, component of urban pollen‐transport networks for wild flowering plants, horticultural crops, and trees. Our findings highlight the need to include both bee and non‐bee taxa when assessing the status of critical plant‐insect interactions in urbanised landscapes. Comparative study of diurnal bee and nocturnal moth pollination networks reveals that both are negatively affected by urbanisation, driven by significant declines in pollen species richness. Nocturnal moths are crucial and frequently overlooked components of urban pollen‐transport networks, accounting for up to one‐third of the interactions. This study underscores the importance of including both bee and non‐bee taxa in assessing critical plant‐insect interactions in increasingly urbanised landscapes.