Plant–pollinator networks in semi‐natural grasslands are resistant to the loss of pollinators during blooming of mass‐flowering crops |
| |
Authors: | Ainhoa Magrach Andrea Holzschuh Ignasi Bartomeus Verena Riedinger Stuart P M Roberts Maj Rundlöf Ante Vujić Jennifer B Wickens Victoria J Wickens Riccardo Bommarco Juan P González‐Varo Simon G Potts Henrik G Smith Ingolf Steffan‐Dewenter Montserrat Vilà |
| |
Institution: | 1. http://orcid.org/0000‐0003‐2155‐7556">2. http://orcid.org/0000‐0003‐2155‐7556;3. Estación Biológica de Do?ana (EBD‐CSIC), Isla de la Cartuja, Sevilla, Spain;4. Dept of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology, Biocenter, Univ. of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany;5. Centre for Agri‐Environmental Research, School of Agriculture, Policy and Development, Univ. of Reading, Reading, UK;6. Dept of Biology, Lund Univ., Lund, Sweden;7. Dept of Biology and Ecology, Faculty of Sciences, Univ. of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia;8. Swedish Univ. of Agricultural Sciences, Dept of Ecology, Uppsala, Sweden;9. Conservation Science Group, Dept of Zoology, Univ. of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK;10. Centre for Environmental and Climate Research, Lund Univ., Lund, Sweden |
| |
Abstract: | Mass‐flowering crops lead to spatial redistributions of pollinators and to transient shortages within nearby semi‐natural grasslands, but the impacts on plant–pollinator interactions remain largely unexplored. Here, we characterised which pollinator species are attracted by oilseed rape and how this affected the structure of plant–pollinator networks in nearby grasslands. We surveyed 177 networks from three countries (Germany, Sweden and United Kingdom) in 24 landscapes with high crop cover, and compared them to 24 landscapes with low or no oilseed rape during and after crop blooming. On average 55% of grassland pollinator species were found on the crop, which attracted 8–35% of individuals away from grasslands. However, networks in the grasslands were resistant to these reductions, since mainly abundant and highly mobile species were attracted. Nonetheless, simulations indicated that network structural changes could be triggered if > 50% of individuals were attracted to the crop (a value well‐above that found in our study system), which could affect community stability and resilience to further disturbance. |
| |
Keywords: | |
|
|