scholarly journals Invasive plants as novel food resources, the pollinators' perspective

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ignasi Bartomeus ◽  
Jochen Fründ ◽  
Neal M. Williams
Keyword(s):  
Behavioral Flexibility ◽  
Plant Invasions ◽  
Interaction Networks ◽  
Exotic Plant ◽  
Native Plant ◽  
Exotic Plant Species ◽  
Plant Invaders ◽  
Pollinator Community ◽  
Species Specific ◽  
Plant Pollinator

Entomophilous exotic plant species not only compete directly for space and light with other plants, but also offer resource opportunities for the native pollinator community. Most research on this topic to date has taken the plant perspective, focusing on how successful plant invaders integrate into the native plant-pollinator interaction networks. However, species specific responses of pollinators to the addition of exotic plants are rarely taken into account. We show here that while some bumble bees and other trophic generalist bees can benefit from exotic plant invasions, other species can be negatively affected. Behavioral flexibility may be the key to persist in a changing world.

scholarly journals Exotic garden plants partly substitute for native plants as resources for pollinators when native plants become seasonally scarce

Oecologia ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 194 (3) ◽  
pp. 465-480
Author(s):  
Michael Staab ◽  
Maria Helena Pereira-Peixoto ◽  
Alexandra-Maria Klein
Keyword(s):  
Plant Species ◽  
Native Plants ◽  
Exotic Plants ◽  
Interaction Networks ◽  
Exotic Plant ◽  
Exotic Plant Species ◽  
Flower Visitor ◽  
Garden Plants ◽  
Flower Visiting ◽  
Plant Pollinator

Abstract Urban green spaces such as gardens often consist of native and exotic plant species, which provide pollen and nectar for flower-visiting insects. Although some exotic plants are readily visited by pollinators, it is unknown if and at which time of the season exotic garden plants may supplement or substitute for flower resources provided by native plants. To investigate if seasonal changes in flower availability from native vs. exotic plants affect flower visits, diversity and particularly plant–pollinator interaction networks, we studied flower-visiting insects over a whole growing season in 20 urban residential gardens in Germany. Over the course of the season, visits to native plants decreased, the proportion of flower visits to exotics increased, and flower-visitor species richness decreased. Yet, the decline in flower-visitor richness over the season was slowed in gardens with a relatively higher proportion of flowering exotic plants. This compensation was more positively linked to the proportion of exotic plant species than to the proportion of exotic flower cover. Plant–pollinator interaction networks were moderately specialized. Interactions were more complex in high summer, but interaction diversity, linkage density, and specialisation were not influenced by the proportion of exotic species. Thus, later in the season when few native plants flowered, exotic garden plants partly substituted for native flower resources without apparent influence on plant–pollinator network structure. Late-flowering garden plants support pollinator diversity in cities. If appropriately managed, and risk of naturalisation is minimized, late-flowering exotic plants may provide floral resources to support native pollinators when native plants are scarce.

scholarly journals Consequences of plant invasions on compartmentalization and species’ roles in plant–pollinator networks

2014 ◽  
Vol 281 (1788) ◽  
pp. 20140773 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias Albrecht ◽  
Benigno Padrón ◽  
Ignasi Bartomeus ◽  
Anna Traveset
Keyword(s):  
Invasive Plants ◽  
Native Species ◽  
Plant Invasions ◽  
Interaction Networks ◽  
Ecological Communities ◽  
Interaction Structure ◽  
Plant Invaders ◽  
Functional Implications ◽  
Species Roles ◽  
Plant Pollinator

Compartmentalization—the organization of ecological interaction networks into subsets of species that do not interact with other subsets (true compartments) or interact more frequently among themselves than with other species (modules)—has been identified as a key property for the functioning, stability and evolution of ecological communities. Invasions by entomophilous invasive plants may profoundly alter the way interaction networks are compartmentalized. We analysed a comprehensive dataset of 40 paired plant–pollinator networks (invaded versus uninvaded) to test this hypothesis. We show that invasive plants have higher generalization levels with respect to their pollinators than natives. The consequences for network topology are that—rather than displacing native species from the network—plant invaders attracting pollinators into invaded modules tend to play new important topological roles (i.e. network hubs, module hubs and connectors) and cause role shifts in native species, creating larger modules that are more connected among each other. While the number of true compartments was lower in invaded compared with uninvaded networks, the effect of invasion on modularity was contingent on the study system. Interestingly, the generalization level of the invasive plants partially explains this pattern, with more generalized invaders contributing to a lower modularity. Our findings indicate that the altered interaction structure of invaded networks makes them more robust against simulated random secondary species extinctions, but more vulnerable when the typically highly connected invasive plants go extinct first. The consequences and pathways by which biological invasions alter the interaction structure of plant–pollinator communities highlighted in this study may have important dynamical and functional implications, for example, by influencing multi-species reciprocal selection regimes and coevolutionary processes.

scholarly journals Impacts of plant invasions in native plant‐pollinator networks

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Víctor Parra‐Tabla ◽  
Gerardo Arceo‐Gómez
Keyword(s):  
Plant Invasions ◽  
Native Plant ◽  
Plant Pollinator

scholarly journals The effect of landscape on Cucurbita pepo-pollinator interaction networks varies depending on plants’ genetic diversity

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Landaverde-González ◽  
Eunice Enríquez ◽  
Juan Núñez-Farfán
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Diversity ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Network Structure ◽  
Cucurbita Pepo ◽  
Interaction Network ◽  
Network Evolution ◽  
Interaction Networks ◽  
Pollinator Community ◽  
Male Flowers ◽  
Plant Pollinator

AbstractIn recent years, evidence has been found that plant-pollinator interactions are altered by land-use and that genetic diversity also plays a role. However, how land-use and genetic diversity influence plant–pollinator interactions, particularly in the Neotropics, where many endemic plants exist is still an open question. Cucurbita pepo is a monoecious plant and traditional crop wide distributed, with high rates of molecular evolution, landraces associated with human cultural management and a history of coevolution with bees, which makes this species a promising model for studying the effect of landscape and genetic diversity on plant-pollinator interactions. Here, we assess (1) whether female and male flowers differences have an effect on the interaction network, (2) how C. pepo genetic diversity affects flower-bee visitation network structure, and (3) what is the effect that land-use, accounting for C. pepo genetic variability, has on pumpkin-bee interaction network structure. Our results indicate that female and male flowers presented the same pollinator community composition and interaction network structure suggesting that female/male differences do not have a significant effect on network evolution. Genetic diversity has a positive effect on modularity, nestedness and number of interactions. Further, the effect of semi-natural areas on nestedness could be buffered when genetic diversity is high. Our results suggest that considering genetic diversity is relevant for a better understanding of the effect of land-use on interaction networks. Additionally, this understanding has great value in conserving biodiversity and enhancing the stability of interaction networks in a world facing great challenges of habitat and diversity loss.

EXOTIC PLANT SPECIES INVADE HOT SPOTS OF NATIVE PLANT DIVERSITY

1999 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas J. Stohlgren ◽  
Dan Binkley ◽  
Geneva W. Chong ◽  
Mohammed A. Kalkhan ◽  
Lisa D. Schell ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Plant Species ◽  
Plant Diversity ◽  
Hot Spots ◽  
Exotic Plant ◽  
Native Plant ◽  
Exotic Plant Species ◽  
Native Plant Diversity

scholarly journals Do precipitation and food affect the reproduction of brown brocket deer Mazama gouazoubira (G. Fischer 1814) in conditions of semi-captivity?

2010 ◽  
Vol 82 (3) ◽  
pp. 629-635 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan P. Juliá ◽  
Salvador J. Peris
Keyword(s):  
Plant Species ◽  
Montane Forest ◽  
Exotic Plant ◽  
Native Plant ◽  
Exotic Plant Species ◽  
Northwestern Argentina ◽  
Native Plant Species ◽  
Plant Parts ◽  
Mazama Gouazoubira ◽  
Brocket Deer

The births of brown brocket deer ( Mazama gouazoubira) in a secondary lower montane forest called "yunga" in northwestern Argentina were compared with rainfall. Analyses were performed with rainfall and flower-fruit fall in an attempt to determine the possible importance of these seasonal variables in birthing. The births were not directly correlated with rainfall, but rather with the flower and fruit fall of exotic plant species. This may be related to favor the development of fawns, which eat the new and more digestible plant parts, accessible one month after their births.The non-seasonal births observed around the year could be related to the selection by the deer of some plant species that have been introduced into the region ( Prunus, Morus and Psidium), have a longer fruiting span than the scarce native plant species.

Logging, exotic plant invasions, and native plant reassembly in a lowland tropical rain forest

Biotropica ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 254-265 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timm F. Döbert ◽  
Bruce L. Webber ◽  
John B. Sugau ◽  
Katharine J. M. Dickinson ◽  
Raphael K. Didham
Keyword(s):  
Rain Forest ◽  
Tropical Rain Forest ◽  
Plant Invasions ◽  
Exotic Plant ◽  
Native Plant ◽  
Lowland Tropical Rain Forest

scholarly journals Leaf trait differences between 97 pairs of invasive and native plants across China: effects of identities of both the invasive and native species

NeoBiota ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 71 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Ming-Chao Liu ◽  
Ting-Fa Dong ◽  
Wei-Wei Feng ◽  
Bo Qu ◽  
De-Liang Kong ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Invasive Species ◽  
Native Species ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Leaf Traits ◽  
Plant Invasions ◽  
Native Plant ◽  
Species Identity ◽  
Native Plant Species ◽  
Leaf Trait ◽  
Species Specific

Many studies have attempted to test whether certain leaf traits are associated with invasive plants, resulting in discrepant conclusions that may be due to species-specificity. However, no effort has been made to test for effects of species identity on invasive-native comparisons. Here, we compared 20 leaf traits between 97 pairs of invasive and native plant species in seven disturbed sites along a southwest-to-northeast transect in China using phylogenetically controlled within-study meta-analyses. The invasive relative to the native species on average had significantly higher leaf nutrients concentrations, photosynthetic rates, photosynthetic nutrients- and energy-use efficiencies, leaf litter decomposition rates, and lower payback time and carbon-to-nitrogen ratios. However, these differences disappeared when comparing weakly invasive species with co-occurring natives and when comparing invasives with co-occurring widespread dominant natives. Furthermore, the magnitudes of the differences in some traits decreased or even reversed when a random subset of strongly to moderately invasive species was excluded from the species pool. Removing rare to common natives produced the same effect, while exclusion of weakly to moderately invasives and dominant to common natives enhanced the differences. Our study indicates that the results of invasive-native comparisons are species-specific, providing a possible explanation for discrepant results in previous studies, such that we may be unable to detect general patterns regarding traits promoting exotic plant invasions through multi-species comparisons.

scholarly journals A Trait-Based Protocol for the Biological Control of Invasive Exotic Plant Species

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hui Zhang ◽  
Kai Jiang ◽  
Yang Zhao ◽  
Yuting Xing ◽  
Haijie Ge ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Biological Control ◽  
Plant Species ◽  
Native Species ◽  
Invasive Plant ◽  
Exotic Plant ◽  
Native Plant ◽  
Exotic Plant Species ◽  
Native Plant Species ◽  
Software Program ◽  
Invasive Exotic

Selecting appropriate native species for the biological control of invasive exotic plants is a recurring challenge for conservationists, ecologists, and land managers. Recently developed trait-based approaches may be an effective means of overcoming this challenge. However, we lack a protocol and software platform that can be used to quickly and effectively select potential native plant species for performing biological control of the invasive exotic plant species. Here, our study introduces a protocol and a software program that can be used for trait-based selection of appropriate native plant species for performing biocontrol of invasive exotic plant species. In particular, we illustrate the effectiveness of this software program and protocol by identifying native species that can be used for the biological control of Leucaena leucocephala (Lam.) de Wit, a highly invasive plant species found in many parts of the world. Bougainvillea spectabilis was the only native species selected by our software program as a potential biocontrol agent for L. leucocephala. When separately planting 4 seedlings of B. spectabilis and two unselected species (Bombax ceiba, and Ficus microcarpa) as neighbors of each individual of L. leucocephala for 3 years, we found that B. spectabilis, which was functionally similar to the invasive L. leucocephala, significantly limited the invasion of the latter, while the unselected native plant species could not. That was because all the seedling of B. spectabilis survived, while half seedlings of unselected species (B. ceiba and F. microcarpa) died, during the experimental period when planted with L. leucocephala seedlings. Moreover, the growth of L. leucocephala was restricted when planted with B. spectabilis, in contrast B. ceiba and F. microcarpa did not influence the growth of L. leucocephala. Overall, our software program and protocol can quickly and efficiently select native plant species for use in the biological control of invasive exotic plant species. We expect that this work will provide a general protocol to perform biological control of many different types of invasive exotic plant species.

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