Details zur Publikation

Kategorie Textpublikation
Referenztyp Zeitschriften
DOI 10.7717/peerj.16900
Lizenz creative commons licence
Titel (primär) Intensive pasture management alters the composition and structure of plant-pollinator interactions in Sibiu, Romania
Autor Neacă, A.-M.; Meis, J.; Knight, T.; Rakosy, D.
Quelle PeerJ
Erscheinungsjahr 2024
Department CHS; iDiv; SIE
Band/Volume 12
Seite von e16900
Sprache englisch
Topic T5 Future Landscapes
Supplements https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.16900/supp-1
https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.16900/supp-2
https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.16900/supp-3
https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.16900/supp-4
https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.16900/supp-5
https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.16900/supp-6
Keywords Grazing; Plant-pollinator interactions; Diversity; Community composition; Networks
Abstract Background
Land management change towards intensive grazing has been shown to alter plant and pollinator communities and the structure of plant-pollinator interactions in different ways across the world. Land-use intensification in Eastern Europe is shifting highly diverse, traditionally managed hay meadows towards intensive pastures, but few studies have examined how this influences plant-pollinator networks. We hypothesized that the effects of intensive grazing on networks will depend on how plant communities and their floral traits change.
Methods
We investigated plant and pollinator diversity and composition and the structure of plant-pollinator interactions near Sibiu, Romania at sites that were traditionally managed as hay meadows or intensive pastures. We quantified the identity and abundance of flowering plants, and used transect walks to observe pollinator genera interacting with flowering plant species. We evaluated the effects of management on diversity, composition and several indices of network structure.
Results
Pollinator but not plant diversity declined in pastures and both plant and pollinator taxonomic composition shifted. Functional diversity and composition remained unchanged, with rather specialized flowers having been found to dominate in both hay meadows and pastures. Apis mellifera was found to be the most abundant pollinator. Its foraging preferences played a crucial role in shaping plant-pollinator network structure. Apis mellifera thus preferred the highly abundant Dorycnium herbaceum in hay meadows, leading to hay meadows networks with lower Shannon diversity and interaction evenness. In pastures, however, it preferred less abundant and more generalized flower resources. With pollinators being overall less abundant and more generalized in pastures, we found that niche overlap between plants was higher.
Discussion
With both hay meadows and pastures being dominated by plant species with similar floral traits, shifts in pollinator preferences seem to have driven the observed changes in plant-pollinator interaction networks. We thus conclude that the effects of grazing on pollinators and their interactions are likely to depend on the traits of plant species present in different management types as well as on the effects of grazing on plant community composition. We thereby highlight the need for better understanding how floral abundance shapes pollinator visitation rates and how floral traits may influence this relationship.
dauerhafte UFZ-Verlinkung https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=28695
Neacă, A.-M., Meis, J., Knight, T., Rakosy, D. (2024):
Intensive pasture management alters the composition and structure of plant-pollinator interactions in Sibiu, Romania
PeerJ 12 , e16900 10.7717/peerj.16900