Publication Details

Category Text Publication
Reference Category Journals
DOI 10.1111/oik.10495
Licence creative commons licence
Title (Primary) High rates of nectar depletion in summer grasslands indicate competitive conditions for pollinators
Author Sponsler, D.; Dominik, C. ORCID logo ; Biegerl, C.; Honchar, H.; Schweiger, O.; Steffan-Dewenter, I.
Source Titel Oikos
Year 2024
Department BZF; NSF
Volume 2024
Issue 9
Page From e10495
Language englisch
Topic T5 Future Landscapes
Data and Software links https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.sf7m0cgf7
Supplements https://nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/downloadSupplement?doi=10.1111%2Foik.10495&file=oik13740-sup-0001-AppendixS1.pdf
https://nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/downloadSupplement?doi=10.1111%2Foik.10495&file=oik13740-sup-0002-AppendixS2.odt
https://nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/downloadSupplement?doi=10.1111%2Foik.10495&file=oik13740-sup-0003-AppendixS3.pdf
https://nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/downloadSupplement?doi=10.1111%2Foik.10495&file=oik13740-sup-0004-AppendixS4.pdf
https://nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/downloadSupplement?doi=10.1111%2Foik.10495&file=oik13740-sup-0005-AppendixS5.pdf
https://nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/downloadSupplement?doi=10.1111%2Foik.10495&file=oik13740-sup-0006-AppendixS6.rds
https://nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/downloadSupplement?doi=10.1111%2Foik.10495&file=oik13740-sup-0007-AppendixS7.rds
https://nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/downloadSupplement?doi=10.1111%2Foik.10495&file=oik13740-sup-0008-AppendixS8.rds
https://nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/downloadSupplement?doi=10.1111%2Foik.10495&file=oik13740-sup-0009-AppendixS9.rds
https://nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/downloadSupplement?doi=10.1111%2Foik.10495&file=oik13740-sup-0010-AppendixS10.rds
https://nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/downloadSupplement?doi=10.1111%2Foik.10495&file=oik13740-sup-0011-AppendixS11.rds
https://nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/downloadSupplement?doi=10.1111%2Foik.10495&file=oik13740-sup-0012-AppendixS12.rds
https://nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/downloadSupplement?doi=10.1111%2Foik.10495&file=oik13740-sup-0013-AppendixS13.rds
https://nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/downloadSupplement?doi=10.1111%2Foik.10495&file=oik13740-sup-0014-AppendixS14.tex
https://nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/downloadSupplement?doi=10.1111%2Foik.10495&file=oik13740-sup-0015-AppendixS15.tex
Keywords coexistence; floral resources; foraging; honey bees; trophic ecology
Abstract Competition among pollinators for floral resources is a phenomenon of both basic and applied importance. While competition is difficult to measure directly under field conditions, it can be inferred indirectly through the measurement of floral resource depletion. In this study, we conducted a pollinator exclusion experiment to calculate nectar depletion rates in summer across 16 grassland sites in the German regions of Franconia and Saxony-Anhalt. Overall depletion rates were estimated at 95% in Franconia and 79% in Saxony-Anhalt, indicating strong nectar limitation and likely competition among pollinators for nectar. Despite being ubiquitous in our study regions, honey bees were scarce at our sites at the time of nectar sampling. This demonstrates that wild pollinators alone are capable of massive nectar depletion, and the addition of managed honey bees to wild pollinator communities may intensify already competitive conditions. Nevertheless, the manifest diversity of the pollinator communities at our sites indicates that other factors, such as non-trophic constraints or temporal variation in nectar limitation, can mitigate competitive exclusion despite immediate conditions of acute nectar scarcity.
Persistent UFZ Identifier https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=29156
Sponsler, D., Dominik, C., Biegerl, C., Honchar, H., Schweiger, O., Steffan-Dewenter, I. (2024):
High rates of nectar depletion in summer grasslands indicate competitive conditions for pollinators
Oikos 2024 (9), e10495 10.1111/oik.10495