Diverse Response Diversity in Pollinators: Implications to the Resilience of Pollination Services in Buckwheat

Abstract

Response diversity to environmental change among species is important for the maintenance of ecosystem services, but response diversity to changes in multiple environmental parameters is largely unexplored. Here, we examined how insect visitations to buckwheat flowers differ among species groups in response to changes in multiple weather variables and landscape structures.We found differences in responses to changes in weather conditions among insect taxonomic groups visiting buckwheat flowers. Specifically, beetles, butterflies, and wasps were more active in sunny and/or high-temperature conditions, whereas ants and flies showed the opposite pattern. Furthermore, responses to weather conditions differed between large and small insects, which agreed with the expectation that optimal temperature for insect activity has a positive association with body size. Response diversity per se was also diverse. For instance, large insects were responsive to temperatures more than small insects while smaller insects were responsive to sunshine duration more than large insects. Responses to spatial variables also differed; large insects were more abundant in fields with surrounding forests and mosaic habitats, whereas small insects were not. We suggest that the “diversity” in “response diversity,” which is a higher-order response diversity, should be a focus of future studies of the biodiversity–ecosystem service relationships.

Ants are effective pollinators of common buckwheat Fagopyrum esculentum

“…In addition, pollination by ants is thought to be important from the perspective of temporal variation. The visitation frequency of ants is robust to external environmental factors such as weather and landscape (Carvalheiro et al, 2010; Miyashita et al, 2022), suggesting that ants have the potential to mitigate decreases in pollination services under environmental change.…”