Species–habitat networks elucidate landscape effects on habitat specialisation of natural enemies and pollinators

Lami, Francesco; Bartomeus, Ignasi; Nardi, Davide; Beduschi, Tatiane; Boscutti, Francesco; Pantini, Paolo; Santoiemma, Giacomo; Scherber, Christoph; Tscharntke, Teja; Marini, Lorenzo

doi:10.1111/ele.13642

Cited by 30 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…Within fragmented landscapes, habitat patches can be functionally connected by interpatch species movements (4). Considering habitat patches and species as connected units at the whole-landscape scale could provide innovative perceptions about ecosystem responses to human-induced disturbances, maximizing efforts on biodiversity conservation and the delivery of ecosystem services (5)(6)(7).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emergent properties of species-habitat networks in an insular forest landscape

et al. 2022

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Deforestation and fragmentation are pervasive drivers of biodiversity loss, but how they scale up to entire landscapes remains poorly understood. Here, we apply species-habitat networks based on species co-occurrences to test the effects of insular fragmentation on multiple taxa—medium-large mammals, small nonvolant mammals, lizards, understory birds, frogs, dung beetles, orchid bees, and trees—across 22 forest islands and three continuous forest sites within a river-damming quasi-experimental landscape in Central Amazonia. Widespread, nonrandom local species extinctions were translated into highly nested networks of low connectance and modularity. Networks’ robustness considering the sequential removal of large-to-small sites was generally low; between 5% (dung beetles) and 50% (orchid bees) of species persisted when retaining only <10 ha of islands. In turn, larger sites and body size were the main attributes structuring the networks. Our results raise the prospects that insular forest fragmentation results in simplified species-habitat networks, with distinct taxa persistence to habitat loss.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emergent properties of species-habitat networks in an insular forest landscape

et al. 2022

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“…Models show that species coexist more easily if barrier reinforcement relies on habitat preferences rather than on species recognition [ 3 ]. In plants, the pre-zygotic barrier often involves change in pollinators [ 1 ], and pollinators may be habitat specialists [ 4 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Overlaps in olfactive signalling coupled with geographic variation may result in localised pollinator sharing between closely related Ficus species

et al. 2022

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Background In brood site pollination mutualisms, pollinators are attracted by odours emitted at anthesis. In Ficus, odours of receptive figs differ among species and the specific pollinators generally only enter figs of their host species ensuring a pre-zygotic barrier to plant interspecific hybridisation. However, field observations recorded that, in Guangdong province in China, Valisia javana hilli, the local pollinator of F. hirta, entered and reproduced successfully in the figs of the closely related F. triloba on a regular basis. We propose that closely related Ficus species produce similar receptive fig odours. Under particular contexts of odours locally present, the receptive fig odours of non-host figs of a Ficus species may become attractive to pollinators of closely related Ficus species. We used the headspace technique to collect in situ receptive fig odours of F. triloba in a series of locations in China. Under controlled conditions, we tested the attraction of fig pollinating wasps from F. hirta and F. triloba to host figs and non-host figs in Y tube experiments. Results Receptive fig odours of F. triloba though different from those of F. hirta, were mainly composed of a same set of volatile organic compounds. When given the choice between receptive fig odours and air, the pollinating wasps were only attracted by their host’s odours. However, when given a choice between host and non-host figs the pollinators of F. hirta were equally attracted by the two odours while the pollinators of F. triloba tended to be more attracted by their host’s fig odours. Conclusions Receptive fig odours vary geographically within species and the differentiation of receptive fig odours between closely related Ficus species is often incomplete. This allows localised or occasional pollinator sharing following different modalities. Cross stimulation when wasps are exposed simultaneously to odours of host and non-host species may be important. While occasional pollinator sharing may play a marginal role when wasp populations are robust, it may ensure the provisioning of new pollinators from the closest relative of a Ficus species if its pollinators go extinct.

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“…Therefore, control agents that are habitat generalists may have multiple source populations in the landscape (Lami et al, 2020; Martin et al, 2019). In contrast, biological control agents that are habitat specialists are restricted in their distribution (Lami et al, 2020). For example, parasitoids that feed on a host confined predominantly to a single crop species would be a habitat specialist.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Biological control agents that are habitat generalists feed either on a variety of prey species or on prey species that are themselves generalists. Therefore, control agents that are habitat generalists may have multiple source populations in the landscape (Lami et al, 2020; Martin et al, 2019). In contrast, biological control agents that are habitat specialists are restricted in their distribution (Lami et al, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The success of a habitat specialist biological control agent in the face of disturbance

Kishinevsky

Ives

2022

Ecosphere

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Natural enemies that can use multiple habitats are thought to better withstand disturbances in agricultural systems than natural enemies that are habitat specialists. This is because habitat generalists have populations in multiple habitats that can serve as sources of immigrants into an agricultural crop following a disturbance. In contrast, the dynamics of habitat specialists are tightly coupled with those of one agricultural crop. Nonetheless, some habitat specialists are successful in highly disturbed environments. To test how the magnitude of within-field disturbance affects biological control agents, we conducted a large-scale field manipulation in alfalfa fields and monitored the response of pea aphids, habitat-generalist predators, a habitat-specialist parasitoid (Aphidius ervi), and hyperparasitoids of A. ervi. The manipulation involved three treatments: harvesting normally (intermediate disturbance); spraying insecticide immediately after harvesting (high disturbance); and harvesting in strips (low disturbance). As a group, the habitat-generalist predator species showed a range of responses to disturbances, from no response to decreases in abundance in the high-disturbance treatment, indicating differences in their response to the density of pea aphids following disturbances. Surprisingly, percentage parasitism by the habitat-specialist parasitoid was little affected by experimental disturbance manipulations. Furthermore, two of the four hyperparasitoids of A. ervi were negatively affected by the magnitude of disturbance, suggesting that disturbance could have an indirect positive effect on A. ervi. These results suggest that a habitat specialist can overcome the detrimental effects of disturbances without using alternative habitats. In addition, disturbance can sometimes benefit biological control agents by disproportionally negatively affecting their enemies from the fourth trophic level.

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Species–habitat networks elucidate landscape effects on habitat specialisation of natural enemies and pollinators

Cited by 30 publications

References 58 publications

Emergent properties of species-habitat networks in an insular forest landscape

Emergent properties of species-habitat networks in an insular forest landscape

Overlaps in olfactive signalling coupled with geographic variation may result in localised pollinator sharing between closely related Ficus species

The success of a habitat specialist biological control agent in the face of disturbance

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