The abundance and diversity of pollinator populations are in global decline. Managed pollinator species, like honey bees, and wild species are key ecosystem service providers in both natural and managed agroecosystems. However, relatively few studies have exhaustively characterized pollinator populations in diverse agroecosystems over multiple years, while also thoroughly documenting plant–pollinator interactions. Yet, such studies are needed to fulfill the national pollinator protection plans that have been released by the United States and other nations. Our research is among the first studies to respond to these directives by systematically documenting bee and plant biodiversity, bee–plant interactions, and bee‐mediated pollen movement in farming systems of the Pacific Northwest, USA. Our data provides insight into the processes mediating pollinator and plant community assembly, persistence, and resilience across landscapes with variable crop and landscape diversity and agroecosystem management practices. These data will also contribute to the development of a United States pollinator database, supporting the United States' plan to promote pollinators. With few publicly available data sets that systematically take account of agroecosystem practices, plant populations, and pollinators, our research will provide future users the means to conduct synesthetic studies of pollinators and ecosystem function in a period of rapid and global pollinator declines. There are no copyright or proprietary restrictions for research or teaching purposes. Usage of the data set must be cited.
Seventy five percent of fruit production of the major global crops benefit from insect pollination. Hence, there has been increased interest in how global change drivers impact this critical ecosystem service. Because standardized data on crop pollination are rarely available, we are limited in our capacity to understand the variation in pollination benefits to crop yield, as well as to anticipate changes in this service, develop predictions, and inform management actions. Here, we present CropPol, a dynamic, open and global database on crop pollination. It contains measurements recorded from 189 crop studies, covering 3,216 field observations, 2,421 yield measurements (i.e. berry weight, number of fruits and kg per hectare, among others), and 46,262 insect records from 49 commercial crops distributed around the globe. CropPol comprises 32 of the 87 leading global crops and commodities that are pollinator dependent. Malus domestica is the most represented crop (25 studies), followed by Brassica napus (22 studies), Vaccinium corymbosum (13 studies), and Citrullus lanatus (12 studies). The most abundant pollinator guilds recorded are honey bees (33.12% counts), bumblebees (18.65%), flies other than Syrphidae and Bombyliidae (13.76%), other wild bees (13.51%), beetles (11.47%), Syrphidae (4.86%), and Bombyliidae (0.06%). Locations comprise 32 countries distributed among European (70 studies), Northern America (59), Latin America and the Caribbean (27), Asia (22), Oceania (10), and Africa (7). Sampling spans three decades and is concentrated on 2001-05 (21 studies), 2006-10 (38), 2011-15 (87), 2016-20 (40). This is the most comprehensive open global data set on measurements of crop flower visitors, crop pollinators and pollination to date and we encourage researchers to add more datasets to this database in the future. No copyright restrictions are associated with the use of this dataset. Please cite this data paper when the data are used in publications and cite individual studies when appropriate.
Vector-borne plant viruses are a diverse and dynamic threat to agriculture with hundreds of economically damaging viruses and insect vector species. Mathematical models have greatly increased our understanding of how alterations of vector life history and host–vector–pathogen interactions can affect virus transmission. However, insect vectors also interact with species such as predators and competitors in food webs, and these interactions affect vector population size and behaviors in ways that mediate virus transmission. Studies assessing how species’ interactions affect vector-borne pathogen transmission are limited in both number and scale, hampering the development of models that appropriately capture community-level effects on virus prevalence. Here, we review vector traits and community factors that affect virus transmission, explore the existing models of vector-borne virus transmission and areas where the principles of community ecology could improve the models and management, and finally evaluate virus transmission in agricultural systems. We conclude that models have expanded our understanding of disease dynamics through simulations of transmission but are limited in their ability to reflect the complexity of ecological interactions in real systems. We also document a need for experiments in agroecosystems, where the high availability of historical and remote-sensing data could serve to validate and improve vector-borne virus transmission models.
Crop diversification often promotes farm sustainability. However, proper management of newly introduced crops is difficult when pests are unknown. Characterizing herbivore dynamics on new crops, and how they respond to agronomic factors, is crucial for integrated pest management. Here we explored factors affecting Lygus spp. (Hemiptera: Miridae) herbivores in quinoa crops of Washington State. Quinoa is a newly introduced crop for North America that has multiple varieties and a range of agronomic practices used for cultivation. Through arthropod surveys and discussions with growers, we determined that Lygus spp. was the most abundant insect herbivore and likely contributed to low quinoa yields in previous seasons. We assessed how different varieties (Pison and QQ74), irrigation regimes (present and not), and planting methods (direct-seeded and transplanted) affected Lygus population dynamics. Lygus phenology was correlated with timing of quinoa seed-set in July and August, corresponding to a period when quinoa is most susceptible to Lygus. Both irrigation and planting manipulations had significant effects on Lygus abundance. Irrigation reduced Lygus abundance compared with nonirrigated plots in 2018. Planting method had a significant effect on Lygus populations in both 2017 and 2018, but effects differed among years. Variety had a significant effect on Lygus abundance, but only in nonirrigated plots. Overall, our study shows that Lygus is a common insect herbivore in quinoa, and careful selection of variety, planting method, and irrigation regime may be key components of effective control in seasons where Lygus abundance is high.
Grasslands are globally imperilled ecosystems due to widespread conversion to agriculture and there is a concerted effort to catalogue arthropod diversity in grasslands to guide conservation decisions. The Palouse Prairie is one such endangered grassland; a mid-elevation habitat found in Washington and Idaho, United States. Ants (Formicidae) are useful indicators of biodiversity and historical ecological disturbance, but there has been no structured sampling of ants in the Palouse Prairie. To fill this gap, we employed a rapid inventory sampling approach using pitfall traps to capture peak ant activity in five habitat fragments. We complemented our survey with a systemic review of field studies for the ant species found in Palouse Prairie. Our field inventory yielded 17 ant species across 10 genera and our models estimate the total ant species pool to be 27. The highest ant diversity was found in an actively-managed ecological trust in Latah County, Idaho, suggesting that restoration efforts may increase biodiversity. We also report two rarely-collected ants in the Pacific Northwest and a microgyne that may represent an undescribed species related to Brachymyrmex depilis. Our score-counting review revealed that grassland ants in Palouse Prairie have rarely been studied previously and that more ant surveys in temperate grasslands have lagged behind sampling efforts of other global biomes.
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