A review of ecosystem service benefits from wild bees across social contexts

Matias, Denise Margaret; Leventon, Julia; Rau, Anna-Lena; Borgemeister, Christian; Wehrden, Henrik von

doi:10.1007/s13280-016-0844-z

Cited by 42 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…Among insects, bees are the main pollinators for the majority of plants, being essential in both natural and crop environments for the provision of pollination services and for ensuring global food security to human population 1,2 . Additionally, these insects can be used as a means to improve human livelihoods, biodiversity conservation, and scientific, cultural and recreational development in natural, agricultural or urbanized landscapes 3,4 . In fact, the economic value of pollination services can be estimated for agricultural areas 5,6 .…”

Section: Background and Summarymentioning

confidence: 99%

A dataset of multi-functional ecological traits of Brazilian bees

et al. 2020

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that explain bee community structure include body size, flight range, sociality, nesting location, nest behavior and diet 29,34,35. Here, we compiled a dataset of bee species from the Brazilian iron-rich mountains located in the Amazon (Pará State) and Atlantic Forest (Minas Gerais State). The dataset contains records of bees collected from 1983 to 2018 but in disconnected time frames. It represents one of the most comprehensive and robust datasets of bee species from Brazil and a unique dataset of bee species (including functional traits) from the Amazon forest, encompassing nearly 80% of the bee fauna from the eastern Amazon 36. A total of 328 bee species records are provided here 37. For those species, the following ecological traits are presented: body size, flight range, Neotropical distribution, crop pollination records, sociality and nesting substrate (Fig. 1).

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Section: Background and Summarymentioning

confidence: 99%

A dataset of multi-functional ecological traits of Brazilian bees

et al. 2020

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“…We do not provide an exhaustive review on the ESs provided by social insects, since there are several recent studies dealing with particular taxa and their services (e.g. Del Toro, Ribbons & Pelini, 2012; Hanley et al ., 2015; Matias et al ., 2017; Govorushko, 2019; Prezoto et al ., 2019; see online Supporting information, Appendix S1 for a summary). Instead, we highlight the role of social insects as dominant organisms in terms of biomass and other relevant traits for the provision and management of ESs, analyse how these traits translate into the provisioning of ESs, and develop a conceptual framework, which we hope will be helpful in identifying knowledge gaps.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The ecosystem services provided by social insects: traits, management tools and knowledge gaps

et al. 2020

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Social insects, i.e. ants, bees, wasps and termites, are key components of ecological communities, and are important ecosystem services (ESs) providers. Here, we review the literature in order to (i) analyse the particular traits of social insects that make them good suppliers of ESs; (ii) compile and assess management strategies that improve the services provided by social insects; and (iii) detect gaps in our knowledge about the services that social insects provide. Social insects provide at least 10 ESs; however, many of them are poorly understood or valued. Relevant traits of social insects include high biomass and numerical abundance, a diversity of mutualistic associations, the ability to build important biogenic structures, versatile production of chemical defences, the simultaneous delivery of several ESs, the presence of castes and division of labour, efficient communication and cooperation, the capacity to store food, and a long lifespan. All these characteristics enhance social insects as ES providers, highlighting their potential, constancy and efficiency as suppliers of these services. In turn, many of these traits make social insects stress tolerant and easy to manage, so increasing the ESs they provide. We emphasise the need for a conservation approach to the management of the services, as well as the potential use of social insects to help restore habitats degraded by human activities. In addition, we stress the need to evaluate both services and disservices in an integrated way, because some species of social insects are among the most problematic invasive species and native pests. Finally, we propose two areas of research that will lead to a greater and more efficient use of social insects as ES providers, and to a greater appreciation of them by producers and decision‐makers.

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“…Insect pollination is of central importance for human food production and ecosystem stability 1,2 but has become of global concern given recent reports of substantial declines in several native 3,4 and managed bee populations 2,5,6 . Despite a substantial amount of research that has been conducted over recent years to identify and study the different ecological factors that contribute towards continuous declines in pollinator populations, we still lack a complete understanding about the observed losses of these key insects.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Consequences of a short time exposure to a sublethal dose of Flupyradifurone (Sivanto) pesticide early in life on survival and immunity in the honeybee (Apis mellifera)

Naggar

Baer

2019

Sci Rep

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Dramatic losses of pollinating insects have become of global concern, as they threaten not only key ecosystem services but also human food production. Recent research provided evidence that interactions between ecological stressors are drivers of declining pollinator health and responsible for observed population collapses. We used the honeybee Apis mellifera and conducted a series of experiments to test for long-term effects of a single short exposure to the agricultural pesticide flupyradifurone to a second environmental stressor later in life. To do this, we exposed individuals during their larval development or early adulthood to sublethal dosages of flupyradifurone (0.025 μg for larvae and 0.645 μg for imagos), either pure or as part of an agricultural formulation (Sivanto). We afterwards exposed bees to a second ecological stressor infecting individuals with 10,000 spores of the fungal gut parasite Nosema ceranae. We found that pesticide exposures significantly reduced survival of bees and altered the expression of several immune and detoxification genes. The ability of bees to respond to these latter effects differed significantly between colonies, offering opportunities to breed bees with elevated levels of pesticide tolerance in the future. We conclude that short episodes of sublethal pesticide exposures during development are sufficient to trigger effects later in life and could therefore contribute to the widespread declines in bee health.

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A review of ecosystem service benefits from wild bees across social contexts

Cited by 42 publications

References 45 publications

A dataset of multi-functional ecological traits of Brazilian bees

A dataset of multi-functional ecological traits of Brazilian bees

The ecosystem services provided by social insects: traits, management tools and knowledge gaps

Consequences of a short time exposure to a sublethal dose of Flupyradifurone (Sivanto) pesticide early in life on survival and immunity in the honeybee (Apis mellifera)

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