A Specialist in an Urban Area: Are Cities Suitable to Harbour Populations of the Oligolectic BeeCentris(Melacentris)collaris(Apidae: Centridini)?

Rocha-Filho, Léo Correia da; Ferreira-Caliman, Maria Juliana; Garófalo, Carlos Alberto; Augusto, Solange Cristina

doi:10.5735/086.055.0101

Cited by 19 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…There is ample evidence to suggest that cities support greater abundances of polylectic (i.e., generalist) pollinators displaying broader foraging preferences compared to oligolectic (i.e., specialist) species displaying limited dietary preferences restricted to one or few plant hosts [ 11 , 18 , 71 , 84 , 103 ]. Although specialists are under-represented and even rare in cities [ 113 ], their presence is not entirely lacking, particularly if species-specific requirements are available within the landscape [ 84 , 114 ].…”

Section: Functional Traits Affected By Urbanizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Supporting Bees in Cities: How Bees Are Influenced by Local and Landscape Features

Ayers

Rehan

2021

Insects

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Urbanization is a major anthropogenic driver of decline for ecologically and economically important taxa including bees. Despite their generally negative impact on pollinators, cities can display a surprising degree of biodiversity compared to other landscapes. The pollinating communities found within these environments, however, tend to be filtered by interacting local and landscape features that comprise the urban matrix. Landscape and local features exert variable influence on pollinators within and across taxa, which ultimately affects community composition in such a way that contributes to functional trait homogenization and reduced phylogenetic diversity. Although previous results are not easily generalizable, bees and pollinators displaying functional trait characteristics such as polylectic diet, cavity-nesting behavior, and later emergence appear most abundant across different examined cities. To preserve particularly vulnerable species, most notably specialists that have become underrepresented within city communities, green spaces like parks and urban gardens have been examined as potential refuges. Such spaces are scattered across the urban matrix and vary in pollinator resource availability. Therefore, ensuring such spaces are optimized for pollinators is imperative. This review examines how urban features affect pollinators in addition to ways these green spaces can be manipulated to promote greater pollinator abundance and diversity.

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Section: Functional Traits Affected By Urbanizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Supporting Bees in Cities: How Bees Are Influenced by Local and Landscape Features

Ayers

Rehan

2021

Insects

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“…Nevertheless, the dominance of non‐native plant species in residential neighbourhoods in Melbourne, Australia favoured the generalist, exotic Apis mellifera L. but negatively impacted the floral specialist bees (Threlfall et al ., 2015). The use of more native plant species in urban forestry, residential gardens, and parks should be encouraged to allow the establishment of oligolectic bee species in cities since these females depend on native floral sources to provision their nests (Frankie et al ., 2005; Threlfall et al ., 2015; Rocha‐Filho et al ., 2018).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some bees collect pollen only on flowers of native plants (Ferreira‐Caliman et al ., 2018) whereas females of other species avoid alien pollen for brood cell provisioning (MacIvor et al ., 2015). In addition, the plant species used in urban forestry and landscaping may not favour all bees, especially the oligolectic species, which display highly specialised interaction networks (Rocha‐Filho et al ., 2018) and are negatively affected by the prevalence of alien plant species (Threlfall et al ., 2015). Consequently, in intensively‐constructed zones such as the city centre and neighbourhoods with few vegetated areas, it could be presumed that oligolectic bees would be rare and the floral sources used by generalist bees would include non‐native plant species since a considerable portion of the green areas in these zones consist of gardens and residential yards that can host an excessive amount of alien plants (Vila‐Ruiz et al ., 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pollen analysis of cavity‐nesting bees (Hymenoptera: Anthophila) and their food webs in a city

Rocha-Filho

Montagnana

Araújo

et al. 2021

Ecological Entomology

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1. Urban areas can host speciose bee communities due partially to the species‐rich combination of both native and alien plant species found in these landscapes. However, in intensively‐constructed zones, it could be expected to record a low plant diversity used by bees because of the high proportion of paved surfaces in these areas. 2. We investigated the influence of urbanisation on the cavity‐nesting bee‐plant community and interaction network structures in a medium‐sized city. The floral diversity used by nesting females in cell provisioning was retrieved from the pollen content obtained from trap‐nests collected in 11 sites located in an urban landscape gradient. 3. Eighty pollen types belonging to 20 families were identified in the 155 pollen samples analysed. At least seven alien plant species were identified in samples from all sampling points. The landscape analysis revealed a positive influence of the proportion of green areas on the pollen type richness, although the null model was also selected as best model. Likewise, all network metrics but connectance were not influenced by any of the landscape variables. 4. Our findings demonstrated that notwithstanding the sampling sites the floral diversity used by bees and the alien pollen type richness were similar. Likewise, the bee‐plant networks were modular, asymmetric, and highly specialised. The positive adaptation that cavity‐nesting bee species present in urban environments and the presence of bee species that can explore a diverse flora may indicate that the local variation in the landscape had little influence on their interactions with plants.

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“…Insects are responsible for the pollination of most plant species, and bees in particular are the dominant pollinators in both non-tropical and tropical environments, contributing to the conservation and maintenance of natural ecosystems and providing ecosystem services (Michener 2007;Potts et al 2010;IPBES 2016, Montoya-Pfeiffer et al 2020. The dependence of bees on floral resources throughout their life cycle is related to the importance of this group in the pollination of several angiosperm species, as bees require resources other than nectar to feed their offspring and maintain their nests, such as pollen, oil, and resin (Aleixo et al 2014;Ollerton 2017;Rocha-Filho et al 2018). Furthermore, bees are also reported to be the most effective pollinators of several crops (Giannini et al 2015;IPBES 2016).…”

Section: Insects (Bees)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is worth noting that, of more than 330 potential pollinator species found across urban areas in Brazil, stingless bees were associated with the highest number of plant species, second only to the invasive honeybee, Apis mellifera (Nascimento et al 2020). Another study carried out in Brazil demonstrated the importance of the urban environment in providing resources to small populations of the oil collecting bee Centris (Melacentris) collaris (Rocha-Filho et al 2018), indicating that some specialized floral resources may be found in urban environments and are essential for the maintenance of specialized bees. High floral abundance and diversity are the most important variables related to the maintenance of bees from different groups, offsetting the negative effects commonly associated with urbanization (Frankie et al 2013;Hülsmann et al 2015;Ayers and Rehan 2021).…”

Section: Insects (Bees)mentioning

confidence: 99%

A global review of urban pollinators and implications for maintaining pollination services in tropical cities

Maruyama¹,

Silva²,

Gomes³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Pollinators provide essential ecosystem services worldwide, but dependence on biotic pollination is higher in the tropics, where urbanization is expected to impact biodiversity more severely. Here, we present a global review on urban pollinator studies with emphasis on the tropics. From the 308 published studies that included information on pollinator groups, only ~25 % were conducted in tropical regions, while ~65 % were carried out in the non-tropical northern hemisphere. This overall trend was similar for all the major insect pollinator groups, but not for vertebrates, which were overall less studied in both tropical and non-tropical regions. The effects of urbanization on tropical pollinators are diverse and complex and likely depend on the extent and type of urbanization, as well as the pollinator taxa studied. For both insect and vertebrate pollinators, the existing studies suggest that tropical cities can support generalist species tolerant of human activity, but the lack of studies hampers other general conclusions. The underrepresentation of pollinator studies in tropical cities undermines the value of urban biodiversity conservation in the most biodiverse regions of the world and highlights a missing opportunity. Since promoting urban biodiversity benefits both nature and people, it could be especially relevant in the Global South, where economic and social inequalities are severe and pollinator conservation may contribute to sustainability goals. In this context, initiatives that foster more international collaborations and research in the tropics are essential for a better understanding of the effects of urbanization and the value of pollinators in urban areas. Such knowledge can provide the basis for better urban planning strategies that contribute to the conservation of biodiversity and maintenance of pollination services in tropical cities.

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A Specialist in an Urban Area: Are Cities Suitable to Harbour Populations of the Oligolectic BeeCentris(Melacentris)collaris(Apidae: Centridini)?

Cited by 19 publications

References 52 publications

Supporting Bees in Cities: How Bees Are Influenced by Local and Landscape Features

Supporting Bees in Cities: How Bees Are Influenced by Local and Landscape Features

Pollen analysis of cavity‐nesting bees (Hymenoptera: Anthophila) and their food webs in a city

A global review of urban pollinators and implications for maintaining pollination services in tropical cities

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