Flower abundance and vegetation height as predictors for nectar-feeding insect occurrence in Swedish semi-natural grasslands

Milberg, Per; Bergman, Karl‐Olof; Cronvall, Erik; Eriksson, Åsa; Glimskär, Anders; Islamovic, Azra; Jonason, Dennis; Löfqvist, Zandra; Westerberg, Lars

doi:10.1016/j.agee.2016.05.029

Cited by 39 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…Although these species prefer seminatural grasslands as their primary habitat, they may also be adapted to take advantage of other herbaceous habitats in forested landscapes, such as forest edges, tracks, and openings (Berg et al, 2011;Blixt et al, 2015;Villemey et al, 2015;Viljur & Teder, 2016). The availability of larval food plants and nectar is the main factor limiting butterfly distribution at a landscape scale (Pywell et al, 2004;Kuussaari et al, 2007b;Franz en & Nilsson, 2008;Milberg et al, 2016). In Swedish forest-farmland landscape, A. adippe and B. selene were more abundant in forest clear-cuts and power-line corridors than in semi-natural pastures (Berg et al, 2011).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…High cover of forest in the surrounding landscape may also enhance the availability of resources in traditional grassland habitats ( € Ockinger et al, 2012b). The availability of larval food plants and nectar is the main factor limiting butterfly distribution at a landscape scale (Pywell et al, 2004;Kuussaari et al, 2007b;Franz en & Nilsson, 2008;Milberg et al, 2016). Besides the amount of nectar available, nectar quality is also important for butterflies (Lebeau et al, 2016).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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High cover of forest increases the abundance of most grassland butterflies in boreal farmland

Toivonen

Peltonen

Herzon

et al. 2017

Insect Conserv Diversity

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High cover of forest in the landscape matrix has been shown to weaken the negative effects of habitat fragmentation on grassland butterflies. No studies have however focused on examining species‐specific responses of grassland butterflies to forest. The data from 3 years of butterfly monitoring in Southern Finland were used to test whether the amount of forest cover in the surrounding landscape affected the abundance of grassland butterfly species in semi‐natural grasslands, field margins, and forest edges. More than half of the studied species benefitted from high cover of forest. Species with the strongest preference for forested landscapes were Lycaena virgaureae, Argynnis adippe, Argynnis aglaja, and Boloria selene, which probably find suitable resources in herbaceous habitats at forest edges and clearings. Several small‐sized species were positively affected by surrounding forest cover in field margins but not in the other habitat types. Although field margins are suboptimal habitats for grassland butterflies, they provide important corridors for dispersal. High cover of forest in the landscape matrix may enhance butterfly dispersal along field margins by reducing windiness, which is likely to be most important for small‐sized species with poor dispersal capacity. The most abundant grassland species showed little or no preference for forested landscapes. Our results suggest that high cover of forest enhances the persistence of most grassland butterflies, including declining species, in boreal agricultural landscapes. The responses to forest are however strongly dependent on species‐specific properties and habitat types.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

High cover of forest increases the abundance of most grassland butterflies in boreal farmland

Toivonen

Peltonen

Herzon

et al. 2017

Insect Conserv Diversity

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“…DNA metabarcoding therefore has the potential to offer an insight into pollen transport by hoverflies, by allowing the identification of mixed pollen samples from individual hoverflies without requiring specialist palynological expertise (Bell et al, 2016). Such pollen transport networks can give an insight into hoverfly foraging behaviour, and thus which plants are of importance as food resources, which is critical to their conservation (Fowler, Rotheray, & Goulson, 2016;Milberg et al, 2016;Pontin, Wade, Kehrli, & Wratten, 2006). It can also give some indication of their role in pollination (Jauker, Bondarenko, Becker, & Steffan-Dewenter, 2012;Nicolson & Wright, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Generalisation and specialisation in hoverfly (Syrphidae) grassland pollen transport networks revealed by DNA metabarcoding

Lucas

Bodger

Brosi

et al. 2018

Journal of Animal Ecology

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Pollination by insects is a key ecosystem service and important to wider ecosystem function. Most species‐level pollination networks studied have a generalised structure, with plants having several potential pollinators, and pollinators in turn visiting a number of different plant species. This is in apparent contrast to a plant's need for efficient conspecific pollen transfer.The aim of this study was to investigate the structure of pollen transport networks at three levels of biological hierarchy: community, species and individual. We did this using hoverflies in the genus Eristalis, a key group of non‐Hymenopteran pollinators.We constructed pollen transport networks using DNA metabarcoding to identify pollen. We captured hoverflies in conservation grasslands in west Wales, UK, removed external pollen loads, sequenced the pollen DNA on the Illumina MiSeq platform using the standard plant barcode rbcL, and matched sequences using a pre‐existing plant DNA barcode reference library.We found that Eristalis hoverflies transport pollen from 65 plant taxa, more than previously appreciated. Networks were generalised at the site and species level, suggesting some degree of functional redundancy, and were more generalised in late summer compared to early summer. In contrast, pollen transport at the individual level showed some degree of specialisation. Hoverflies defined as “single‐plant visitors” varied from 40% of those captured in early summer to 24% in late summer. Individual hoverflies became more generalised in late summer, possibly in response to an increase in floral resources. Rubus fruticosus agg. and Succisa pratensis were key plant species for hoverflies at our sitesOur results contribute to resolving the apparent paradox of how generalised pollinator networks can provide efficient pollination to plant species. Generalised hoverfly pollen transport networks may result from a varied range of short‐term specialised feeding bouts by individual insects. The generalisation and functional redundancy of Eristalis pollen transport networks may increase the stability of the pollination service they deliver.

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“…Nectar-feeding insects is a functional group with particular value due to the pollination service they provide, and these have been reported to benefit from spring burning in a short-term Swedish experiment (Larsson and Persson 2012). In the short-term, the degree of disturbance during the growth season is likely to be negatively related to the abundance of pollinators by reducing the number of flowers (Milberg et al 2016). Hence, spring-burning should therefore be expected to be better than mowing or grazing simply due to higher abundance of flowers present over longer time.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Annual burning of semi‐natural grasslands for conservation: winners and losers among plant species

Milberg

Fogelfors

Westerberg

et al. 2018

Nordic Journal of Botany

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Species‐rich semi‐natural grasslands in Europe are a main target for conservation efforts, and alternative methods to the traditional management of mowing or grazing would be welcome due to the difficulties in maintaining traditional management practices. One such method proposed is burning of grassland vegetation during late winter or spring. To evaluate the effects of annual spring burning vs annual mowing on semi‐natural grassland vegetation, we compared the frequency of species in eleven field experiments in southern Sweden after ca 14 years. Out of the 88 species analyzed, five were more frequent in burnt plots compared with mowed plots (Vicia cracca, Cirsium arvense, Urtica dioica, Galium verum, Convallaria majalis). In contrast, 37 species were significantly less frequent in burnt plots compared with mowed ones, those with the largest differences being Ranunculus acris, Briza media, Veronica chamaedrys, Festuca ovina, Plantago lanceolata and Anthoxanthum odoratum. Tall‐grown species and those with preferences for N‐rich soils increased in frequency under an annual spring‐burn regime, compared with annual mowing, as did species producing larger amounts of nectar. Hence, although vegetation composition becomes more trivial with annual spring burns, there might be long‐term benefits for nectar‐feeding insects.

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Flower abundance and vegetation height as predictors for nectar-feeding insect occurrence in Swedish semi-natural grasslands

Cited by 39 publications

References 56 publications

High cover of forest increases the abundance of most grassland butterflies in boreal farmland

High cover of forest increases the abundance of most grassland butterflies in boreal farmland

Generalisation and specialisation in hoverfly (Syrphidae) grassland pollen transport networks revealed by DNA metabarcoding

Annual burning of semi‐natural grasslands for conservation: winners and losers among plant species

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