Natural processes influencing pollinator health

Abstract

Evidence from the last few decades indicates that pollinator abundance and diversity are at risk, with many species in decline. Anthropogenic impacts have been the focus of much recent work on the causes of these declines. However, natural processes, from plant chemistry, nutrition and microbial associations to landscape and habitat change, can also profoundly influence pollinator health. Here, we argue that these natural processes require greater attention and may even provide solutions to the deteriorating outlook for pollinators. Existing studies also focus on the decline of individuals and colonies and only occasionally at population levels. In the light of this we redefine pollinator health and argue that a top-down approach is required focusing at the ecological level of communities. We use examples from the primary research, opinion and review articles published in this special issue to illustrate how natural processes influence pollinator health, from community to individuals, and highlight where some of these processes could mitigate the challenges of anthropogenic and natural drivers of change. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Natural processes influencing pollinator health: from chemistry to landscapes’.

Complex networks of parasites and pollinators: moving towards a healthy balance

“…Bee health can be examined across a range of scales [5,6], from the individual to the community. Almost by definition, parasites should negatively impact the health of individual pollinators, as noted above, so here I largely focus on health at the levels of populations, species and pollinator communities.…”

“…Turning to the level of population or community health in wild pollinators [5,6], a useful analogy can be made with the extensive literature on pollinator–plant networks [31,32]. Empirical and theoretical studies of the relationship between pollinators and the plants that they pollinate show that a robust, resilient or perhaps healthy network is one that contains many pollinator species, with redundancy in their plant visitation patterns [31,32].…”

“…However, from an ecological perspective, a rich and abundant parasite community may be not just a sign of a healthy host community [3], but an actual positive driver of this health [4]. Here, my aim is to dissect the complex relationship between parasites and wild pollinator health, focusing on bees due to a general lack of knowledge for other insect pollinators and on health at the level of the pollinator community [5,6]. A more holistic approach to the relationship between pollinators and their parasites is essential to the future support and maintenance of healthy pollinator assemblages.…”

Síndrome de Polinização das Espécies Arbóreas e Arbustivas do Campus do Pici - Fortaleza, Ceará, Brasil

“…Os polinizadores são atraídos pelos recursos primários oferecidos pelas flores como pólen, néctar e óleos, e por recursos secundários como a coloração das estruturas florais e seus odores (Endress, 1994). Esses recursos ofertados fazem parte dos atributos florais de grupos vegetais não relacionados, que se adaptaram evolutivamente para atrair determinados tipos de agentes polinizadores e afastar outros, procurando garantir o sucesso de sua reprodução, fenômeno esse investigado pelos botânicos com o objetivo de obter possíveis explicações para melhor compreendê-los (Barônio et al, 2016;Gomes e Quirino, 2016;Lóz et al, 2019;Krakos & Austin, 2020;Kar et al, 2021;Stevenson et al, 2022).…”

“…No contexto de mudanças climáticas, as perturbações provocadas pelas ações antrópicas podem ter um impacto sobre polinizadores de forma progressiva, levando a extinções locais e/ou mudanças comportamentais dos agentes polinizadores, podendo causar o desaparecimento de plantas que dependem deles para a polinização, dispersão de sementes ou proteção contra herbivoria (Leal e Andersen 2014: Brown e Oliveira 2014Tabarelli et al, 2018;Theodorou et al, 2020;Suni et al, 2021;Lage-Pinto et al, 2021;Ganuza et al, 2022;Rollin et al, 2022;Stevenson et al, 2022).…”