Road mortality potentially responsible for billions of pollinating insect deaths annually

Baxter‐Gilbert, James; Riley, Julia; Neufeld, Christopher J.; Litzgus, Jacqueline D.; Lesbarrères, David

doi:10.1007/s10841-015-9808-z

Cited by 87 publications

(65 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Our results instead strongly suggest that estimates of available food resources for important pollinators in urban environments should be based on the cost distance (e.g., Adriaensen et al 2003) rather than the Euclidian distance, to account for differences in matrix permeability. Reasons for this could be that the bees and wasps avoid crossing large roads during their regular foraging trips due to a hostile environment or that, when trying to cross the road, the mortality increases due to collisions with vehicles (Sk orka et al 2013, Baxter-Gilbert et al 2015. The barrier effect of large roads agrees with recent research showing clear differences in species composition of bees and wasps between two sides of a large highway (Andersson et al 2017).…”

Section: Comparing Measures Of Available Food Resourcessupporting

confidence: 81%

Estimates of accessible food resources for pollinators in urban landscapes should take landscape friction into account

Johansson

Koffman²,

Hedblom

et al. 2018

Ecosphere

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Maintaining biodiversity in urban landscapes requires a well-functioning green infrastructure for the landscape to remain ecologically functional. However, city planners often lack knowledge to identify how well different parts of the green infrastructure are connected, and tools to estimate the accessibility to important habitats for different species in urban areas are strongly needed. We compared the ability of three measures of available food resources, with increasing complexity, for explaining species richness and abundance of bees and wasps at 23 locations in an urban landscape in Sweden. Specifically, we tested (1) the summed amount of food habitat within a buffer circle, (2) the amount of food habitat weighted by distance, and (3) the summed amount of food habitat within an area created by cost-weighted distance based on the surrounding landscape friction. We tested two spatial scales (200 and 400 m). The results show that both the summed (1) and the weighted measures (2) were very poor in explaining species richness and abundance regardless of spatial scale, while we found significant relationships for both species richness and abundance with the friction-based measure (3) at both scales. For the friction-based measure, the relationships with both response variables were strongest at the smallest spatial scale (200 m). We conclude that bees and wasps are sensitive to barriers such as large roads and built-up areas when foraging in urban environments. This is important to consider when assessing the functionality of urban green infrastructure in order to not overestimate the available amount of habitat and how well different parts of the landscape are connected for these important pollinators.

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Section: Comparing Measures Of Available Food Resourcessupporting

confidence: 81%

Estimates of accessible food resources for pollinators in urban landscapes should take landscape friction into account

Johansson

Koffman²,

Hedblom

et al. 2018

Ecosphere

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“…This means that large roads potentially can affect the ecosystem services these species provide (Baxter-Gilbert et al 2015), such as pollination and biological control (e.g. Harris 1994, Tscharntke et al 1998).…”

Section: Conclusion and Implications For Conservationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There is also some recent evidence that the mortality of insects can be substantially high along large roads (McKenna et al 2001, Soluk et al 2011, Skórka et al 2013, Baxter-Gilbert et al 2015, Skórka et al 2015. Barrier effects may also ultimately have the consequence that populations on different sides of roads become genetically isolated (Keller and Largiader 2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Roads may act as barriers to flying insects: species composition of bees and wasps differs on two sides of a large highway

Andersson¹,

Koffman²,

Sjödin³

et al. 2017

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Roads may act as barriers to animal movements, but direct barrier effects on insects have rarely been studied. In this study we collected data on bees and wasps along two sides of a large road in Sweden using yellow pan traps. We then analyzed if the species composition differed between the two sides of the road; first for the whole community, and then only for the smallest species (which typically are poorer dispersers). As a complement, we analyzed if different vegetation variables differed between the two sides of the road, as this may also affect differences in species composition. Finally, we analyzed if species richness and abundance in general differed between the two sides and how these two response variables were explained by the vegetation variables. There was a significant difference in species composition between the eastern and the western side of the road when analyzing the whole community, and this relationship became even stronger when the largest species were excluded. The vegetation variables did not strongly differ between the two sides, and there was no difference in species richness and abundance of bees and wasps either. Abundance was, however, explained by the number of flowering plants in the surroundings of the trap. Even though using a rather limited data set, our results indicate that large roads may act as barriers on the movement of bees and wasps, especially for small species with poor dispersal ability. On the other hand, road verges may be important habitat for many species, which leads to a potential conflict that is important to consider in the planning of green infrastructure. RESEARCH ARTICLE Launched to accelerate biodiversity conservation A peer-reviewed open-access journalPetter Andersson et al. / Nature Conservation 18: 47-59 (2017) 48

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“…Roads can have detrimental impacts on invertebrate species, including barrier effects (Knapp et al, 2013;Koivula & Vermeulen, 2005), and road mortality (Baxter-Gilbert et al, 2015;Keilsohn, Narango, & Tallamy, 2018;Martin et al, 2018;Rao & Girish, 2007;Seibert & Conover, 1991). Roads can have detrimental impacts on invertebrate species, including barrier effects (Knapp et al, 2013;Koivula & Vermeulen, 2005), and road mortality (Baxter-Gilbert et al, 2015;Keilsohn, Narango, & Tallamy, 2018;Martin et al, 2018;Rao & Girish, 2007;Seibert & Conover, 1991).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Little evidence of a road‐effect zone for nocturnal, flying insects

Bhardwaj

Soanes

Lahoz‐Monfort

et al. 2018

Ecology and Evolution

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Roads and traffic may be contributing to global declines of insect populations. The ecological effects of roads often extend far into the surrounding habitat, over a distance known as the road‐effect zone. The quality of habitat in the road‐effect zone is generally degraded (e.g., due to edge effects, noise, light, and chemical pollution) and can be reflected in species presence, abundance, or demographic parameters. Road‐effect zones have been quantified for some vertebrate species but are yet to be quantified for insects. Investigating the road‐effect zone for insects will provide a better understanding of how roads impact ecosystems, which is particularly important given the role insects play as pollinators, predators, and prey for other species. We quantified the road‐effect zone for nocturnal flying insects along three major freeways in agricultural landscapes in southeast Australia. We collected insects using light traps at six points along 2‐km transects perpendicular to each highway (n = 17). We sorted the samples into order, and dried and weighed each order to obtain a measure of dry biomass. Using regression models within a Bayesian framework of inference, we estimated the change in biomass of each order with distance from the road, while accounting for environmental variables such as temperature, moon phase, and vegetation structure. The biomass of nine of the ten orders sampled did not change with distance from the freeway. Orthoptera (i.e., grasshoppers and crickets) was the only order whose biomass increased with distance from the freeway. From our findings, we suggest that the impacts of roads on insects are unlikely extending into the surrounding landscape over a distance of 2 km. Therefore, if there are impacts of roads on insects, these are more likely to be concentrated at the road itself, or on finer taxonomic scales such as family or genus level.

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Road mortality potentially responsible for billions of pollinating insect deaths annually

Cited by 87 publications

References 30 publications

Estimates of accessible food resources for pollinators in urban landscapes should take landscape friction into account

Estimates of accessible food resources for pollinators in urban landscapes should take landscape friction into account

Roads may act as barriers to flying insects: species composition of bees and wasps differs on two sides of a large highway

Little evidence of a road‐effect zone for nocturnal, flying insects

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