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Research into pollinators in managed landscapes has recently combined approaches of pollination ecology and landscape ecology, because key stressors are likely to interact across wide areas. While laboratory and field experiments are valuable for furthering understanding, studies are required to investigate the interacting drivers of pollinator health and diversity across a broader range of landscapes and a wider array of taxa. Here, we use a network of 96 study landscapes in six topographically diverse regions of Britain, to test the combined importance of honeybee density, insecticide loadings, floral resource availability and habitat diversity to pollinator communities. We also explore the interactions between these drivers and the cover and proximity of semi-natural habitat. We found that among our four drivers, only honeybee density was positively related to wild pollinator abundance and diversity, and the positive association between abundance and floral resources depended on insecticide loadings and habitat diversity. By contrast, our exploratory models including habitat composition metrics revealed a complex suite of interactive effects. These results demonstrate that improving pollinator community composition and health is unlikely to be achieved with general resource enhancements only. Rather, local land-use context should be considered in fine-tuning pollinator management and conservation. This article is part of the theme issue 'Natural processes influencing pollinator health: from chemistry to landscapes'.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2021.0172 | DOI Listing |
J Anim Ecol
September 2025
Terrestrial Ecology Research Group, Department of Ecology and Ecosystem Management, School of Life Sciences, Technische Universität München, Freising, Germany.
Land-use change and intensification are major drivers of biodiversity loss, yet their effects on diversity have usually been studied within a single habitat type or land-use category, limiting our understanding of cross-habitat patterns. Moths, a species-rich taxon worldwide, represent a significant portion of the biodiversity in both temperate forests and grasslands, functioning as pollinators and herbivores. While increasing land-use intensity (LUI) in both habitats is expected to negatively impact moth assemblages, the strength of this effect remains uncertain.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPesticide exposure and climate change are key drivers of pollinator declines. Exposure to certain pesticides and high temperatures can influence the cognitive ability of insect pollinators, such as bees, but little is known about how these stressors interact. As central place foragers, bees must learn and remember floral cues, and so impaired memory may influence foraging efficiency and fitness.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEcology
September 2025
Department of Biology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.
Widespread declines in the abundance of insects portend ill-fated futures for their host ecosystems, all of which require their services to function. For many such reports, human activities have directly altered the land or water of these ecosystems, raising questions about how insects in less impacted environments are faring. I quantified the abundance of flying insects during 15 seasons spanning 2004-2024 on a relatively unscathed, subalpine meadow in Colorado, where weather data have been recorded for 38 years.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Integr Plant Biol
September 2025
State Key Laboratory of Plant Diversity and Specialty Crops, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510650, China.
Both biotic and abiotic factors are expected to drive species diversification, yet demonstrating their synergistic effects within a single framework is challenging and has rarely been studied. The recent and rapid radiation of the genus Aspidistra (cast-iron plant) provides an ideal system for examining these processes. Here, we generated restriction site-associated DNA sequencing data for 123 Aspidistra taxa and reconstructed well-resolved phylogenies using both concatenation- and coalescent-based approaches.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Environ Manage
August 2025
Department of Agricultural Education and Communication, University of Florida, PO Box 110540, Gainesville, FL, 32601, USA. Electronic address:
Pollinators are declining worldwide due to human-induced factors including land use conversions, urbanization, and climate change. Relatedly, human behavior is expected to play a central role in addressing pollinator decline, making complex social science research essential to protecting biodiversity. Pollinator-friendly roadsides represent opportunities to provide habitat and connectivity in relatively underutilized landscapes.
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