British phenological records indicate high diversity and extinction rates among late-summer-flying pollinators

The long-term decline of wild and managed insect pollinators is a threat to both agricultural output and biodiversity, and has been linked to decreasing floral resources. Further insight into the temporal relationships of pollinators and their flowering partners is required to inform conservation efforts. Here we examined the phenology of British: (i) pollinator activity; (ii) insect-pollinated plant flowering; and (iii) extinct and endangered pollinator and plant species. Over 1 million records were collated from the historical databases of three British insect monitoring organisations, a global biodiversity database and an authoritative text covering the national flora. Almost two-thirds (62%) of pollinator species have peak flight observations during late-summer (July and August). This was the case across three of the groups studied: aculeate wasps (71% of species), bees (60%), and butterflies (72%), the exception being hoverflies (49%). When species geographical range (a proxy for abundance) was accounted for, a clear late-summer peak was clear across all groups. By contrast, there is marked temporal partitioning in the flowering of the major plant groups: insect-pollinated tree species blossoming predominantly during May (74%), shrubs in June (69%), and herbs in July (83%). There was a positive correlation between the number of pollinator species on the wing and the richness of both flowering insect-pollinated herbs and trees/shrubs species, per calendar month. In addition, significantly greater extinctions occurred in late-summer-flying pollinator species than expected (83% of extinct species vs. 62% of all species). This trend was driven primarily by bee extinctions (80% vs. 60%) and was not apparent in other groups. We contend that this is principally due to declines in late-summer resource supplies, which are almost entirely provisioned by herbs, a consequence of historical land-use change. We hypothesize that the seasonality of interspecific competition and the blooming of trees and mass-flowering crops may have partially buffered spring-flying pollinators from the impacts of historical change

Rapid evolution of a floral trait following acquisition of novel pollinators

Changes in the pollinator assemblage visiting a plant can have consequences for reproductive success and floral evolution. We studied a recent plant trans‐continental range expansion to test whether the acquisition of new pollinator functional groups can lead to rapid adaptive evolution of flowers. In Digitalis purpurea, we compared flower visitors, floral traits and natural selection between native European populations and those in two Neotropical regions, naturalised after independent introductions. Bumblebees are the main pollinators in native populations while both bumblebees and hummingbirds are important visitors in the new range. We confirmed that the birds are effective pollinators and deposit more pollen grains on stigmas than bumblebees. We found convergent changes in the two new regions towards larger proximal corolla tubes, a floral trait that restricts access to nectar to visitors with long mouthparts. There was a strong positive linear selection for this trait in the introduced populations, particularly on the length of the proximal corolla tube, consistent with the addition of hummingbirds as pollinators. Synthesis. The addition of new pollinators is likely to happen often as humans influence the ranges of plants and pollinators but it is also a common feature in the long‐term evolution of the angiosperms. We show how novel selection followed by very rapid evolutionary change can be an important force behind the extraordinary diversity of flower

DoPI: the database of pollinator interactions

Despite the importance of pollinating insects to natural environments and agriculture, there have been few attempts to unite the existing plant-pollinator interaction datasets into a single depository using a common format. Accordingly, we have created one of the world's first online, open-access, and searchable pollinator-plant interaction databases. DoPI (The Database of Pollinator Interactions) was built from a systematic review of the scientific literature and unpublished datasets requested from researchers and organisations. We collated records of interactions between British plant and insect flower-visitor species (or genera), together with associated metadata (date, location, habitat, source publication) where available. The dataset currently (December 2021) contains 101,539 records, detailing over 320,000 interactions. The number of interactions (i.e. the number of times a pairwise species interaction was recorded per occasion) varies considerably among records, averaging 3.6. These include records from 1,888 pollinator species and 1,241 plant species, totalling >17,000 pairwise species interactions. By combining a large volume of information in a single repository, DoPI can be used to answer fundamental ecological questions on the dynamics of pollination interactions in space and time, as well as applied questions in conservation practice. We hope this dynamic database will be a useful tool not only for researchers, but also for conservationists, funding agencies, governmental departments, beekeepers, agronomists and gardeners. We request that this paper is cited when using the data in publications and individual studies where appropriate. Researchers and organisations are encouraged to add further data in the future. The database can be accessed at: https://www.dopi.org.uk/

Patients with Crohn's disease have longer post-operative in-hospital stay than patients with colon cancer but no difference in complications' rate

BACKGROUNDRight hemicolectomy or ileocecal resection are used to treat benign conditions like Crohn's disease (CD) and malignant ones like colon cancer (CC).AIMTo investigate differences in pre- and peri-operative factors and their impact on post-operative outcome in patients with CC and CD.METHODSThis is a sub-group analysis of the European Society of Coloproctology's prospective, multi-centre snapshot audit. Adult patients with CC and CD undergoing right hemicolectomy or ileocecal resection were included. Primary outcome measure was 30-d post-operative complications. Secondary outcome measures were post-operative length of stay (LOS) at and readmission.RESULTSThree hundred and seventy-five patients with CD and 2,515 patients with CC were included. Patients with CD were younger (median = 37 years for CD and 71 years for CC (P < 0.01), had lower American Society of Anesthesiology score (ASA) grade (P < 0.01) and less comorbidity (P < 0.01), but were more likely to be current smokers (P < 0.01). Patients with CD were more frequently operated on by colorectal surgeons (P < 0.01) and frequently underwent ileocecal resection (P < 0.01) with higher rate of de-functioning/primary stoma construction (P < 0.01). Thirty-day post-operative mortality occurred exclusively in the CC group (66/2515, 2.3%). In multivariate analyses, the risk of post-operative complications was similar in the two groups (OR 0.80, 95%CI: 0.54-1.17; P = 0.25). Patients with CD had a significantly longer LOS (Geometric mean 0.87, 95%CI: 0.79-0.95; P < 0.01). There was no difference in re-admission rates. The audit did not collect data on post-operative enhanced recovery protocols that are implemented in the different participating centers.CONCLUSIONPatients with CD were younger, with lower ASA grade, less comorbidity, operated on by experienced surgeons and underwent less radical resection but had a longer LOS than patients with CC although complication's rate was not different between the two groups