Mapping the dependency of crops on pollinators in Belgium

peer reviewedBackground Because of their pollinating activity, insect pollinators provide an ecosystem service that is essential to ecosystems and our economy. A large majority of the flowering plants we consume depends on it. In turn, the decline in pollinators observed for the last decades in Belgium as in many other European countries threatens agriculture and human well-being. New information Here we evaluate the pollination service at a country-wide scale through the estimated value of the contribution of insect pollination to the production used for human consumption in Belgium using crop dependency ratios. We then mapped the vulnerability of crops in the face of pollinator decline at the provincial level. We show that the part of plant production for human food that we can attribute to the action of insect pollinators represents a value of about 251.6 million euros in 2010 in Belgium. As a result, 11.1 % of total value of Belgian plant production (in terms of fruit quantity and quality) depend on pollinators

Status and trends of wild pollinators in Belgium and north of France

Status and trends of wild pollinators in Belgium and North of France Morgane Folschweiller1, Floriane Jacquemin2, Maxime Drossart1, Marc Dufrêne2, Pierre Rasmont1 Folschweiller M. 1, Jacquemin F.2, Drossart M.1, Dufrêne M.2, Michez D. 1, Rasmont P.1 1Laboratoire de Zoologie, Université de Mons, Mons, Belgium 2UR Biodiversité et Payasage, Université de Liège - Gembloux AgroBioTech, Gembloux, Belgium Pollinators play a very important role in terrestrial ecosystems. Indeed, by contributing to the pollination of most of our wild and cultivated flowering plants, they provide an essential ecosystem service. The main goal of the SAPOLL project is to elaborate an action plan for the conservation of wild pollinators in Belgium and north of France. In order to do so, prior assessments are needed. Here we present our first review of wild pollinators situation at global and regional level. This report, made by regional experts, addresses the decline of wild pollinators, the associated factors and also the consequences of this decline

Diatom DNA metabarcoding for ecological assessment: Comparison among bioinformatics pipelines used in six European countries reveals the need for standardization

Ecological assessment of lakes and rivers using benthic diatom assemblages currently requires considerable taxonomic expertise to identify species using light microscopy. This traditional approach is also time-consuming. Diatom metabarcoding is a promising alternative and there is increasing interest in using this approach for routine assessment. However, until now, analysis protocols for diatom metabarcoding have been developed and optimised by research groups working in isolation. The diversity of existing bioinformatics methods highlights the need for an assessment of the performance and comparability of results of different methods. The aim of this study was to test the correspondence of outputs from six bioinformatics pipelines currently in use for diatom metabarcoding in different European countries. Raw sequence data from 29 biofilm samples were treated by each of the bioinformatics pipelines, five of them using the same curated reference database. The outputs of the pipelines were compared in terms of sequence unit assemblages, taxonomic assignment, biotic index score and ecological assessment outcomes. The three last components were also compared to outputs from traditional light microscopy, which is currently accepted for ecological assessment of phytobenthos, as required by the Water Framework Directive. We also tested the performance of the pipelines on the two DNA markers (rbcL and 185-V4) that are currently used by the working groups participating in this study. The sequence unit assemblages produced by different pipelines showed significant differences in terms of assigned and unassigned read numbers and sequence unit numbers. When comparing the taxonomic assignments at genus and species level, correspondence of the taxonomic assemblages between pipelines was weak. Most discrepancies were linked to differential detection or quantification of taxa, despite the use of the same reference database. Subsequent calculation of biotic index scores also showed significant differences between approaches, which were reflected in the final ecological assessment. Use of the rbcL marker always resulted in better correlation among molecular datasets and also in results closer to these generated using traditional microscopy. This study shows that decisions made in pipeline design have implications for the dataset's structure and the taxonomic assemblage, which in turn may affect biotic index calculation and ecological assessment. There is a need to define best-practice bioinformatics parameters in order to ensure the best representation of diatom assemblages. Only the use of similar parameters will ensure the compatibility of data from different working groups. The future of diatom metabarcoding for ecological assessment may also lie in the development of new metrics using, for example, presence/absence instead of relative abundance data. (C) 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V

Covariations between plant functional traits emerge from constraining parameterization of a terrestrial biosphere model

Aim: The mechanisms of plant trait adaptation and acclimation are still poorly understood and, consequently, lack a consistent representation in terrestrial biosphere models (TBMs). Despite the increasing availability of geo‐referenced trait observations, current databases are still insufficient to cover all vegetation types and environmental conditions. In parallel, the growing number of continuous eddy‐covariance observations of energy and CO2 fluxes has enabled modellers to optimize TBMs with these data. Past attempts to optimize TBM parameters mostly focused on model performance, overlooking the ecological properties of ecosystems. The aim of this study was to assess the ecological consistency of optimized trait‐related parameters while improving the model performances for gross primary productivity (GPP) at sites. Location: Worldwide. Time period: 1992–2012. Major taxa studied: Trees and C3 grasses. Methods: We optimized parameters of the ORCHIDEE model against 371 site‐years of GPP estimates from the FLUXNET network, and we looked at global covariation among parameters and with climate. Results: The optimized parameter values were shown to be consistent with leaf‐scale traits, in particular, with well‐known trade‐offs observed at the leaf level, echoing the leaf economic spectrum theory. Results showed a marked sensitivity of trait‐related parameters to local bioclimatic variables and reproduced the observed relationships between traits and climate. Main conclusions: Our approach validates some biological processes implemented in the model and enables us to study ecological properties of vegetation at the canopy level, in addition to some traits that are difficult to observe experimentally. This study stresses the need for: (a) implementing explicit trade‐offs and acclimation processes in TBMs; (b) improving the representation of processes to avoid model‐specific parameterization; and (c) performing systematic measurements of traits at FLUXNET sites in order to gather information on plant ecophysiology and plant diversity, together with micro‐meteorological conditions

Commercial spruce plantations support a limited. canopy fauna: Evidence from a multi taxa comparison of native and plantation forests

Globally, the total area of plantation forest is increasing as deforestation and fragmentation of native forest continues. In some countries commercial plantations make up more than half of the total forested land. Internationally, there is growing emphasis on forestry policy for plantations to deliver biodiversity and ecosystem services. In Ireland, native forest now comprises just 1% of total land cover while non-native spruce forest makes up 60% of the plantation estate and approximately 6% of the total land cover. The majority of plantation invertebrate biodiversity assessments focus on ground-dwelling species and consequently a good understanding exists for these guilds, especially ground-active spiders and beetles. Using a technique of insecticide fogging, we examine the less well understood component of forest systems, the canopy fauna (Coleoptera, Araneae, Diptera and Hemiptera), in Irish spruce plantations (Sitka and Norway) and compare the assemblage composition, richness and abundance to that of remnant native forest (ash and oak). In addition, we examine the potential for accumulation of forest species in second rotation spruce plantations and identify indicator species for each forest type. From 30 sampled canopies, we recorded 1155 beetles and 1340 spiders from 144 species and over 142 000 Diptera and Hemiptera from 71 families. For all taxa, canopy assemblages of native forests were significantly different from closed-canopy plantation forests. No indicators for plantation forest were identified; those identified for native forest included species from multiple feeding guilds. Plantations supported approximately half the number of beetle species and half the number of Diptera and Hemiptera families recorded in native forests. Although assemblages in Norway spruce plantations were very different to those of native forest, they had consistently higher richness than Sitka spruce plantations. No differences in richness or abundance were found between first rotation and second rotation Sitka spruce plantations. Compared to other forest types, Sitka spruce plantations contained far greater total abundance of invertebrates, due to vast numbers of aphids and midges. Under current management, Sitka spruce plantations provide limited benefit to the canopy fauna typical of native forests in either first or second rotations. The large aphid populations may provide abundant food for insectivores but may also lead to reduced crop production through defoliation. Progressive forestry management should attempt to diversify the plantation canopy fauna, which may also increase productivity and resilience to pest species

Climate control of terrestrial carbon exchange across biomes and continents

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