Historical changes in bee species richness in two areas with contrasting land use patterns in Cyprus

peer reviewed15. Life on lan

Urbanisation drives an early spring for plants but not for pollinators

peer reviewedCliPS - Fédération Wallonie Bruxelle

Bumblebee resilience to climate change, through plastic and adaptive responses

peer reviewe

Phylogeny, biogeography and diversification of the mining bee family Andrenidae

peer reviewedThe mining bees (Andrenidae) are a major bee family of over 3000 described species with a nearly global distribution. They are a particularly significant component of northern temperate ecosystems and are critical pollinators in natural and agricultural settings. Despite their ecological and evolutionary significance, our knowledge of the evolutionary history of Andrenidae is sparse and insufficient to characterize their spatiotemporal origin and phylogenetic relationships. This limits our ability to understand the diversification dynamics that led to the second most species-rich genus of all bees, Andrena Fabricius, and the most species-rich North American genus, Perdita Smith. Here, we develop a comprehensive genomic dataset of 195 species of Andrenidae, including all major lineages, to illuminate the evolutionary history of the family. Using fossil-informed divergence time estimates, we characterize macroevolutionary dynamics, incorporate paleoclimatic information, and present our findings in the context of diversification rate estimates for all other bee tribes. We found that diversification rates of Andrenidae steeply increased over the past 15 million years, particularly in the genera Andrena and Perdita. This suggests that these two groups and the brood parasites of the genus Nomada Scopoli (Apidae), which are the primary cleptoparasitic counterparts of Andrena, are similar in age and represent the fastest diversifying lineages of all bees. Using our newly developed time frame of andrenid evolution, we estimate a late Cretaceous origin in South America for the family and reconstruct the past dispersal events that led to its present-day distribution.15. Life on lan

A new method to determine the diet of pygmy hippopotamus in Taï National Park, Côte d’Ivoire

This research was funded by “Fond des donations” of the University of Neuchâtel and the “Willy Müller Award” of the Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques en Côte d’Ivoire.Diet determination of endangered species is an essential element in defining successful conservation strategies and optimising captive breeding programmes. In this study, we developed a new diet identification system, derived from standard faecal analysis, to determine the diet of an elusive and endangered herbivore, the pygmy hippopotamus (Choeropsis liberiensis). We collected faecal samples from 10 free-ranging individuals covering a combined home range area of about 50 km2 in Taï National Park, Côte d’Ivoire. In subsequent laboratory analyses, we extracted a large number of leaf epidermis fragments from spatially separated faecal samples and compared them with a reference plant database. Using Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) of epidermis fragments combined with direct visual inspection, we identified the most frequently consumed plant species, which revealed that pygmy hippopotami qualified as intermediate feeders. Their diet was based on at least seven species of monocotyledonae, dicotyledonae and fern groups, with a preference for a small number of other plant species. We evaluate the merit of our method and discuss our findings for developing effective conservation and captive breeding strategies in an endangered species with a wild population of less than 2500 adult individuals.PostprintPeer reviewe

National records of 3000 European bee and hoverfly species: A contribution to pollinator conservation

Pollinators play a crucial role in ecosystems globally, ensuring the seed production of most flowering plants. They are threatened by global changes and knowledge of their distribution at the national and continental levels is needed to implement efficient conservation actions, but this knowledge is still fragmented and/or difficult to access. As a step forward, we provide an updated list of around 3000 European bee and hoverfly species, reflecting their current distributional status at the national level (in the form of present, absent, regionally extinct, possibly extinct or non-native). This work was attainable by incorporating both published and unpublished data, as well as knowledge from a large set of taxonomists and ecologists in both groups. After providing the first National species lists for bees and hoverflies for many countries, we examine the current distributional patterns of these species and designate the countries with highest levels of species richness. We also show that many species are recorded in a single European country, highlighting the importance of articulating European and national conservation strategies. Finally, we discuss how the data provided here can be combined with future trait and Red List data to implement research that will further advance pollinator conservation

Design and planning of a transdisciplinary investigation into farmland pollinators: rationale, co-design, and lessons learned

To provide a complete portrayal of the multiple factors negatively impacting insects in agricultural landscapes it is necessary to assess the concurrent incidence, magnitude, and interactions among multiple stressors over substantial biogeographical scales. Trans-national ecological field investigations with wide-ranging stakeholders typically encounter numerous challenges during the design planning stages, not least that the scientific soundness of a spatially replicated study design must account for the substantial geographic and climatic variation among distant sites. ‘PoshBee’ (Pan-European assessment, monitoring, and mitigation of Stressors on the Health of Bees) is a multi-partner transdisciplinary agroecological project established to investigate the suite of stressors typically encountered by pollinating insects in European agricultural landscapes. To do this, PoshBee established a network of 128 study sites across eight European countries and collected over 50 measurements and samples relating to the nutritional, toxicological, pathogenic, and landscape components of the bees’ environment. This paper describes the development process, rationale, and end-result of each aspect of the of the PoshBee field investigation. We describe the main issues and challenges encountered during the design stages and highlight a number of actions or processes that may benefit other multi-partner research consortia planning similar large-scale studies. It was soon identified that in a multi-component study design process, the development of interaction and communication networks involving all collaborators and stakeholders requires considerable time and resources. It was also necessary at each planning stage to be mindful of the needs and objectives of all stakeholders and partners, and further challenges inevitably arose when practical limitations, such as time restrictions and labour constraints, were superimposed upon prototype study designs. To promote clarity for all stakeholders, for each sub-component of the study, there should be a clear record of the rationale and reasoning that outlines how the final design transpired, what compromises were made, and how the requirements of different stakeholders were accomplished. Ultimately, multi-national agroecological field studies such as PoshBee benefit greatly from the involvement of diverse stakeholders and partners, ranging from field ecologists, project managers, policy legislators, mathematical modelers, and farmer organisations. While the execution of the study highlighted the advantages and benefits of large-scale transdisciplinary projects, the long planning period emphasized the need to formally describe a design framework that could facilitate the design process of future multi-partner collaborations

Conservation of pollinators in traditional agricultural landscapes – New challenges in Transylvania (Romania) posed by EU accession and recommendations for future research

Farmland biodiversity is strongly declining in most of Western Europe, but still survives in traditional low intensity agricultural landscapes in Central and Eastern Europe. Accession to the EU however intensifies agriculture, which leads to the vanishing of traditional farming. Our aim was to describe the pollinator assemblages of the last remnants of these landscapes, thus set the baseline of sustainable farming for pollination, and to highlight potential measures of conservation. In these traditional farmlands in the Transylvanian Basin, Romania (EU accession in 2007), we studied the major pollinator groups-wild bees, hoverflies and butterflies. Landscape scale effects of semi-natural habitats, land cover diversity, the effects of heterogeneity and woody vegetation cover and on-site flower resources were tested on pollinator communities in traditionally managed arable fields and grasslands. Our results showed: (i) semi-natural habitats at the landscape scale have a positive effect on most pollinators, especially in the case of low heterogeneity of the direct vicinity of the studied sites; (ii) both arable fields and grasslands hold abundant flower resources, thus both land use types are important in sustaining pollinator communities; (iii) thus, pollinator conservation can rely even on arable fields under traditional management regime. This has an indirect message that the tiny flower margins around large intensive fields in west Europe can be insufficient conservation measures to restore pollinator communities at the landscape scale, as this is still far the baseline of necessary flower resources. This hypothesis needs further study, which includes more traditional landscapes providing baseline, and exploration of other factors behind the lower than baseline level biodiversity values of fields under agri-environmental schemes (AES)

Changes to the Fossil Record of Insects through Fifteen Years of Discovery

The first and last occurrences of hexapod families in the fossil record are compiled from publications up to end-2009. The major features of these data are compared with those of previous datasets (1993 and 1994). About a third of families (>400) are new to the fossil record since 1994, over half of the earlier, existing families have experienced changes in their known stratigraphic range and only about ten percent have unchanged ranges. Despite these significant additions to knowledge, the broad pattern of described richness through time remains similar, with described richness increasing steadily through geological history and a shift in dominant taxa, from Palaeoptera and Polyneoptera to Paraneoptera and Holometabola, after the Palaeozoic. However, after detrending, described richness is not well correlated with the earlier datasets, indicating significant changes in shorter-term patterns. There is reduced Palaeozoic richness, peaking at a different time, and a less pronounced Permian decline. A pronounced Triassic peak and decline is shown, and the plateau from the mid Early Cretaceous to the end of the period remains, albeit at substantially higher richness compared to earlier datasets. Origination and extinction rates are broadly similar to before, with a broad decline in both through time but episodic peaks, including end-Permian turnover. Origination more consistently exceeds extinction compared to previous datasets and exceptions are mainly in the Palaeozoic. These changes suggest that some inferences about causal mechanisms in insect macroevolution are likely to differ as well

III.2.3.b. – Faciès à Gilvossius tyrrhenus (Syn. Pestarella tyrrhena) et Bornia sebetia (Syn. Kellia corbuloides)

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