Using Matching Traits to Study the Impacts of Land-Use Intensification on Plant–Pollinator Interactions in European Grasslands: A Review
Open Access
- 28 July 2021
- Vol. 12 (8), 680
- https://doi.org/10.3390/insects12080680
Abstract
Permanent grasslands are suitable habitats for many plant and animal species, among which are pollinating insects that provide a wide range of ecosystem services. A global crisis in pollination ecosystem service has been highlighted in recent decades, partly the result of land-use intensification. At the grassland scale, however, the underlying mechanisms of land-use intensification that affect plant–pollinator interactions and pollination remain understudied. In this review, we first synthesise the literature to provide new insights into the relationships between land-use intensification and pollination by using matching community and interaction traits. We then identify knowledge gaps and summarise how land-use intensification of grassland influences floral traits that may in turn be associated with modifications to pollinator matching traits. Last, we summarise how these modifications may affect pollination function on permanent grasslands. Overall, land-use intensification may lead to a shift in flower colour, a decrease in mean nectar tube depth and a decrease in reward production and pollen quality at the community level. This, in turn, may generate a decrease in pollinator mouthparts length and body size, that may favour pollinators that require a low amount of floral reward. We found no study citing the effect of land-use intensification on volatile organic compounds emitted by flowers despite the importance of these molecules in pollinator community composition. Overall, our review highlighted major knowledge gaps about the effects of land-use intensification on plant–pollinator interactions, and suggests that land-use intensification could favour plants with generalised floral traits that adversely affect pollination.Keywords
Funding Information
- Ph.D. grant from the French Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation (None, None, None)
This publication has 84 references indexed in Scilit:
- The contribution of floral resources and honeydew to the performance of predatory hoverflies (Diptera: Syrphidae)Biological Control, 2013
- Specialization on traits as basis for the niche‐breadth of flower visitors and as structuring mechanism of ecological networksFunctional Ecology, 2012
- Land use intensity in grasslands: Changes in biodiversity, species composition and specialisation in flower visitor networksBasic and Applied Ecology, 2011
- Global pollinator declines: trends, impacts and driversTrends in Ecology & Evolution, 2010
- Why network analysis is often disconnected from community ecology: A critique and an ecologist's guideBasic and Applied Ecology, 2010
- Uniting pattern and process in plant–animal mutualistic networks: a reviewAnnals of Botany, 2009
- Incorporating plant functional diversity effects in ecosystem service assessmentsProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2007
- Assessing the Effects of Land-use Change on Plant Traits, Communities and Ecosystem Functioning in Grasslands: A Standardized Methodology and Lessons from an Application to 11 European SitesAnnals of Botany, 2006
- Functional Diversity of Plant–Pollinator Interaction Webs Enhances the Persistence of Plant CommunitiesPLoS Biology, 2005
- TOWARD A METABOLIC THEORY OF ECOLOGYEcology, 2004