Journal article
Generalist social bees maximize diversity intake in plant species-rich and resource-abundant environments
Ecosphere, Vol.8(3), e01758
2017
Abstract
Numerous studies revealed a positive relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, suggesting that biodiverse environments may not only enhance ecosystem processes, but also benefit individual ecosystem members by, for example, providing a higher diversity of resources. Whether and how the number of available resources affects resource collection and subsequently consumers (e.g., through impacting functions associated with resources) have, however, been little investigated, although a better understanding of this relationship may help explain why the abundance and richness of many animal species typically decline with decreasing plant (resource) diversity. Using a social bee species as model (Tetragonula carbonaria), we investigated how plant species richness-recorded for study sites located in different habitats-and associated resource abundance affected the diversity and functionality (here defined as nutritional content and antimicrobial activity) of resources (i.e., pollen, nectar, and resin) collected by a generalist herbivorous consumer. The diversity of both pollen and resin collected strongly increased with increasing plant/tree species richness, while resource abundance was only positively correlated with resin diversity. These findings suggest that bees maximize resource diversity intake in (resource) diverse habitats. Collecting more diverse resources did, however, not increase their functionality, which appeared to be primarily driven by the surrounding (plant) source community in our study. In generalist herbivores, maximizing resource diversity intake may therefore primarily secure collection of sufficient amounts of resources across the entire foraging season, but it also ensures that the allocated resources meet all functional needs. Decreasing available resource diversity may thus impact consumers primarily by reduced resource abundance, but also by reduced resource functionality, particularly when resources of high functionality (e.g., from specific plant species) become scarce.
Details
- Title
- Generalist social bees maximize diversity intake in plant species-rich and resource-abundant environments
- Authors
- Benjamin F Kaluza (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - Faculty of Science, Health, Education and EngineeringHelen M Wallace (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - Faculty of Science, Health, Education and EngineeringAlexander Keller (Author) - University of Wurzburg, GermanyTim A Heard (Author) - CSIRO Ecosystem SciencesBradley Jeffers (Author)Nora Dresher (Author) - Leuphana University, GermanyNico Bluthgen (Author) - University of Darmstadt, GermanySara Leonhardt (Author) - University of Wurzburg, Germany
- Publication details
- Ecosphere, Vol.8(3), e01758; 19
- Publisher
- Ecological Society of America
- Date published
- 2017
- DOI
- 10.1002/ecs2.1758
- ISSN
- 2150-8925
- Copyright note
- Copyright © 2017 Kaluza et al. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
- Organisation Unit
- School of Science and Engineering - Legacy; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; GeneCology Research Centre - Legacy
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99450410002621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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