Latest News Latest News

Las altas temperaturas están provocando que las lagunas y las marismas de Doñana pierdan agua rápidamente

La superficie inundada en la marisma es de un 78% pero la profundidad es escasa. Por otra parte, sólo el 1,9% de las lagunas temporales están inundadas. Las precipitaciones crean una oportunidad...

Traffic noise causes lifelong harm to baby birds

A study with CSIC participation reveals for the first time that car noise harms individuals throughout their lifetime even years after exposure

Illegal wildlife trade, a serious problem for biodiversity and human health

A research team led by the Doñana BIological Station and the University Pablo de Olavide have detected wild-caught pets in 95% of the localities in the Neotropic and warns of the risk of zoonotic...

Urbanization and loss of woody vegetation are changing key traits of arthropod communities

Urbanization is favouring smaller beetle species and larger spider species with greater dispersal capacity.

The loss of woody areas is linked to a decline in the duration of the activity...

Asset Publisher Asset Publisher

Back

Honeybees disrupt the structure and functionality of plant-pollinator networks

Honeybees disrupt the structure and functionality of plant-pollinator networks

The honeybee Apis mellifera is the primary managed species worldwide for both crop pollination and honey production. Owing to beekeeping activity, its high relative abundance potentially affects the structure and functioning of pollination networks in natural ecosystems. Given that evidences about beekeeping impacts are restricted to observational studies of specific species and theoretical simulations, experimental data are still lacking to test for their larger-scale impacts on biodiversity. Here a three-year field experiment in a natural ecosystem was used to compare the effects of pre- and post-establishment stages of beehives on the pollination network structure and plant reproductive success. Results show that beekeeping reduces the diversity of wild pollinators and interaction links in the pollination networks. It disrupts their hierarchical structural organization causing the loss of interactions by generalist species, and also impairs pollination services by wild pollinators through reducing the reproductive success of those plant species highly visited by honeybees. High-density beekeeping in natural areas appears to have lasting, more serious negative impacts on biodiversity than was previously assumed. informacion[at]ebd.csic.es: Valido et al (2019) Honeybees disrupt the structure and functionality of plant-pollinator networks. Sci Rep https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-41271-5DO


https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-41271-5