High genetic connectivity of two pollinating flies despite urban disturbance

Abstract

AbstractHoverflies (Syrphidae) are essential pollinators, and their severe decline jeopardizes their invaluable contribution to plant diversity and agricultural production. However, we know little about the dispersal abilities of hoverflies in urbanized landscapes, limiting our understanding of the spatiotemporal dynamics of plant–pollinator systems and reducing our ability to preserve biodiversity in the context of global change. Previous work has not addressed how urbanization affects the functional connectivity of hoverflies and whether dispersal is a limiting factor in their population dynamics. In this study, we investigated the spatial genetic structure of two nonmigratory species of hoverflies in two urban areas. We collected more than a thousand specimens of each Syritta pipiens and Myathropa florea, each, by hand netting in two western European urbanized study areas of 490 and 460 km2 in 2021, and we genotyped them at 14 and 24 microsatellite loci, respectively. Based on spatial and nonspatial Bayesian clustering methods, we failed to reject the null hypothesis of panmixia, suggesting that both species exhibited high genetic connectivity despite urbanization. The distribution of allele frequencies was not correlated with geographic distance, implying that isolation‐by‐distance was negligible at the investigated spatial scale in both species. Although anthropogenic land cover changes generally have dramatic consequences on biodiversity, these hoverfly species retain high connectivity, which suggests that dispersal is not a strong limiting factor in their metapopulational dynamics. However, high effective population size and its confounding effect on signals of genetic drift may limit our ability to conclude confidently about landscape effects on gene flow in those two species. Provided we maintain or restore habitat, recolonization may be prompt even in urban areas.