Local and Landscape Compositions Influence Stingless Bee Communities and Pollination Networks in Tropical Mixed Fruit Orchards, Thailand

Kanuengnit Wayo,Korrawat Attasopa,Tuanjit Sritongchuay,Bajaree Chuttong,Sara Bumrungsri

doi:10.3390/d12120482

Kanuengnit Wayo, Korrawat Attasopa + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/d12120482

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Abstract

Stingless bees are vital pollinators for both wild and crop plants, yet their communities have been affected and altered by anthropogenic land-use change. Additionally, few studies have directly addressed the consequences of land-use change for meliponines, and knowledge on how their communities change across gradients in surrounding landscape cover remains scarce. Here, we examine both how local and landscape-level compositions as well as forest proximity affect both meliponine species richness and abundance together with pollination networks across 30 mixed fruit orchards in Southern Thailand. The results reveal that most landscape-level factors significantly influenced both stingless bee richness and abundance. Surrounding forest cover has a strong positive direct effect on both factors, while agricultural and urbanized cover generally reduced both bee abundance and diversity. In the local habitat, there is a significant interaction between orchard size and floral richness with stingless bee richness. We also found that pollinator specialization in pollination networks decreased when the distance to the forest patch increased. Both local and landscape factors thus influenced meliponine assemblages, particularly the forest patches surrounding an orchard, which potentially act as a key reservoir for stingless bees and other pollinator taxa. Preservation of forest patches can protect the permanent nesting and foraging habitat of various pollinator taxa, resulting in high visitation for crop and wild plants.

Highlights

Plant–pollinator interactions are important as most pollinators rely on flowering plants for food resources as well as angiosperms that require pollinators for pollination [1]
Bees are considered as a key pollinator group for both wild and crop plants [3,4]; in an era of increasing anthropogenic land-use change, wild bee communities have been affected and altered by converting natural habitats into landscapes with reduced resource diversity and availability, where land-use change is extreme [5,6]
In thisInstudy, we addressed the influence of local and landscape compositions on stingless bee communities and pollination network structure in the tropical orchards

Summary

Introduction

Plant–pollinator interactions are important as most pollinators rely on flowering plants for food resources as well as angiosperms that require pollinators for pollination [1]. Land-use change is one of the most important factors of global change that influences plant–pollinator interactions [2]. Bees are considered as a key pollinator group for both wild and crop plants [3,4]; in an era of increasing anthropogenic land-use change, wild bee communities have been affected and altered by converting natural habitats into landscapes with reduced resource diversity and availability, where land-use change is extreme [5,6]. Human disturbance of natural habitats may indirectly change pollinator communities as a result of changes in resource availability, and tropical bees may respond to land-use change differently in comparison to temperate bees

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