Common Visitors Research Articles

Spatiotemporal variability and foraging behavior of bee visitors to a rare long-lived iteroparous forb, Silene spaldingii (Caryophyllaceae).

Silene spaldingii S Watson is a rare long-lived forb (Caryophyllaceae) found primarily in open native grasslands of the Inland Pacific Northwest and is putatively pollinated by one key bumble bee pollinator, Bombus fervidus (Fabricius). However, populations of bumble bees and their visitation patterns can vary dramatically, and some species are in decline including B. fervidus. Understanding the role of co-pollinators such as sweat bees (Halictidae) could be crucial as the plight of rare plants and pollinators intensifies. We collected data across three seasons (2015-2017) on the Bombus-S. spaldingii pollination system, focusing on three Key Conservation Areas in the Channeled Scablands of eastern Washington. Bee visitors to S. spaldingii were monitored and the pool-of-pollinators was surveyed with blue vane traps. Nine species of bees were observed foraging on the plant, while 2211 bees comprised of five families, 22 genera and 81 taxa were captured in blue vane traps, meaning only 11.1% of species in the pollinator pool visited S. spaldingii. Halictus tripartitus Cockerell, a sweat bee, was a common visitor to the plant, but this was the first record of visitation for several other species, including Lasioglossum buccale (Pérez) which has never before been recorded in the Americas. These sweat bees appear to vector S. spaldingii pollen, suggesting they are co-pollinators of the plant. Weather and patch characteristics affected visitation patterns and the pool-of-pollinators. We conclude that sweat bees are likely co-pollinators of S. spaldingii and that they could become increasingly important if B. fervidus populations continue to decline.

Возможности консервативной тактики ведения пациентов с гипертрофией и воспалением глоточной миндалины

Patients who suffer from pharyngeal tonsil hypertrophy or inflammation are very common visitors in outpatient physicians’ practice. Hypertrophy of the pharyngeal tonsil may be accompanied by persistent difficulty in nasal breathing and complications whilst adenoditis in the absence of a significant impact on the child’s quality of life and associated complications had not been regarded as a ‘pathology’ in pediatric physicians’ practice until the patient is reached the age of 7 to 9 years old. The purpose of this research was to compare the regimens of the use of the homeopathic medications in patients with pharyngeal tonsil hypertrophy or inflammation. Materials and methods used: a single-center controlled randomized observation of the use of homeopathic medications of a single active substance had been conducted in pediatric patients aged 1 to 18 y/o with pharyngeal tonsil hypertrophy or inflammation. The study included patients with pharyngeal tonsil hypertrophy or inflammation who had previously taken homeopathic single-substance medications, including in combination with standard treatment. Depending on the choice of patients (repetition of the homeopathic single-substance medications intake or prophylactic regimen) the patients were then divided into comparison groups. All of the patients had undergone both the routine examination and the ENT endoscopy, the parents’/caregivers’ satisfaction with the treatment results was then assessed using the 5-point Likert scale as well as the incidence of acute respiratory infections (ARI) in children while taking homeopathic medicines (compared to the period without taking them) and the willingness to use homeopathic medicines in the future. Results: after the ENT endoscopy (reduction in the size of the pharyngeal tonsil in 38% of cases, p≤0.001) and the parents’/caregivers’ survey (reduction in the ARI frequency in 62% of cases and high satisfaction with the treatment results), the majority of parents/caregivers have assessed the repetition of the repetition of the homeopathic single-substance medications intake as rather more effective in treatment of patients with inflammation of the pharyngeal tonsil of varying degrees of hypertrophy. Conclusion: the use of homeopathic medicines in patients with pharyngeal tonsil hypertrophy or inflammation has showed good effectiveness. According to the ENT endoscopy results before v. after the treatment and the parents’/caregivers’ survey it is preferable to repeat the homeopathic single-substance medications intake in the next adenoiditis episode. The parents’/caregivers’ readiness to go on with the homeopathic medicines’ intake ranges from 50% to 78%.

Evaluating wildlife tourism exposure to Florida manatees using citizen science, public interviews, and trail cameras

Abstract Wildlife tourism often focuses on marine mammals, and the growing frequency of human interactions raises concerns about the sustainability of these activities and their impact on aquatic species. Tourists have the opportunity to view the Florida manatee (Trichechus manatus latirostris) in various locations; however, the level of tourist activity in some areas and their effects on manatees are unknown. Preliminary studies are essential to assess whether these areas warrant additional regulatory and mitigation strategies based on tourism impact. Here, we investigated tourism activity on a site often visited by small aggregations of Florida manatees. From 2022 to 2023, interviews, citizen science, and trail cameras were used to assess watercraft activity, tourist knowledge, and the educational practices offered by watercraft rental businesses at Portosueno Park, Florida, USA. Both trail cameras and citizen science revealed that boats were the most common visitors to the park, averaging 23 watercraft visits per week. Interviews indicated that the majority of the public did not observe the posted signs addressing manatee harassment and were unaware of the prohibition against chasing manatees, the most frequently observed form of harassment at the park. The methods used complemented each other to elucidate tourism activity and has the potential to inform outreach efforts and mitigation strategies.

Floral traits and their connection with Pollinators and Climate.

Floral characteristics vary significantly among plant species, and multiple underlying factors govern this diversity. Although it is widely known that spatial variation in pollinator groups can exert selection on floral traits, the relative contribution of pollinators and climate to the variation of floral traits across large geographic areas remains a little-studied area. Besides furthering our conceptual understanding of these processes, gaining insight into the topic is also of conservation relevance: understanding how climate may drive floral traits variation can serve to protect plant-pollinator interactions under global change conditions. We used Rhododendron as a model system and collected floral traits (corolla length, nectar volume and concentrations), floral visitors, and climatic data on 21 Rhododendron species across two continents (North America-Appalachians and Asia-Himalaya). Based on this we quantified the influence of climate and pollinators to floral traits using phylogeny-informed analyses. Our results indicate that there is substantial variation in pollinators and morphological traits across Rhododendron species and continents. We came across four pollinator groups: birds, bees, butterflies, and flies. Asian species were commonly visited by birds, bees, and flies, while bees and butterflies were the most common visitors of North American species. The visitor identity explained nectar trait variation, with flowers visited by birds presenting higher volumes of dilute nectar and those visited by insects producing concentrated nectar. Nectar concentration and corolla length exhibited a strong phylogenetic signal across the analysed set of species. We also found that nectar trait variation in the Himalaya could also be explained by climate, which presented significant interactions with pollinator identity. Our results indicate that both pollinators and climate contribute and interact to drive nectar trait variation, suggesting that both can affect pollination interactions and floral (and plant) evolution individually and interacting with each other.

Floral biology and flower visitors of cocoa (Theobroma cacao L.) in the upper Magdalena Valley, Colombia

Cocoa (Theobroma cacao L.) is an important crop, but yield is generally low. Improving yield requires detailed understanding of the reproductive ecology, especially the pollination system and factors determining pollination success, such as proximity to natural areas. Since the 1940s biting midges have been proposed as the pollinators of cocoa flowers but this idea has recently been questioned in various studies. We observed cocoa flowers and their visitors during anthesis, we compare cocoa flower visitors during the day and night and also in plantations connected and disconnected to natural forests. Observations of flowers during anthesis revealed that cocoa flowers are protandrous, open at night, persist for three days and are receptive only during the day. A diversity of insects visited flowers throughout 24 h. In general, insect visitors were more diverse during the day and in plantations connected to forests compared to those not connected to forests. Fifty five percent of the total insect species visited the cocoa flowers at night, all insect species visited cocoa flowers in plantations connected to natural forests and 62.5 % of those visited cocoa flowers in plantations disconnected with forests. Hymenoptera and Diptera were the main visitors and a total of eleven insect species carried cocoa pollen grains. Among those, two species of biting midges (Ceratopogonidae flies) and two species of stingless bees (Meliponini bees) were the most common. While biting midges were the most common visitors, the stingless bee Tetragonisca angustula carried large cocoa pollen loads and interacted with both the male and female parts of the flower. Ants also visited cocoa flowers, mainly at night. The most common visitors of cocoa flowers in cocoa plantations in the upper Magdalena Valley in Colombia are diurnal biting midges and stingless bees, but also nocturnal ants, suggesting that the pollination system of cocoa flowers may be locally less specialized than previously thought. Future research should investigate the effectiveness of various insect groups as pollinators.

Agents of Pollination on Fruit Set of Piper nigrum L.

The role of agents on pollination and fruit set of Piper nigrum L. was carried out in the Department of Plantation Crops and Spices, College of Agriculture, Vellayani, Thiruvantha puram during 2017-2019. The role of wind, gravity, rain and dew were investigated and the data was analyzed on twenty-five inflorescences of field grown black pepper plants and twenty-five inflorescences of pot grown bush pepper plants. The fruit set was superior due to the influence of wind and gravity (95.99%) in pot grown bush pepper and it was 91.98 per cent in field grown black pepper vines. The percentage of fruit set due to wind in field grown black pepper and potted bush pepper was 77.67% and 59.39 % respectively. The role of rain water in the pollination also revealed higher fruit set of 92.76% under natural conditions. Insects which visited black pepper spike were foraging nectar and common visitors were yellow crazy ant, black garden ant and pollu beetle with visit rates of 1.79, 1.41 and 0.45 respectively. The small size of pollen with high pollen availability makes it suitable to be carried away by wind. The pendulous nature of the spike, the shedding of pollen, the pollen carried by the rainwater or dew down the spike can all contributed to pollination. Integration of more factors resulted in more fruit set. Characteristics of black pepper flowers studied revealed their adaptation for wind pollination and the pendulous nature of the spike makes it efficient to carry the pollen due to gravity as well as rain and dew for pollination. The role of insects in pollination in black pepper was precluded.

Artificial flowers as a tool for investigating multimodal flower choice in wild insects.

Flowers come in a variety of colours, shapes, sizes and odours. Flowers also differ in the quality and quantity of nutritional reward they provide to entice potential pollinators to visit. Given this diversity, generalist flower-visiting insects face the considerable challenge of deciding which flowers to feed on and which to ignore. Working with real flowers poses logistical challenges due to correlations between flower traits, maintenance costs and uncontrolled variables. Here, we overcome this challenge by designing multimodal artificial flowers that varied in visual, olfactory and reward attributes. We used artificial flowers to investigate the impact of seven floral attributes (three visual cues, two olfactory cues and two rewarding attributes) on flower visitation and species richness. We investigated how flower attributes influenced two phases of the decision-making process: the decision to land on a flower, and the decision to feed on a flower. Artificial flowers attracted 890 individual insects representing 15 morphospecies spanning seven arthropod orders. Honeybees were the most common visitors accounting for 46% of visitors. Higher visitation rates were driven by the presence of nectar, the presence of linalool, flower shape and flower colour and was negatively impacted by the presence of citral. Species richness was driven by the presence of nectar, the presence of linalool and flower colour. For hymenopterans, the probability of landing on the artificial flowers was influenced by the presence of nectar or pollen, shape and the presence of citral and/or linalool. The probability of feeding increased when flowers contained nectar. For dipterans, the probability of landing on artificial flowers increased when the flower was yellow and contained linalool. The probability of feeding increased when flowers contained pollen, nectar and linalool. Our results demonstrate the multi-attribute nature of flower preferences and highlight the usefulness of artificial flowers as tools for studying flower visitation in wild insects.

A Survey to Assess the Efficacy and Tolerability of Natural Appetite Stimulants in Pediatric Patients

Anorexia, a common symptom in children, leads to undernutrition, with over 60 million underweight children in India suffering from frequent illnesses. Lack of adequate diet, proper breastfeeding and sufficient protein contribute to increased incidence of undernutrition. Parents often complain their children don't eat enough, making mealtimes difficult and impeding growth. Appetite stimulants like cyproheptadine are available, but side effects like sedation, fatigue, disorientation, impaired coordination, restlessness, excitation and irritability limit their use especially in the pediatric population. The use of herbal supplements has increased worldwide, with parents seeking guidance from pediatricians and primary care professionals regarding the efficacy and safety of these products. The study was a retrospective study conducted via a questionnaire-based survey among all doctors between April and June 2023 to assess the efficacy and tolerability of natural appetite stimulants in pediatric patients. Results showed that patients in the age group of 0 to 5 years (23.1%) were the most common visitors in the doctor’s clinic and appetite stimulant agents were being prescribed most of the time (44.8%). They preferred prescribing natural appetite stimulant mostly (34.3%) for poor appetite (37.3%), followed by poor weight gain and growth (22.8%). The natural appetizer was found to nonaddictive and nonsedative with an improvement in the overall well-being (31.3%) among patients. The results suggest that the natural intervention has the potential to serve as a valuable adjunctive therapy in managing appetite challenges and promoting healthy weight gain in pediatric populations and to optimize pediatricnutrition and overall well-being.

A Sustainable Approach to Improve the Mustard (Brassica juncea) Yield and Quality Parameters by Bees Visitation in the Regions of Punjab-India

Background: Mustard is an oil seed crop and most oilseed crops are cross pollinated. A substantial increase in seed production requires adequate pollination. Rapeseed and mustard are both self-pollinated and cross-pollinated plants. Brown sarson is a cross pollinated crop whose seed production is reliant on honeybees and wild insect pollinators. Methods: All parameters were carefully monitored during 2019-2021 crop growing year. Mustard blooming crop was visited by 12 insect species from 4 orders and 7 families. Hymenopterans were the most common visitors followed by others. Temperature and sunshine increased honeybee foraging, while relative humidity, wind speed and rainfall declined the same. Result: In this present investigation, amongst the various attractant used for attracting pollinators jaggery solution 10 per cent and sugar solution 10 per cent were found superior to attract the maximum number of bees on crop and recorded highest yield and more oil and protein content in the seeds as compared to other treatments.

Characterizing each step of pollination in Phlox drummondii reveals a single butterfly species predominates the pollinator assemblage.

A central goal of pollination biology is to connect plants with the identity of their pollinator(s). While predictions based on floral syndrome traits are extremely useful, direct observation can reveal further details of a species' pollination biology. The wildflower, Phlox drummondii, has a floral syndrome consistent with Lepidoptera pollination. We test this prediction using empirical data. We observe each step of pollination in P. drummondii. First, we observe 55.5 hours of floral visitation across the species range. We use temporal pollinator exclusion to determine the contribution of diurnal and nocturnal pollination to reproductive output. We then quantify P. drummondii pollen transfer by the dominant floral visitor, Battus philenor. Finally, we test the effect of B. philenor visitation on P. drummondii reproduction by quantifying fruit set following single pollinator visits. B. philenor is the primary pollinator of P. drummondii. Pollination is largely diurnal, and we observe a variety of lepidopteran visitors during this period. However, B. philenor is the most frequent visitor, representing 88.5% of all observed visits. We show that B. philenor is an extremely common visitor and also an effective pollinator by demonstrating that individuals transfer pollen between flowers and that a single visit can elicit fruit set. Our data are consistent with the prediction of lepidopteran pollination and further reveal a single butterfly species, B. philenor, as the primary pollinator. Our study demonstrates the importance of empirical pollinator observations, adds to our understanding of pollination mechanics, and offers a specific case study of butterfly pollination. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Deathbed Visions: Hospice Palliative Care Volunteers' Experiences, Perspectives, and Responses.

11 female hospice palliative care volunteers who had either witnessed and/or had patients or patients' family members tell them about deathbed visions (DBVs) were interviewed about their experiences, perspectives, and responses. The volunteers responded to a series of guiding questions and shared stories about their patients' DBVs. During the interviews, the volunteers talked about, among other things, the impact of DBVs on their patients and themselves, how they responded to their patients' DBVs, and their explanations for them. The most common visitors appearing in the deathbed vision stories shared by the volunteers were their patients' deceased family members (parents, siblings). The volunteers described their patients' visions as having largely positive (e.g., comforting) effects on the patients as well as having a positive impact on themselves (e.g., lessening their own fear of death). The volunteers did not initiate conversations about DBVs with their patients, but responded appropriately by listening, asking questions, and not being dismissive if the patient brought it up first. All volunteers provided spiritual as opposed to medical or scientific explanations for DBVs. The implications and limitations of the findings are discussed.

Theme park hotel experience, experiential satisfaction and behavioral intention: examination of visitors' experiences

PurposeThis research uses the experience economy theory and tourism experiences to explore how different types of experiences in theme parks influence visitors' experiential satisfaction and behavioral intention.Design/methodology/approachThe data were collected from visitors of different nationalities at a theme park hotel. The R program and JASP were used to analyze the data of the multinational sampling. JASP was used for the structural equation modeling (SEM) and the R program for the analysis of the measurement invariance.FindingsThe results highlight the existence of different visitor behavior in the experience economy, tourism experience and experiential satisfaction among visitors of several nationalities. However, the results highlight the existence of common visitor behavior on behavioral intention among visitors of these nationalities. This study reveals that visitors of different nationalities can have both diverse experiential and cultural motivations.Practical implicationsThe results show that managers should apply a plan and strategy according to the differences between the nationalities. By examining visitors from different nationalities, the study was allowed to be interpreted from a wider perspective in terms of academia and industry.Originality/valueThis study makes a difference in the literature in terms of focusing on cross-national differences by examining the experiences of visitors from different nationalities by using experience economy theory and tourism experience elements in the same research model.

Honey bees are the most abundant visitors to Australian watermelon but native stingless bees are equally effective as pollinators

Abstract Despite the benefits of a diverse approach to crop pollination, global food production remains reliant on a low diversity of managed pollinators, especially the European honey bee (Apis mellifera). To facilitate more robust pollinator management and improve the resilience of the production system, it is necessary to understand regional variation in the pollination ecology of global food crops. Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus [Thunb.] Matsum & Nakai) is a highly insect pollinator‐dependent crop and even though it is grown globally across many different climate zones, little is known about its pollination ecology across the diverse growing regions of Australia, spanning from the tropics to the arid zone. We compared the species composition, visitation rates and effectiveness of the dominant floral visitors on 15 farms across five major watermelon‐growing regions of Australia. We found that insect species composition differed significantly among regions, but honey bees were the dominant watermelon flower visitor, with relative abundance varying from 73% to 94%. However, native bees (including stingless bees Tetragonula sp., and bees from families Megachilidae and Halictidae such as Lasioglossum, Homalictus and Lipotriches) and flies (particularly Syrphidae sp.) also visited and transferred pollen onto watermelon flowers. In particular, native stingless bees were common visitors in several growing regions and deposited similar amounts of pollen to honey bees. Our findings indicate that the Australian watermelon industry utilizes honey bees, but the diverse assemblage of available native pollinating taxa provides an additional opportunity for growers in specific growing regions. Pollination service delivery could be increased by deploying managed populations (e.g., native stingless bee colonies), employing pollinator‐safe land management practices as well as exploring methods for increasing the efficiency of managed honey bee colonies.

Ecology of Eriogonum tiehmii, a rare soil specialist: Arthropod diversity, soil preferences, and demography

AbstractSoil specialists can have restricted distributions, and effective management in the face of land use change depends on a thorough understanding of the ecology of these unique plants. We investigated the ecology of Eriogonum tiehmii Reveal, a rare soil specialist, using pitfall traps, flower observations, and pollinator exclusion to assess arthropod communities in E. tiehmii habitat, the most common visitors to E. tiehmii flowers, and the importance of pollination for seed set. We collected soil from 21 occupied and unoccupied sites for analysis of physical and chemical characteristics, and conducted a greenhouse soil preference experiment to test how seeds and seedlings respond to soil variation. We also monitored tagged plants in extant populations, measuring survival, size, and reproductive output. Arthropod communities within and around E. tiehmii sites were abundant and diverse; each sample site contained numerous unique species, and there was high turnover in arthropod community composition over time. Open pollination significantly increased seed production, with beetles, wasps, and flies the most likely important pollinators. Reproductive output and size class distributions varied among wild populations, and soil properties differed between occupied and unoccupied sites. Occupied sites were, on average, lower in sulfur, zinc, potassium, and magnesium and, on average higher in boron, pH, and silt, among other differences, though there was high variation in these characteristics among sites. Seedlings demonstrated sensitivity to individual soil properties, and seedlings grown in soils from occupied sites had, on average, higher total biomass and higher root allocation than seedlings grown in soils from unoccupied sites. These preference tests suggest a “specialist” model of soil specialization rather than a “refuge” model, indicating that plants are not simply highly stress‐tolerant, but are specifically adapted to their native soil types. While some unoccupied sites we tested were favorable for some life history stages, we did not identify unoccupied sites that could support both establishment and growth of E. tiehmii seedlings. Future work could consider the effects of biotic interactions such as plant competition and herbivores on plant growth, and employ additional demographic monitoring to better understand life history and population dynamics of this extreme soil specialist.

Development of Stevia rebaudiana Hybrids Through Trigona-Assisted Pollination

Hybridization is an important method to widen variations and to develop novel varieties in plants. The increasing interest in Stevia rebaudiana over the last decade soared by its potential as an alternative source of sugar. In this study, improvement in stevia has been conducted through hybridization using Trigona for the development of stevia hybrids. Trigona, which consists of small to medium-sized bees, is usually found in tropical and subtropical parts of the world. They are common visitors to flowering plants and pose an important function as crop pollinators. A field experiment was conducted using 17 stevia accessions (From Malaysia and Paraguay), and F1 hybrids were morphologically and chemically evaluated. Among the F1 individuals, a wide range of variability with regards to qualitative and quantitative morphological parameters was observed. A selection of F1 hybrids namely MS007HYB1, MS007HYB2, LangatHYB, EireteIIHYB, NilaiHYB1, NilaiHYB2, and NilaiHYB3 was made based on their promising features. Improvements were observed in total stevioside content for MS007HYB1 (45%) and MS007HYB2 (30%), rebaudioside content for MS007HYB2 (4.2%), NilaiHYB2 (3.8%), NilaiHYB3 (3.6%) and LangatHYB (14.4%), and delay in flowering for MS007HYB1 (46 days), MS007HYB2 (46 days), LangatHYB (51 days), EireteHYB (47 days), NilaiHYB1 (49 days), NIlaiHYB2 (46 days) and NilaiHYB3 (46 days) when compared to their respective mother plants.

Pollination efficiency and foraging behaviour of honey bees and flies to onion Allium cepa L.

Bees and flies are the most common visitors to onion flowers in Karnataka, but evidence for their pollination efficiency is lacking. Hence, experiments on pollination efficiency and behavioral observations were recorded using four bees (Apidae: Hymenoptera) and two flies (Syrphidae: Diptera) species visiting onion flowers (Allium cepa L.) at the experimental fields of ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India (13.13°N; 77.49°E) during 2020-2021. Pollinator effectiveness (PE) is measured as pollen deposition on stigmas per visit. Honey bees and flies mainly collect nectar and stingless bees mainly pollen (81.90%), bringing the latter into intimate contact with the stigma more frequently. Stingless bees, honey bees and flies were often seen foraging together on the same umbel, and no antagonistic interactions were observed. The rock bee (Apis dorsata) deposited a maximum number (34.60) of pollen on stigma per visit followed by the stingless bee (24.45). The flowers pollinated by bees had a higher seed set percentage; the weight of 1000 seeds and the average number of seeds/umbels were higher compared to flowers deprived of pollinators. The results allowed us to conclude that bees are the effective pollinators of onions. Further work is needed to determine the optimum bee population required for maximizing the seed yield in onion.

Factors associated with returns of snowy owls to airports following translocation

AbstractHuman‐dominated environments often include ecological traps for wildlife, such as airports that may be perceived as suitable habitat by grassland birds but reduce fitness because of collisions with aircraft. Birds of prey are often attracted to airports where collisions with aircraft (i.e., bird strikes) are usually fatal for the birds and are a significant threat to flight safety. The snowy owl (Bubo scandiacus) is known for its nomadism, exhibiting unpredictable and highly variable movements during the nonbreeding season, including being a common visitor to airports, which often have high small‐mammal populations and mimic flat, open habitats used naturally by owls. Since 2009, the Federal Aviation Administration reported an average of 22 snowy owl deaths annually due to aircraft collisions throughout 55 North American airports. To aid in active management of owls at airports, we assessed relocation data of 42 telemetry‐tracked snowy owls from 2000–2020 in the United States and Canada. Owls that returned to the airport after relocation (33%) frequently crisscrossed and perched near runways where they were at risk of strikes. Adult females and immature males were more likely to return than the other sex and age classes, and returns were less likely to occur as the distance between the release site and the airport increased. Owls relocated in open habitats with a greater proportion of wetland and cropland (including grasslands and pasture) land cover classes were also less likely to return. We conclude that inclusion of multiple factors to limit return rates of relocated snowy owls from airport facilities can unspring the ecological trap presented by airports to these owls.

Comparisons of visitor knowledge and behavior between rocky intertidal habitats with different levels of protection in San Diego County, California

Human actions are negatively affecting rocky intertidal ecosystems worldwide, causing habitat degradation, loss of biodiversity, and increased rates of species extinctions. These impacts primarily happen due to visitor behaviors such as trampling and harvesting, which are especially frequent in southern California, USA where the mild coastal climate attracts large numbers of visitors to the shore. As a result, several rocky intertidal habitats in San Diego County are under protection from harvesting as part of the California's network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). However, the effectiveness of this protection has remained unclear. In this study, we worked at paired MPAs and non-MPAs in three neighborhoods within San Diego County over 18 months to investigate (1) visitation rates and visitor behaviors, (2) harvesting (collecting) organisms, and (3) visitor knowledge about the San Diego County's MPAs. Although we observed more total visitors within the MPAs (8,983) than in the non-MPAs (5,055), the average size of the MPAs was larger than the non-MPAs, resulting in average visitor densities being only 13% greater in the MPAs. Consequently, the average visitation rates (number of visitors observed during 10-min periods per meter of shoreline) did not differ as a function of protection status. Tide pooling, which involved trampling, was the most common visitor behavior across all MPAs and non-MPAs, with 83% of 14,038 observed visitors engaging in this activity. Organism harvesting was rare and generally more common in the non-MPAs, but it was observed in each of the MPAs. Interviews of 1349 visitors suggested that the main problems with protection of San Diego County's MPAs are (1) a general lack of knowledge about the existence of MPAs and their locations, and (2) inadequate on-site information describing their status, rules and regulations. Our study suggests that efforts to educate the public during their visitation to the rocky intertidal habitats, such as establishing outreach programs, using informational signage, and increasing surveillance and enforcement, can help promote better management of these MPAs and their ecological resources.

Consequences of the high abundance of Bombus terrestris on the pollination of Vicia faba

One of the main visitors to Fabia bean crops (Vicia faba) in South America is the invasive bumblebee species Bombus terrestris. This is particularly true in Chile, where B. terrestris was first introduced in 1997 and is now common over much of the country. In this study, we evaluated the activity of the principal pollinators of V. faba over two cropping seasons by assessing their visitation rates while distinguishing between legitimate visits, likely to lead to pollination, and nectar robbery. We then determined the net contribution of insect visitation on pod and seed set. We recorded seven species of floral visitors. Most visits (legitimate visits and robbery) were from the honeybee (Apis mellifera), with B. terrestris being the next most common visitor. In the case of B. terrestris, 87.19% of visits were nectar robbery. On average, the same flower perforation was visited 23 times by B. terrestris during the flower's lifespan. In general, the frequency of legitimate visits varied with pollinator identity and year. For B. terrestris, each flower received an average of 0.95 legitimate visits during its entire lifespan. The time spent by B. terrestris visiting flowers for both nectar robbery or pollen collection decreased after the first day of flowering suggesting resource depletion. The number of pods, total seed number, and seed weight were lower where self rather than open pollination. This suggests that open pollination increased reproductive success. We conclude that B. terrestris was likely to contribute relatively little to pollination while at the same time depleting floral resources throughout the flowers’ lifespan.

Avian influenza A virus susceptibility, infection, transmission, and antibody kinetics in European starlings.

Avian influenza A viruses (IAVs) pose risks to public, agricultural, and wildlife health. Bridge hosts are spillover hosts that share habitat with both maintenance hosts (e.g., mallards) and target hosts (e.g., poultry). We conducted a comprehensive assessment of European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris), a common visitor to both urban and agricultural environments, to assess whether this species might act as a potential maintenance or bridge host for IAVs. First, we experimentally inoculated starlings with a wild bird IAV to investigate susceptibility and replication kinetics. Next, we evaluated whether IAV might spill over to starlings from sharing resources with a widespread IAV reservoir host. We accomplished this using a specially designed transmission cage to simulate natural environmental transmission by exposing starlings to water shared with IAV-infected mallards (Anas platyrhynchos). We then conducted a contact study to assess intraspecies transmission between starlings. In the initial experimental infection study, all inoculated starlings shed viral RNA and seroconverted. All starlings in the transmission study became infected and shed RNA at similar levels. All but one of these birds seroconverted, but detectable antibodies were relatively transient, falling to negative levels in a majority of birds by 59 days post contact. None of the contact starlings in the intraspecies transmission experiment became infected. In summary, we demonstrated that starlings may have the potential to act as IAV bridge hosts if they share water with IAV-infected waterfowl. However, starlings are unlikely to act as maintenance hosts due to limited, if any, intraspecies transmission. In addition, starlings have a relatively brief antibody response which should be considered when interpreting serology from field samples. Further study is needed to evaluate the potential for transmission from starlings to poultry, a possibility enhanced by starling's behavioral trait of forming very large flocks which can descend on poultry facilities when natural resources are scarce.