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Pollinator guilds respond contrastingly at different scales to landscape parameters of land-use intensity
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  • Kolja Bergholz,
  • Lara-Pauline Sittel,
  • Michael Ristow,
  • Florian Jeltsch,
  • Lina Weiss
Kolja Bergholz
University of Potsdam Institute of Biochemistry and Biology

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Lara-Pauline Sittel
University of Potsdam Institute of Biochemistry and Biology
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Michael Ristow
University of Potsdam Institute of Biochemistry and Biology
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Florian Jeltsch
University of Potsdam Institute of Biochemistry and Biology
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Lina Weiss
University of Potsdam
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Abstract

Land-use intensification is the main factor for the catastrophic decline of insect pollinators. However, land-use intensification includes multiple processes that act across various scales and should affect pollinator guilds differently depending on their ecology. We aimed to reveal how two main pollinator guilds, wild bees (specialists) and hoverflies (generalists), respond to different land-use intensification measures, i.e. arable field cover (AFC), landscape heterogeneity (LH) and functional flower composition of local plant communities as a measure of habitat quality. We sampled wild bees and hoverflies on 22 dry grassland sites within a highly intensified landscape (NE Germany) within three campaigns using pan traps. We estimated AFC and LH on consecutive radii (60-3000m) around the dry grassland sites and estimated the local functional flower composition. Wild bee species richness and abundance was positively affected by LH and negatively by AFC at small scales (140-400m). In contrast, hoverflies were positively affected by AFC and negatively by LH at larger scales (500-3000m), where both landscape parameters were negatively correlated to each other. At small spatial scales, though, LH had a positive effect on hoverflies abundance. Functional flower diversity had no positive effect on pollinators, but conspicuous flowers seem to attract abundance of both guilds. In conclusion, landscape parameters contrarily affect two pollinator guilds at different scales. The correlation of landscape parameters may influence the observed relationships between landscape parameters and pollinators. Hence, effects of land-use intensification seems to be highly landscape-specific.
01 Oct 2021Submitted to Ecology and Evolution
01 Oct 2021Submission Checks Completed
01 Oct 2021Assigned to Editor
15 Oct 2021Reviewer(s) Assigned
29 Nov 2021Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
30 Nov 2021Editorial Decision: Revise Minor
07 Feb 20221st Revision Received
08 Feb 2022Submission Checks Completed
08 Feb 2022Assigned to Editor
08 Feb 2022Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
18 Feb 2022Editorial Decision: Accept
Mar 2022Published in Ecology and Evolution volume 12 issue 3. 10.1002/ece3.8708