Plant and animal studies

A citizen science photo guide of plants and bee visitors in the Eastern Afromontane Biodiversity Hotspot of Kenya

This study uses citizen science to document plant and bee species in Kenya's Eastern Afromontane Biodiversity Hotspot, revealing differences in bee community assemblage patterns between two counties.

Polli-markers: spectral and chemical biomarkers for detecting cryptic early plant pollination responses

This paper identifies spectral and chemical biomarkers (polli-markers) to detect early plant pollination responses using hyperspectral reflectance and metabolomics in Brassica napus.

Quantifying the geographic mosaic of coevolutionary temperature: from coldspots to hotspots

The paper quantifies coevolutionary temperature across geographic landscapes using reciprocity and strength metrics, revealing hotspots and coldspots in plant-pollinator networks.

Aphid infestation induces plant-sex-specific changes in floral chemistry and pollinator behaviour in Silene latifolia

This study shows aphid infestation alters floral traits and pollinator behavior differently in male and female Silene latifolia plants, reducing female attractiveness more than male.

Bees attend primarily to costs, not benefits, to avoid exploitation by floral mimics

This study shows bumble bees prioritize avoiding costly errors over maximizing rewards when foraging, even when rewards are increased.

Effects of forest cover, temperature and flower abundance on cashew pollinators in the northern Western Ghats, India

This study examines how forest cover, temperature, and flower abundance affect pollinator communities in cashew plantations in the Western Ghats, finding positive effects of flower abundance and forest cover on pollinator richness and visits, and temperature-dependent patterns in visitation.

Do flowers with specialized morphologies produce more nectar and pollen?

The paper investigates whether specialized flower morphology correlates with increased nectar and pollen production, finding that tube length predicts nectar production but not pollen.

Optimal competitors: the balance of attraction and choices of mutualists, like pollinators, drives facilitation and may promote crop pollination

The paper mathematically examines how facilitation and competition in consumer attraction can arise from imbalances between local competition and joint long-distance attraction, with implications for crop pollination.

Pollinators in Mexico. Spatial patterns show exceptions to global trends

The paper analyzes pollinator biodiversity in Mexico and adjacent areas, revealing exceptions to global diversity trends and highlighting the need for region-specific conservation strategies.

Individual bumble bees have small, unique, and persistent foraging repertoires: implications for disease transmission

This study shows individual bumble bees have small, unique, and persistent foraging repertoires, which affects disease transmission modeling by reducing the separation between subnetworks.

Island Biogeography Theory of coevolution in pollination networks

The paper uses a stochastic model to show how coevolution and extinction rates shape pollination network structure and species persistence on islands.

Opposing seasonal dynamics in phylogenetic and flower color diversity of co-flowering wildflower assemblages

The paper examines seasonal changes in flower color and phylogenetic diversity of co-flowering wildflowers, finding non-random structure and shifts in dispersion patterns over time.

Adaptive rewiring and temperature tolerance shape the architecture of plant-pollinator networks globally

The paper models how temperature affects plant-pollinator networks by integrating temperature tolerance and adaptive rewiring, showing declines in specialization and increases in connectance and nestedness with rising temperatures.

Bumble bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae) of Ecuador

Integrating 1,794 records from museum collections, literature, GBIF, and iNaturalist with COI DNA barcoding establishes a checklist of 15 Bombus species and their floral interaction networks across continental Ecuador.

ILSM: A package for analyzing the interconnection structure of tripartite interaction networks

The paper introduces the R package ILSM to analyze interconnection structures in tripartite ecological networks, focusing on motifs, patterns, and centrality.

Structural stability of mutualistic networks over large geographic and temporal scales

The paper reconstructs ancestral mutualistic networks and finds they maintain modular structure over millions of years due to evolutionary conservatism of interactions.

Climate-driven specialisation in plant-pollinator networks peaks outside the tropics

The paper shows climate, not latitude, drives plant-pollinator specialisation globally, with specialisation peaking at northern mid-latitudes and declining in warmer, more seasonal climates.

In-depth phenotyping reveals unexpected floral trait variation in Mimulus cardinalis across a range-wide latitudinal gradient

This study identifies high phenotypic variation in floral traits across Mimulus cardinalis accessions and links these variations to genetic and environmental factors.

Forest habitat and forest dominated landscapes are associated with bumblebee species with visual traits related to light sensitivity

This study links bumblebee visual traits, specifically light sensitivity, to their habitat preferences and foraging behavior in forested and grassland environments.

Effects of land-use intensification on nectar resources, bird assemblages and bird-flower interaction networks in the Western Ghats, India

The paper examines how land-use intensification affects nectar resources, bird communities, and bird-flower interaction networks in the Western Ghats, finding that agroforests support more diverse bird-flower interactions than monocultures or forests.

Effects of frugivore species pool and seed size on the diversity and functional composition of frugivores visiting fruiting trees

The paper examines how frugivore species richness and seed size affect frugivore visitation and functional traits on fruiting trees, finding that seed size has a stronger influence than species richness.

Forest edges and other semi-natural habitat edges increase wild bee species richness and habitat connectivity in intensively managed temperate landscapes.

Interindividual variability in flower pickiness by foraging bumblebees

This study shows that bumblebees adapt their foraging behavior based on early flower experiences, with some becoming more selective and others less, but all achieving similar sucrose intake rates over time.

Delayed recovery of seed-dispersal interactions after deforestation

The paper estimates that seed-dispersal interactions in tropical forests take about 18 years to recover functionally after deforestation.

Selective contexts favouring asymmetry: a theoretical and empirical study of pollen transfer in mirror-image flowers

This study examines how floral asymmetry affects pollen transfer and mating outcomes, finding that dimorphic enantiostyly enhances outcrossing but increases stochasticity in pollen transfer.

Seed preferences by ants and seed abundance determine associational effects between plant species in a semiarid grassland

This study shows that ant seed removal is influenced by the presence of other seeds, with preferred seeds being more affected by neighboring species, and plant densities correlate with these associative effects.

Farming with Alternative Pollinators for Increased Biodiversity and Smallholder Incomes in Zimbabwe

This study compares the impact of a pollinator-friendly farming approach with conventional methods on pollinator abundance, crop yield, and income in Zimbabwean smallholder farms.

Invasive plants affect native plant pollination through pollinator-mediated cross-boundary effects

The paper investigates how invasive plants affect native plants in neighboring habitats through pollinator-mediated cross-boundary effects, finding decreased pollination success in native plants.

Bumblebees learn to use peripheral taste to predict the presence of nectar in flowers

This study shows bumblebees can detect surface taste cues on artificial flowers and learn to associate them with nectar rewards.

The fate of pollen in two morphologically contrasting buzz-pollinated Solanum flowers

This study compares pollen fates in two buzz-pollinated Solanum species with different floral morphology, finding similar pollen transfer efficiency but differing pollen loss patterns.