Article (Scientific journals)
Food in a row : urban trees offer valuable floral resources to pollinating insects
Somme, Laurent; Moquet, Laura; Quinet, Muriel et al.
2016In Urban Ecosystems, p. 1-13
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Keywords :
Urban biodiversity; Pollen; Nectar; Insect visitors; Bees
Abstract :
[en] Urbanization affects the availability and diversity of floral resources (pollen and/or nectar) for wild pollinating insects. For example, urban green areas are characterized by an abundance of ornamental plant species. Increasingly, trees are planted to improve the aesthetics of urban streets and parks. These urban trees might offer important floral resources to pollinating insects. To examine the suitability of urban trees as resources for pollinating insects, we investigated the chemical composition of pollen and nectar as well as the amount of nectar produced by the nine major insect-pollinated tree species planted in cities of Western Europe, namely Acer pseudoplatanus, Aesculus carnea, A. hippocastanum, Robinia pseudoacacia, Tilia cordata, T. x euchlora, T. x europaea, T. platyphyllos and T. tomentosa. The analyses revealed that globally the Tilia trees provide pollen with lower contents of polypeptides, amino acids and phytosterols compared with the other species. Urban tree flowers offer abundant nectar with relatively high sugar contents (0.16–1.28 mg/flower); sucrose was the predominant sugar in all nectars. The investigated tree species could therefore be considered in future city plantings.
Disciplines :
Chemistry
Entomology & pest control
Phytobiology (plant sciences, forestry, mycology...)
Author, co-author :
Somme, Laurent
Moquet, Laura
Quinet, Muriel
Vanderplanck, Maryse ;  University of Mons > Research Institute for Biosciences > Laboratory of Zoology
Michez, Denis
Lognay, Georges ;  Université de Liège > Agronomie, Bio-ingénierie et Chimie (AgroBioChem) > Analyse, qual. et risques - Labo. de Chimie analytique
Jacquemart, Anne-Laure
Language :
English
Title :
Food in a row : urban trees offer valuable floral resources to pollinating insects
Publication date :
18 April 2016
Journal title :
Urban Ecosystems
ISSN :
1083-8155
eISSN :
1573-1642
Publisher :
Springer Science & Business Media B.V.
Pages :
1-13
Peer reviewed :
Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi
Available on ORBi :
since 17 January 2017

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