Article (Scientific journals)
Insect biomass is not a consistent proxy for biodiversity metrics in wild bees
Vereecken, Nicolas J.; Weekers, Timothy; Leclercq, Nicolas et al.
2021In Ecological Indicators, 121, p. 107132
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Keywords :
Biodiversity; Biomass; Community assembly; Conservation; Wild bees; Biodiversity monitoring; Community structures; Conservation planning; Ecological requirements; Functional diversity; Molecular phylogeny; Phylogenetic diversity; Taxonomic hierarchy; Decision Sciences (all); Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics; Ecology; General Decision Sciences
Abstract :
[en] Recent studies have reported on dramatic cases of aerial insect population declines by focusing on the measure of the total biomass of caught insects. However, there is currently no consensus about how biomass patterns among sites and habitats might consistently capture the subtleties of changes in aerial insect community structure. Here, we investigated the relationship between the total biomass of wild bees collected using pan traps in urban, agricultural, and semi-natural habitats on one hand, and a spectrum of biodiversity metrics on the other hand, particularly species richness (SR), alpha diversity, functional diversity (FD) and three different forms of phylogenetic diversity (PD). Our results indicate that although biomass is significantly and highly correlated with the abundance of wild bees, it is generally significantly but only moderately and non-linearly correlated to the various facets of wild bee diversity among habitats. By contrast, we also found that all three measures of PD used are consistent across habitats, suggesting that a taxonomic hierarchy based on Linnaean classification could be used as a proxy for the measurement of PD in wild bees, particularly in other well-studied areas such as Western Europe where a multi-gene molecular phylogeny is unavailable as yet. Collectively, our results illustrate the clear limitations of biodiversity monitoring through measures of trapped insects biomass. We advocate for more robust measures of biodiversity trends in wild bees, requiring both standardized surveys, and the identification of caught specimens down to the species level to capture the subtleties of species, traits-based and phylogeny-based community changes across habitats or time. Scaling out this approach is an essential prerequisite for more global conservation planning tailored to the ecological requirements of the targeted insect species.
Disciplines :
Zoology
Author, co-author :
Vereecken, Nicolas J. ;  Agroecology Lab, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium
Weekers, Timothy;  Agroecology Lab, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium
Leclercq, Nicolas;  Agroecology Lab, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium
De Greef, Stéphane;  Agroecology Lab, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium
Hainaut, Hélène;  Agroecology Lab, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium
Molenberg, Jean-Marc;  Agroecology Lab, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium
Martin, Youri;  Observatory for Climate, Environment and Biodiversity, Environmental Research and Innovation Department, Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology, Belvaux, Luxembourg ; Département Conservation, Namur, Belgium
Janssens, Xavier;  Département Conservation, Namur, Belgium
Noël, Grégoire  ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > Département GxABT > Gestion durable des bio-agresseurs
Pauly, Alain;  Department of Entomology, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS), Brussels, Belgium
Roberts, Stuart P.M.;  Agroecology Lab, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium
Marshall, Leon;  Agroecology Lab, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium
Language :
English
Title :
Insect biomass is not a consistent proxy for biodiversity metrics in wild bees
Publication date :
February 2021
Journal title :
Ecological Indicators
ISSN :
1470-160X
eISSN :
1872-7034
Publisher :
Elsevier B.V.
Volume :
121
Pages :
107132
Peer reviewed :
Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi
Funders :
EU. LIFE - European Union. LIFE programme [BE]
FWO - Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek Vlaanderen [BE]
SPW DG03-DGARNE - Service Public de Wallonie. Direction Générale Opérationnelle Agriculture, Ressources naturelles et Environnement [BE]
F.R.S.-FNRS - Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique [BE]
Funding text :
We are grateful to A. Dielens and V. Nocent for their help with the measurements of the insect specimens (ITD and biomass), to L. Kendall for fruitful discussions during the development of the R package pollimetry, to our MSc students T. Petel, R. Alaerts, E. Sels, L. Perin, T. Gaudaire, P.-H. Cosserat, A. Ibáñez Weemaels, S. Van Geertruijden, and to the DNF agents B. Allard, B. Vandoren, C. Gillot, C. Pierlot, F. Gruselin, P. Fery, P. Havart, P. Protin, P. Verté and S. Terweduwe for their dedicated contribution to the fieldwork. NJV and his team received financial support for this study from Bruxelles Environnement (BE/IBGE) in the framework of the Brussels Bee Atlas (WildBnB), from the Walloon Region through a research grant delivered by the Direction générale opérationnelle de l'Agriculture, des Ressources naturelles et de l'Environnement (DGO3) for the “Modèle permaculturel” project on biodiversity in micro-farms, as well as from the FNRS/FWO joint programme “EOS — Excellence Of Science” for the project “CliPS: Climate change and its impact on Pollination Services (project 30947854)” and the LIFE 11NAT/BE/001060 LIFE Herbages project. NJV supervised the sampling, designed the study, led the writing of the manuscript and the statistical analyses; all authors contributed either to the collection, analysis or interpretation of data, and all authors reviewed, edited and approved the final version of the manuscript prior to submission. None of the funding sources had any role in the study design, in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data, in the writing of the report and in the decision to submit the article for publication.We are grateful to A. Dielens and V. Nocent for their help with the measurements of the insect specimens (ITD and biomass), to L. Kendall for fruitful discussions during the development of the R package pollimetry, to our MSc students T. Petel, R. Alaerts, E. Sels, L. Perin, T. Gaudaire, P.-H. Cosserat, A. Ibáñez Weemaels, S. Van Geertruijden, and to the DNF agents B. Allard, B. Vandoren, C. Gillot, C. Pierlot, F. Gruselin, P. Fery, P. Havart, P. Protin, P. Verté and S. Terweduwe for their dedicated contribution to the fieldwork. NJV and his team received financial support for this study from Bruxelles Environnement (BE/IBGE) in the framework of the Brussels Bee Atlas (WildBnB), from the Walloon Region through a research grant delivered by the Direction générale opérationnelle de l’Agriculture, des Ressources naturelles et de l’Environnement (DGO3) for the “Modèle permaculturel” project on biodiversity in micro-farms, as well as from the FNRS/FWO joint programme “EOS — Excellence Of Science” for the project “CliPS: Climate change and its impact on Pollination Services (project 30947854)” and the LIFE 11NAT/BE/001060 LIFE Herbages project. NJV supervised the sampling, designed the study, led the writing of the manuscript and the statistical analyses; all authors contributed either to the collection, analysis or interpretation of data, and all authors reviewed, edited and approved the final version of the manuscript prior to submission. None of the funding sources had any role in the study design, in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data, in the writing of the report and in the decision to submit the article for publication.
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