Contrasting effects of land-use and local disturbance on plant and pollinator communities in wetlands
While pollinators and wetlands both provide important ecosystem services (e.g., the pollination of flowering plants and improving water quality), the relationship between the two is not well understood. Both biotic and abiotic effects can mediate the local wetland flower and pollinator community. In...
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Elsevier
2025-11-01
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| Series: | Basic and Applied Ecology |
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| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1439179125000635 |
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| author | Nicholas Oldham Jamie Herold Kevin Moulton Adrian Gonzalez Laura Russo |
| author_facet | Nicholas Oldham Jamie Herold Kevin Moulton Adrian Gonzalez Laura Russo |
| author_sort | Nicholas Oldham |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | While pollinators and wetlands both provide important ecosystem services (e.g., the pollination of flowering plants and improving water quality), the relationship between the two is not well understood. Both biotic and abiotic effects can mediate the local wetland flower and pollinator community. In this study, we investigated how land use, including a land use gradient at five different radii, from 250 m to 2 km, along with anthropogenic disturbance affected pollinators in wetland ecosystems. We surveyed the abundance and diversity of plant-pollinator communities in fifteen different wetlands across two years. We also tested the relationship between water quality and temperature, and the abundance and diversity of flowering plants and pollinating insects. Our results suggest that increasing temperature, which was strongly associated with developed land use, had a negative effect on the floral display of wetland plants, as well as the abundance of all flower visitors and hover flies. Hover fly abundance was also positively associated with agricultural land use and total nitrogen in the water. Meanwhile, the abundance of female bees was affected by an interaction between temperature and disturbance: female bees were most abundant when temperatures were lower in areas of low disturbance. In contrast, pollinator species richness increased with temperature when developed land use was low, and floral diversity was strongly affected by several interactions between disturbance, land use, and water quality. Finally, the community composition of both plants and insects varied significantly among low, medium, and high disturbance categories, with weedier, non-native species being significantly associated with areas of higher disturbance and in sites with greater anthropogenic land use. We demonstrate that ecological communities shift significantly in response to anthropogenic change. Our work also illustrates the importance of quantifying interactions between land use and local disturbance with abiotic factors such as temperature and water quality on ecological systems. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-8c94d3dbb2244a93bfea968e808b7c04 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1439-1791 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-11-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Basic and Applied Ecology |
| spelling | doaj-art-8c94d3dbb2244a93bfea968e808b7c042025-08-24T05:11:37ZengElsevierBasic and Applied Ecology1439-17912025-11-0188193110.1016/j.baae.2025.08.004Contrasting effects of land-use and local disturbance on plant and pollinator communities in wetlandsNicholas Oldham0Jamie Herold1Kevin Moulton2Adrian Gonzalez3Laura Russo4Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA; Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USAOak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USADepartment of Entomology and Plant Pathology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USAWater Quality Core Facility, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USADepartment of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA; Corresponding author.While pollinators and wetlands both provide important ecosystem services (e.g., the pollination of flowering plants and improving water quality), the relationship between the two is not well understood. Both biotic and abiotic effects can mediate the local wetland flower and pollinator community. In this study, we investigated how land use, including a land use gradient at five different radii, from 250 m to 2 km, along with anthropogenic disturbance affected pollinators in wetland ecosystems. We surveyed the abundance and diversity of plant-pollinator communities in fifteen different wetlands across two years. We also tested the relationship between water quality and temperature, and the abundance and diversity of flowering plants and pollinating insects. Our results suggest that increasing temperature, which was strongly associated with developed land use, had a negative effect on the floral display of wetland plants, as well as the abundance of all flower visitors and hover flies. Hover fly abundance was also positively associated with agricultural land use and total nitrogen in the water. Meanwhile, the abundance of female bees was affected by an interaction between temperature and disturbance: female bees were most abundant when temperatures were lower in areas of low disturbance. In contrast, pollinator species richness increased with temperature when developed land use was low, and floral diversity was strongly affected by several interactions between disturbance, land use, and water quality. Finally, the community composition of both plants and insects varied significantly among low, medium, and high disturbance categories, with weedier, non-native species being significantly associated with areas of higher disturbance and in sites with greater anthropogenic land use. We demonstrate that ecological communities shift significantly in response to anthropogenic change. Our work also illustrates the importance of quantifying interactions between land use and local disturbance with abiotic factors such as temperature and water quality on ecological systems.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1439179125000635LandscapesDisturbanceWetland healthPollinator healthWater qualityEcosystem services |
| spellingShingle | Nicholas Oldham Jamie Herold Kevin Moulton Adrian Gonzalez Laura Russo Contrasting effects of land-use and local disturbance on plant and pollinator communities in wetlands Basic and Applied Ecology Landscapes Disturbance Wetland health Pollinator health Water quality Ecosystem services |
| title | Contrasting effects of land-use and local disturbance on plant and pollinator communities in wetlands |
| title_full | Contrasting effects of land-use and local disturbance on plant and pollinator communities in wetlands |
| title_fullStr | Contrasting effects of land-use and local disturbance on plant and pollinator communities in wetlands |
| title_full_unstemmed | Contrasting effects of land-use and local disturbance on plant and pollinator communities in wetlands |
| title_short | Contrasting effects of land-use and local disturbance on plant and pollinator communities in wetlands |
| title_sort | contrasting effects of land use and local disturbance on plant and pollinator communities in wetlands |
| topic | Landscapes Disturbance Wetland health Pollinator health Water quality Ecosystem services |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1439179125000635 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT nicholasoldham contrastingeffectsoflanduseandlocaldisturbanceonplantandpollinatorcommunitiesinwetlands AT jamieherold contrastingeffectsoflanduseandlocaldisturbanceonplantandpollinatorcommunitiesinwetlands AT kevinmoulton contrastingeffectsoflanduseandlocaldisturbanceonplantandpollinatorcommunitiesinwetlands AT adriangonzalez contrastingeffectsoflanduseandlocaldisturbanceonplantandpollinatorcommunitiesinwetlands AT laurarusso contrastingeffectsoflanduseandlocaldisturbanceonplantandpollinatorcommunitiesinwetlands |