Species' floral traits and flowering times are known to be the major drivers of pollinator-mediated plant–plant interactions in diverse co-flowering communities. However, their simultaneous role in mediating plant community assembly and plant–pollinator interactions is still poorly understood. Since not all species flower at the same time, inference of facilitative and competitive interactions based on floral trait distribution patterns should account for fine phenological structure (intensity of flowering overlap) within co-flowering communities. Such an approach may also help reveal the simultaneous action of competitive and facilitative interactions in structuring co-flowering communities. Here we used modularity within a co-flowering network context, as a novel approach to detect convergent and/or over-dispersed patterns in floral trait distribution and pollinator sharing. Specifically, we evaluate differences in floral trait and pollinator distribution patterns within (high temporal flowering overlap) and among co-flowering modules (low temporal flowering overlap). We further evaluate the consistency of observed floral trait and pollinator sharing distribution patterns across space (three geographical regions) and time (dry and rainy seasons). We found that floral trait similarity was significantly higher in plant species within co-flowering modules than in species among them. This suggests pollinator facilitation may lead to floral trait convergence, but only within co-flowering modules. However, our results also revealed seasonal and spatial shifts in the underlying interactions (facilitation or competition) driving co-flowering assembly, suggesting that the prevalent dominant interactions are not static. Synthesis. Overall, we provide strong evidence showing that the use of flowering time and floral trait distribution alone may be insufficient to fully uncover the role of pollinator-mediated interactions in community assembly. Integrating this information along with patterns of pollinator sharing will greatly help reveal the simultaneous action of facilitative and competitive pollinator-mediated interactions in co-flowering communities. The spatial and temporal variation in flowering and trait distribution patterns observed further emphasize the importance of adopting a more dynamic view of community assembly processes.

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Invasive plants can alter pollination dynamics in invaded communities by disrupting patterns of pollinator visitation, pollen transfer dynamics (conspecific [CP] and heterospecific [HP]), and reproductive success. The direction of invasive effects (competitive, neutral, and facilitative) may be partially determined by spatial scale and species’ floral traits. Here, we investigated pollinator visitation, CP and HP receipt, and pollen tube growth for species in a C. arvense present community and non-present community at two scales. At the community-level, the effect of C. arvense on pollinator visitation varied among species. Floral symmetry seemed to explain this variation. At the floral neighborhood-level, we found competitive effects for pollinator visits and mixed effects on CP deposition. The overall structure of plant-plant HP deposition networks was slightly altered. We observed lower average centrality across shared species in the C. arvense present community suggesting C. arvense had subverted their roles as pollen donors.

Ljudet av surrande insekter har blivit mer sällsynt på senare år och det finns en risk att det kommer bli en betydlig minskning av det i framtiden. Det menar i alla fall oroande forskarrapporter. En stor del av insekterna kan var utrotningshotade och det innebär i sin tur en risk för hela ekosystemet. Ekosystemtjänsterna kopplade till det svenska jordbruket från pollinerare är försörjande och reglerande. Kulturella tjänster från pollinerare finns också, i form av friluftsliv och bärplockning bland annat. Några viktiga pollinerare i Sverige är steklar och mer specifikt humlor och bin. Av de 299 vilda biarterna i Sverige är en tredjedel hotade. Jordbruket är i behov av pollinering för de grödor där självpollinering inte kan ske, dessa är till stor del frukt och grönsaker men även raps. Raps är till viss del självpollinerande, forskningen pekar på att skörden mognar jämnare och avkastningen blir bättre vid en högre närvaro av pollinerare. Detta är av stor vikt för att det ska vara lönsamt att bedriva jordbruksverksamhet därför bör dessa värna om denna ekosystemtjänst som pollinerare bidrar till. Denna rapport tar upp situationen för pollinerare i Sverige och hur de bidrar till olika ekosystemtjänster, fokus ligger på rödlistade arter och dess hot och problematik. Hur närvaron av pollinerare påverkar skörden och avkastningen av raps undersöks för att försöka uppskatta det ekonomiska värdet av pollinerare. En mindre fallstudie genomfördes för att vidare se hur förutsättningarna ser ut för pollinerare i ett begränsat område. En litteraturstudie har legat som grund för denna studie och har begränsats till den data som finns. För pollinerare har det funnits information om steklar (humlor och bin), en geografiskbegränsning till Öland och ett område utanför Gårdby gjordes. I fallstudien framkom det att observationerna av pollinerare skedde sporadiskt och att det finns kunskapsluckor i det valda området. Därför är det viktigt att vidare öka intresset och kunskapen om hur människor varje dag påverkar och nyttjar ekosystemtjänster från pollinerare. Hoten och problematiken identifieras ett av dem var förändrad markanvändning, i form av att förutsättningarna för att överleva inte längre är de samma. Det kan ta sig formen av ett intensifierat jordbruk där tillgången på en varierad föda inte längre finns men också att boplatser växer igen. En lösning till den hastiga förändringar i markanvändningen är att odla mer ekologiskt och ta tillvara på de naturliga områden då de bidrar till en hög biodiversitet. Detta motverkar även intensifieringen av jordbruket som idag går mot att bestå av stora monokulturer. Det andra hotet var insektsmedel generellt, då det har visats att det kan ha en negativ påverkan på pollinerare då främst på deras larver och ägg. Därtill är rekommendationerna för produkttester väldigt korta vilket resulterar i att de fullständiga effekterna alltid syns. Problematiken med insektsmedel har två lösning, en där odling i större utsträckning sker ekologiskt och att genomföra längre tester. Övriga potentiella hot är den överhängande klimatförändringen, sker det en snabb förändring förändras förutsättningarna drastiskt. Även inplantering av odlade pollinerare kan potentiellt vara ett hot då de kan konkurrera ut de vilda pollinerarna. / The sound of buzzing insects have become more scarce in the last several years and there is an overhanging risk that There will be a major decrees of them in the future. There is some scientific research that claims so, and that is worrying. A big part of the insects could be endangered and that would mean that the existence of ecosystems is at great risk. Farming in Sweden relies on several ecosystem services from pollinators, mainly provisioning and regulating. There are some cultural services from pollinators as well, that mostly affects outdoor life and the picking of berries among others. Some of the important pollinators are bumblebees and bees. Out of the 299 wild species that live in Sweden a third is threatened. Farmers are in need of pollination of the crops that don't self-pollinate, these crops are mainly fruit and vegetables but also oilseed rape. Oilseed rape is to some extent self-pollinating, but research shows that the yield ripens more evenly and the turnover of the crop is increased by a higher level of presence in the field by pollinators. This is of great interest for the farmers to make their business profitable, therefore they should work to preserve the ecosystem services that pollinators contribute with. This report attends the situation of pollinators in Sweden and how they contribute to ecosystem services, it's focused on red-listed species and their threats and problems. Also how the presence of pollinators affects the yield of rapeseed oil is investigated to try to estimate the value of pollinators. A smaller case study was conducted to further see how the conditions for pollinators are in a limited area. A literature study has laid the path for this study and it has been limited to the data available. for pollinators information about bees and bumblebees have been available, and a geographic limitation to Öland and to an area outside Gårdby was made. A small case study was conducted to further show the condition of pollinators in a limited area. It was shown that the observations of pollinators were sporadically conducted and there was a lack of knowledge in the chosen area. Therefore it's important to further increase the interest and knowledge about how humans affects and uses the ecosystem services from pollinators every day. The identified threats was a change in land use, to such an extent that it affects the conditions of surviving. It could be caused by intensified farming were the access to sufficient food is no longer available to pollinators. Increased land use changes the natural habitats where pollinators build their nests, either because they overgrow or they are exploited to uninhabitable ground. A solution to this is ecological farming where natural regions contribute to a greater biodiversity in the landscape are seen as a resource and preserved. The increased intensification of farming land will decrease if a large part of the farming is done ecologically. The second threat was pesticides in general, it has been shown that it could have a negative impact on pollinators, and mostly the larva’s and eggs. In addition to that, the recommendation on how long to test for the effects of a pesticide is very short. These problems with pesticides have two solutions, one was an increase in ecological farming and also to conduct longer test periods for pesticides. Other potential threats that were identifies was the overhanging climate change, conditions would drastically change. A presence of domesticated pollinators could be rival to native pollinators and lead to a decrease of native pollinators.

Floral visitation alone has been typically used to characterize plant-pollinator interaction networks even though it ignores differences in the quality of floral visits (e.g. transport of pollen) and thus may overestimate the number and functional importance of pollinating interactions. However, how network structural properties differ between floral visitation and pollen transport networks is not well understood. Furthermore, the strength and frequency of plant-pollinator interactions may vary across fine temporal scales (within a single season) further limiting our predictive understanding of the drivers and consequences of plant-pollinator network structure. Thus, evaluating the structure of pollen transport networks and how they change within a flowering season may help increase our predictive understanding of the ecological consequences of plant-pollinator network structure. Here we compare plant-pollinator network structure using floral visitation and pollen transport data and evaluate within-season variation in pollen transport network structure in a diverse plant-pollinator community. Our results show that pollen transport networks provide a more accurate representation of the diversity of plant-pollinator interactions in a community but that floral visitation and pollen transport networks do not differ in overall network structure. Pollen transport network structure was relatively stable throughout the flowering season despite changes in plant and pollinator species composition. Overall, our study highlights the need to improve our understanding of the drivers of plant-pollinator network structure in order to more fully understand the process that govern the assembly of these interactions in nature.

Pollinators are essential to food production globally. Without them, the production of food becomes increasingly difficult, time consuming, and costly. Unfortunately, due to the rapid changes to our earth's physical and climatic structure millions of species are becoming classified as threatened, endangered or extinct. Among these declining species are pollinating insects such as Aphis mellifera (honeybee) and other native species. This is due to a phenomenon known as colony collapse disorder (CCD) and other native bees. The decline indicates that the future habitability of earth may be in jeopardy. The solution to this crisis is to expand the habitat of native bees into our existing infrastructure, connecting the pollinator dependent crops with a network of biodiverse habitat. This will greatly improve the existing agricultural industries resiliency towards change. Thus, ensuring that California can be economically prosperous while continuing to feed the globe. The Sacramento Valley is one location which is ideal to develop such a network of native pollinator habitat due to its reliance on the agriculture industry and favorable environmental conditions.

Tall fescue grasslands are the dominant form of grasslands in the North American transition zone, however, warm-season forages provide necessary forage for livestock in the summer. Pollinators require steady forage availability in the same fashion as cattle. Native warm-season grasses (NWSG) and wildflowers (WF) could be incorporated into tall fescue (TF) grasslands to improve pollinator resources within agricultural landscapes without sacrificing livestock production. This balance of ecosystem services can be considered bee-friendly beef. Previous establishment experiments suggests that bee-friendly beef is a possibility, although establishment and persistence of NWSG-WF stands warrants additional research. Three small plot experiments were conducted to evaluate different planting methods designed to optimize establishment of NWSG-WF stands. Additionally, a grazing study examined whether NWSG-WF pasture enhancement could improve animal performance in TF grazing systems. The small plot experiments experienced extreme weed competition in the establishment year, although plots with higher NWSG content had fewer weeds over time. Floral production was comparable across treatment, which suggests lower WF seeding rates can generate comparable pollinator resources. Major findings from these experiments suggested that spatial or temporal separation of NWSGWF was unnecessary to generate successful establishment, varying the ratio of NWSG-WF in seed mixtures produced similar establishment outcomes, and that adding companion crops to NWSG-WF mixtures did not improve establishment success appreciably. In the grazing experiment, animal performance was improved in the biodiverse grazing systems when heifers 3 had access to the NWSG. Biodiverse and shaded grazing systems modified animal behavior and reduced body temperature relative to control grazing systems, although only biodiverse grazing systems improved animal performance. Native WF species failed to establish within the biodiverse grazing system, but white clover provided all subsequent floral production. Establishing WF in pastures is challenging and warrants additional study on more effective weed control strategies and systems to ensure establishment success. Selecting WF for agronomic performance or breeding such plant material will be necessary to improve emergence and establishment dynamics. Ideally trait data can identify the optimal WF species for specific grazing systems. Biodiverse NWSG-WF can be highly effective at improving summer weight gain in beef cattle. Future studies should focus on finding a more optimal balance of NWSG, WF, and TF that can benefit beef cattle production, pollinator services, and ecosystem services regarding soil and water quality, as well as pasture resiliency to dynamic conditions. / Doctor of Philosophy / Tall fescue grasslands are the dominant form of grasslands in the North American transition zone, however, warm-season forages provide necessary forage for livestock in the summer. Pollinators require steady forage availability in the same fashion as cattle. Native warm-season grasses (NWSG) and wildflowers (WF) could be incorporated into tall fescue (TF) grasslands to improve pollinator resources within agricultural landscapes without sacrificing livestock production. This balance of ecosystem services can be considered bee-friendly beef. Previous establishment experiments suggests that bee-friendly beef is a possibility, although establishment and persistence of NWSG-WF stands warrants additional research. Three small plot experiments were conducted to evaluate different planting methods designed to optimize establishment of NWSG-WF stands. Additionally, a grazing study examined whether NWSG-WF pasture enhancement could improve animal performance in TF grazing systems. The small plot experiments experienced extreme weed competition in the establishment year, although plots with higher NWSG content had fewer weeds over time. Floral production was comparable across treatment, which suggests lower WF seeding rates can generate comparable pollinator resources. Major findings from these experiments suggested that spatial or temporal separation of NWSGWF was unnecessary to generate successful establishment, varying the ratio of NWSG-WF in seed mixtures produced similar establishment outcomes, and that adding companion crops to NWSG-WF mixtures did not improve establishment success appreciably. In the grazing experiment, animal performance was improved in the biodiverse grazing systems when heifers 3 had access to the NWSG. Biodiverse and shaded grazing systems modified animal behavior and reduced body temperature relative to control grazing systems, although only biodiverse grazing systems improved animal performance. Native WF species failed to establish within the biodiverse grazing system, but white clover provided all subsequent floral production. Establishing WF in pastures is challenging and warrants additional study on more effective weed control strategies and systems to ensure establishment success. Selecting WF for agronomic performance or breeding such plant material will be necessary to improve emergence and establishment dynamics. Ideally trait data can identify the optimal WF species for specific grazing systems. Biodiverse NWSG-WF can be highly effective at improving summer weight gain in beef cattle. Future studies should focus on finding a more optimal balance of NWSG, WF, and TF that can benefit beef cattle production, pollinator services, and ecosystem services regarding soil and water quality, as well as pasture resiliency to dynamic conditions.

Insect pollinators serve a critical role in maintaining plant biodiversity and are especially susceptible to changes within their environment. To study the possible effects of seasonal variation in temperature, as well as climatic temperature increase on the plant-pollinator community, the relationship between bumblebee and flowering plant traits along an elevational gradient, representing warming-induced changes in plant community, were examined. Two hypotheses were tested; 1) if plant traits can predict visiting bumblebee proboscis length, and 2) if the relationship between plant traits and proboscis length is influenced by elevation, and the progression of the growing season. The study took place along an elevational gradient on Mt. Nuolja in Abisko National Park, Sweden. During surveys bumblebees were caught and measured. Flowers visited by captured bumblebees were collected, categorized by restrictiveness (i.e., whether or not the flower require a certain proboscis length, in order to access the nectar and pollen rewards) and floral traits measured (e.g., petal length). The results revealed that petal length was a significant predictor of bumblebee proboscis length, when taking restrictiveness into account. Furthermore, the relationship became weaker with increasing elevation for restrictive flowers but stronger for unrestrictive flowers. These findings show that trait-matching between bumblebees and flowers is an influential factor for flower selection and is affected by climatic temperature. This highlights the importance of considering individual-level traits when studying plant preference and creates a framework for assessing plant-pollinator networks. Future studies should examine additional traits that could explain the apparent size matching between unrestrictive flowers and proboscis.

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