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Shining a light on species coexistence: visual traits drive bumblebee communities
Local coexistence of bees has been explained by flower resource partitioning, but coexisting bumblebee species often have strongly overlapping diets. We investigated if light microhabitat niche separation, underpinned by visual traits, could serve as an alternative mechanism underlying local coexist...
Autores principales: | , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
The Royal Society
2023
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10089714/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37040802 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.2548 |
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author | Bartholomée, Océane Dwyer, Ciara Tichit, Pierre Caplat, Paul Baird, Emily Smith, Henrik G. |
author_facet | Bartholomée, Océane Dwyer, Ciara Tichit, Pierre Caplat, Paul Baird, Emily Smith, Henrik G. |
author_sort | Bartholomée, Océane |
collection | PubMed |
description | Local coexistence of bees has been explained by flower resource partitioning, but coexisting bumblebee species often have strongly overlapping diets. We investigated if light microhabitat niche separation, underpinned by visual traits, could serve as an alternative mechanism underlying local coexistence of bumblebee species. To this end, we focused on a homogeneous flower resource—bilberry—in a heterogeneous light environment—hemi-boreal forests. We found that bumblebee communities segregated along a gradient of light intensity. The community-weighted mean of the eye parameter—a metric measuring the compromise between light sensitivity and visual resolution—decreased with light intensity, showing a higher investment in light sensitivity of communities observed in darker conditions. This pattern was consistent at the species level. In general, species with higher eye parameter (larger investment in light sensitivity) foraged in dimmer light than those with a lower eye parameter (higher investment in visual resolution). Moreover, species realized niche optimum was linearly related to their eye parameter. These results suggest microhabitat niche partitioning to be a potential mechanism underpinning bumblebee species coexistence. This study highlights the importance of considering sensory traits when studying pollinator habitat use and their ability to cope with changing environments. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-10089714 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2023 |
publisher | The Royal Society |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-100897142023-04-12 Shining a light on species coexistence: visual traits drive bumblebee communities Bartholomée, Océane Dwyer, Ciara Tichit, Pierre Caplat, Paul Baird, Emily Smith, Henrik G. Proc Biol Sci Ecology Local coexistence of bees has been explained by flower resource partitioning, but coexisting bumblebee species often have strongly overlapping diets. We investigated if light microhabitat niche separation, underpinned by visual traits, could serve as an alternative mechanism underlying local coexistence of bumblebee species. To this end, we focused on a homogeneous flower resource—bilberry—in a heterogeneous light environment—hemi-boreal forests. We found that bumblebee communities segregated along a gradient of light intensity. The community-weighted mean of the eye parameter—a metric measuring the compromise between light sensitivity and visual resolution—decreased with light intensity, showing a higher investment in light sensitivity of communities observed in darker conditions. This pattern was consistent at the species level. In general, species with higher eye parameter (larger investment in light sensitivity) foraged in dimmer light than those with a lower eye parameter (higher investment in visual resolution). Moreover, species realized niche optimum was linearly related to their eye parameter. These results suggest microhabitat niche partitioning to be a potential mechanism underpinning bumblebee species coexistence. This study highlights the importance of considering sensory traits when studying pollinator habitat use and their ability to cope with changing environments. The Royal Society 2023-04-12 2023-04-12 /pmc/articles/PMC10089714/ /pubmed/37040802 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.2548 Text en © 2023 The Authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Ecology Bartholomée, Océane Dwyer, Ciara Tichit, Pierre Caplat, Paul Baird, Emily Smith, Henrik G. Shining a light on species coexistence: visual traits drive bumblebee communities |
title | Shining a light on species coexistence: visual traits drive bumblebee communities |
title_full | Shining a light on species coexistence: visual traits drive bumblebee communities |
title_fullStr | Shining a light on species coexistence: visual traits drive bumblebee communities |
title_full_unstemmed | Shining a light on species coexistence: visual traits drive bumblebee communities |
title_short | Shining a light on species coexistence: visual traits drive bumblebee communities |
title_sort | shining a light on species coexistence: visual traits drive bumblebee communities |
topic | Ecology |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10089714/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37040802 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.2548 |
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