A shocking new study finds that losing just one pollinator species could lead to major declines in plant productivity, a finding that has broad implications for biodiversity conservation. Looking at ten bumblebee species in Colorado alpine meadows, two scientists found that removing a single bee species cut flower seed production by one-third. Pollinators worldwide are in major trouble as they are hit by habitat loss, pesticides, disease and other impacts. In fact, the EU has recently banned several pesticides that have been linked to the global bee decline.
“We found that these wildflowers produce one-third fewer seeds in the absence of just one bumblebee species,” says lead author Berry Brosi, with Emory University. “That’s alarming, and suggests that global declines in pollinators could have a bigger impact on flowering plants and food crops than was previously realized.”
The study’s results, conducted in-the-field, contradicts past studies that have argued that plants would remain relatively unscathed in a world of fewer pollinators, so long as remaining pollinators picked up the slack. However, those past studies have depended solely on computer modeling; this new study is the first to test that hypotheses in real world conditions.
Brosi and his team set up plots at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in Colorado at 9,500 feet. In control plots, all ten bumblebee species were allowed to forage, while in other plots specific species were removed by net. A team of researchers then tracked the bees as they interacted with a flower called larkspurs....
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