Causes and Extent of Declines among Native North American Invertebrate Pollinators: Detection, Evidence, and Consequences

dc.contributor.authorCane, James H.en_US
dc.contributor.authorTepedino, Vincent J.en_US
dc.coverage.regionNorth Americaen_US
dc.date.accessioned2009-07-31T14:52:10Z
dc.date.available2009-07-31T14:52:10Z
dc.date.issued2001en_US
dc.date.submitted2008-09-05en_US
dc.date.submitted2008-09-05en_US
dc.description.abstract"Ecosystem health and agricultural wealth in North America depend on a particular invertebrate fauna to deliver pollination services. Extensive losses in pollinator guilds and communities can disrupt ecosystem integrity, a circumstance that today forces most farmers to rely on honey bees for much fruit and seed production. Are North America's invertebrate pollinator faunas already widely diminished or currently threatened by human activities? How would we know, what are the spatiotemporal scales for detection, and which anthropogenic factors are responsible? Answers to these questions were considered by participants in a workshop sponsored by the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis in October of 1999, and these questions form the nucleus for the papers in this special issue. Several contributors critically interpret the evidence for declines of bee and fly pollinators, the pollination deficits that should ensue, and their economic costs. Spatiotemporal unruliness in pollinator numbers, particularly bees, is shown to hinder our current insights, highlighting the need for refined survey and sampling designs. At the same time, two remarkable studies clearly show the long-term persistence of members of complex bee communities. Other authors offer new perspectives on habitat fragmentation and global warming as drivers of pollinator declines. Bees and lepidopterans are contrasted in terms of their natural genetic variation and their consequent resilience in the face of population declines. Overall, many ecologists and conservation biologists have not fully appreciated the daunting challenges that accompany sampling designs, taxonomy, and the natural history of bees, flies, and other invertebrate pollinators, a circumstance that must be remedied if we are to reliably monitor invertebrate pollinator populations and respond to their declines with effective conservation measures."en_US
dc.identifier.citationjournalEcology and Societyen_US
dc.identifier.citationmonthJuneen_US
dc.identifier.citationnumber1en_US
dc.identifier.citationvolume5en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10535/2640
dc.subjectinsectsen_US
dc.subjectconservationen_US
dc.subjectdiversityen_US
dc.subjectland tenure and useen_US
dc.subject.sectorWildlifeen_US
dc.titleCauses and Extent of Declines among Native North American Invertebrate Pollinators: Detection, Evidence, and Consequencesen_US
dc.typeJournal Articleen_US
dc.type.publishedpublisheden_US

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