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Whitehead, Joshua
- PublicationCould Pollination Networks be Applied for Biological Conservation and Monitoring of Threatened Plant Communities? – Examples from an Endangered Ecological Community, the Howell Shrublands
Plant-pollinator interactions play a pivotal role in the structure and persistence of biological communities. Despite this, plant-pollinator relationships are rarely considered in applied conservation, potentially resulting in counterproductive or ineffective management practices. By allowing interactions between plants and pollinators to be quantitatively assessed, network analyses may offer valuable information for applied conservation. To demonstrate the potential utility of network analyses in conservation, this study will attempt to inform management for an endangered ecological community in eastern Australia using a multi-year pollination network. Over six seasons, 1,633.4 hours of floral visitation data were collected for 103 plant species to construct a network of plant-pollinator interactions. Asymptotic richness estimates were used to evaluate sampling efficacy, and predict the amount of effort required to complete sampling. Network analyses were conducted using the Bipartite package for RStudio, allowing species of high conservation value to be identified in terms of interaction strength, and the pollinator service index (PSI). Network specialisation (H2’), nestedness (wNODF), robustness, and modularity were assessed as potential indicators of community stability. Sampling was estimated to detect up to 90.05% of floral visitors, and 66.66% of interactions, with floral species predicted to require an average of 18.03 hours observation to sample a majority of interactions. This was also found to coincide with stable asymptotic richness estimates for a separate sample of species subject to relatively intensive sampling efforts and is therefore recommended as a baseline for future testing and sampling. Exotic honeybees (Apis mellifera) were identified as an important pollinator within the network, which was generally more specialised, modular, and robust to floral extinctions than could be explained by null models. Dividing the network into temporal sub-networks revealed late winter and early summer flowering plants were significantly less robust to pollinator extinction in spite of high interaction nestedness. This level of risk is likely to increase significantly if honeybees become locally extinct due to the parasite Varroa destructor. Therefore, conservation efforts should focus on late winter pollinators as a means of preserving the floral community.
- PublicationInteractions between two species of recently-sympatric invasive honeybees: Apis cerana induces aggression in Apis mellifera during foraging(University of New England, 2019)
; ; ; ; Paini, DeanHoneybees Apis mellifera (European honeybee) and Apis cerana (Asian honeybee) are cosmopolitan, having colonized continents beyond their natural ranges. In tropical Australia, these alien species have recently become sympatric. The environmental and economic impacts of these species when in sympatry remain to be seen; however, any interspecific competition may be of significance. We examined conspecific and heterospecific interactions between honeybees foraging at the nectar- and pollen-providing flowers of Antipogon leptopus (Polygonaceae). We cross-classified 554 encounters by three variables; incoming bee species, resident bee species, and one of four potential responses: (1) incoming defers to resident; (2) incoming procures the flower from resident; (3) incoming and resident share the flower; or (4) both incoming and resident abandon the flower. We also measured aggression and foraging rates of workers at flowers. Both species visited similar numbers of flowers in a foraging bout and spent similar foraging times on individual flowers. Incoming A. mellifera were more likely to procure flowers from resident A. cerana, and incoming A. cerana were more likely to defer to resident A. mellifera. A. mellifera were more aggressive toward heterospecifics than conspecifics, with heterospecifics 4.5 times more likely to provoke an aggressive response. However, no significant difference between conspecific and heterospecific aggression was observed for incoming A. cerana. A. mellifera were less abundant, yet overall more likely to acquire flowers and use aggression to do so. Costs of aggression may help explain the population-scale dominance of A. cerana over A. mellifera in this study. - PublicationUnsuccessful introduced biocontrol agents can act as pollinators of invasive weeds: Bitou Bush ('Chrysanthemoides monilifera ssp. rotundata') as an example(John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 2017)
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