Miranda S Bane Thesis 2019.PDF
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
University of Bath PHD Bumblebee foraging patterns: plant-pollinator network dynamics and robustness Bane, Miranda Award date: 2019 Awarding institution: University of Bath Link to publication Alternative formats If you require this document in an alternative format, please contact: [email protected] General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 05. Oct. 2021 Bumblebee foraging patterns: plant-pollinator network dynamics and robustness Miranda Sophie Bane A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Bath Department of Physics December 2018 1 Copyright declaration Attention is drawn to the fact that copyright of this thesis/portfolio rests with the author and copyright of any previously published materials included may rest with third parties. A copy of this thesis/portfolio has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it understands that they must not copy it or use material from it except as licenced, permitted by law or with the consent of the author or other copyright owners, as applicable. Declaration of any previous submission of the work The material presented here for examination for the award of a higher degree by research has not been incorporated into a submission for another degree. Candidate’s signature: Declaration of authorship I am the author of this thesis, and the work described therein was carried out by myself personally, with the exception of Chapter 2, a published paper in which I collaborated with Dr Michael Pocock and Dr Richard James. All three authors designed the methodology of the paper, discussed the results and commented on the manuscript at all stages. I coded the models and analysed the data with technical advice and support from Dr Richard James and Michael Pocock. I drafted the manuscript. All authors contributed critically to the drafts and gave final approval for publication of the paper. Candidate’s signature: 2 Contents ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................... 8 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................. 9 1.1 A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF POLLINATION ...................................................................................... 11 1.2 POLLINATORS ....................................................................................................................... 13 1.3 BEES AS POLLINATORS ........................................................................................................... 13 1.4 BUMBLEBEES ........................................................................................................................ 15 1.5 DECLINES IN INSECT POLLINATORS ......................................................................................... 19 1.6 THREATS TO PLANT-POLLINATOR COMMUNITIES ..................................................................... 19 1.6 NETWORK THEORY ................................................................................................................ 22 1.7 PLANT POLLINATOR NETWORKS ............................................................................................. 23 1.8 MOTIVATION OF THIS THESIS ................................................................................................. 29 1.9 OVERVIEW OF KEY OBJECTIVES AND THESIS LAYOUT .............................................................. 31 Chapter 2 ............................................................................................................................... 31 Key Question: How is the robustness of plant-pollinator networks (calculated using knock-out extinction models) impacted by model mechanism and the structural properties of the network? ......... 31 Chapter 3 ............................................................................................................................... 31 Key Question: How does the floral resource in a plant-pollinator community change within a pollination season, and how different are two consecutive seasons in this regard? ................................................ 31 Chapter 4 ............................................................................................................................... 32 Key Question: What is the impact of the experimental removal of a plant species from a plant-pollinator network in terms of network structure, the foraging choices of bumblebee species, and knock on effects to other pollinators? .......................................................................................................................... 32 Chapter 5 ............................................................................................................................... 32 Key question: How constant or prone to switching are foraging bumblebees over consecutive flower visits in a resource rich environment and are there differences in foraging between species? ............... 32 Chapter 6: Conclusions .......................................................................................................... 33 A NOTE ON THESIS FORMAT ......................................................................................................... 33 CHAPTER 2: EFFECTS OF MODEL CHOICE, NETWORK STRUCTURE, AND INTERACTION STRENGTHS ON KNOCKOUT EXTINCTION MODELS OF ECOLOGICAL ROBUSTNESS .................................................................................................. 35 ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................. 37 2.1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................... 38 3 2.2 MATERIALS AND METHODS .................................................................................................... 40 2.2.a Model development ........................................................................................................ 41 2.2.b Universal model features ............................................................................................... 43 2.2.c New extinction model features ........................................................................................ 44 2.2.d Natural extensions of our models ................................................................................... 46 2.2.e Comparison of robustness distributions from the three extinction models ........................ 47 2.2.f Testing on other networks ............................................................................................... 47 2.2.g Assessing how node and network-level properties effect variation in robustness .............. 47 2.2.h Robustness distributions of networks with manipulated degree distributions ................... 47 2.2.i Plant extinction rank and degree ..................................................................................... 48 2.3 RESULTS ............................................................................................................................... 48 2.3.a Varying the value of the threshold for secondary extinctions ........................................... 48 2.3.b Robustness distributions for the Ashton Court network ................................................... 49 2.3.c Robustness distributions for other networks .................................................................... 50 2.3.d Effect of manipulating degree distribution ...................................................................... 51 2.3.e Extinction rank of plant species, and the effect on R ........................................................ 52 2.4 DISCUSSION........................................................................................................................... 53 2.5 ADDITIONAL POINTS OF DISCUSSION ....................................................................................... 55 2.6 APPENDIX: SUPPORTING INFORMATION .................................................................................. 56 CHAPTER 3: PHENOLOGY AND TURNOVER OF FLOWERING PLANTS AND BUMBLEBEE SPECIES .............................................................................................................. 63 ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................. 64 3.1 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................... 65 3.2 FIELD METHODS..................................................................................................................... 69 3.2.a The survey site ..............................................................................................................