Umbellifers As Potential Keystone Species in Restoration Projects
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
ACTA AGROBOTANICA Vol. 60 (2): 45–49 2007 UMBELLIFERS AS POTENTIAL KEYSTONE SPECIES IN RESTORATION PROJECTS Marcin Zych*, Paweł Niemczyk, Radosław Niemirski University of Warsaw Botanic Garden, Aleje Ujazdowskie 4, 00-478 Warsaw, Poland *[email protected] Received: 17.09.2007 Summary “fl owers with fully exposed nectar and little or no in- We studied visitation rates to four common European um- trafl oral temperature elevation”) that attract allotropous bellifers: Angelica sylvestris, Anthriscus sylvestris, Daucus caro- and hemitropous insects. ta, and Heracleum sphondylium. Our observations and literature Many plants from this family are widely distri- data confi rm that a single plant species from the family Apiaceae buted throughout Europe and occur naturally in vario- may be visited by over a hundred insect taxa from taxonomically us plant communities. The above attributes make them diverse groups. Here we suggest that in the light of pollination good candidates for consideration in restoration projects shortage faced by many endangered plant species, co-planting of as ‘magnet species’ attracting pollinators to plants of relevant native Apiaceae plants, especially in Europe, should be special care. Our aim was to examine the fl ower visitors taken into consideration in many restoration projects to provide, to four common umbellifers growing in various habi- via umbelliferean magnet species, appropriate pollination service tats, in order to evaluate their use as such magnet plants for focus plant taxa. in European conditions. Key words: pollination, Apiaceae=Umbelliferae, magnet spe- cies, endangered plants, biodiversity, allophilous MATERIALS AND METHODS plants We observed and captured fl ower visitors of two native European taxa of the family Apiaceae – Herac- leum sphondylium and Angelica sylvestris. The former INTRODUCTION is widespread in forests and woodland clearings, river- In many continents numerous plant taxa beco- banks, and tall montane-herb grasslands (S heppard, me endangered and face extinction due to habitat loss, 1991). In Poland it is usually described as a common their populations become fragmented and increasing- meadow species (G a w ł owska, 1956), growing also ly smaller. To prevent this trend, nature conservation in thickets, on roadsides and forest fringes (R utkow- activities aim at stabilizing and expanding the size and ski, 1998). Its geographical range includes most of the number of such populations. Successful restoration is, European countries, except the extreme north, parts of however, limited by several environmental and biolo- the Mediterranean region and some Atlantic and Medi- gical factors. One being the pollination failure that may terranean islands (Brummitt, 1968; Sheppard, restrain natural regeneration of endangered plant popula- 1991). Aneglica sylvestris is characteristic for wetlands, tions (Kwak and Bekker, 2006). This may be due damp and shady places and is distributed almost throu- to pollinator shortage and/or the specialized nature of ghout all Europe (C annon, 1968). Both species are plant-pollinator relationships (W ilcock and Nei- natural components of many plant communities in Eu- land, 2002). rope. Umbellifers (species of the Apiaceae family) are The observations of H. sphondylium were carried visited by numerous insect pollinators from several ta- in 2000 and 2002, in Wigry National Park (NE Poland, xonomic orders, usually providing the animals with pol- Suwałki district, Podlaskie voievodeship). The popu- len and nectar throughout the whole fl owering period lation was situated in the forest section 119, near the (Knuth, 1898; Ellis and Ellis-Adam, 1993; village of Krzywe (N 54º05’ E 23º00’), and consisted 1994; Zych, 2007). In the terminology of Corbet of approx. 300 plants. The plants grew along the forest (2006), they are allophilous plants (i.e. species with road in mixed spruce-pine forest. 46 Marcin Zych, Paweł Niemczyk, Radosław Niemirski The observations in a large population of A. syl- lium and Angelica sylvestris, the highest proportion of vestris (several thousand plants growing on the area of visitors belonged to the order Diptera (50% and 64%, approx. 5 ha) were conducted in 2006 and 2007, in the respectively), and in the case of Anthriscus sylvestris wet meadows complex on the small Ruż river, in the and Daucus carota, to Hymenoptera (35% and 41%, vicinity of the village Kleczkowo (N 53º02,9’ E 21º51,8’; respectively). NE Poland, Ostrołęka district, Mazowieckie voievode- The observations of fl owering time of Angelica ship). The investigated community is rich in many en- sylvestris and H. sphondylium showed that for both spe- dangered Polish Red Book plant species (e.g. Dacty- cies, the fl owering period for the population may extend lorhiza incarnata, Dianthus superbus, and Polemonium over 6-10 weeks, and for the individual plant it lasts, on caeruleum; Zych and Werblan-Jakubiec, 2004, average, over 14 and 23 days, respectively in the case of 2005). The plants grew in extensively used damp mead- H. sphondylium and A. sylvestris. ows on peat soils. In many papers, plants of the family Apiaceae Each year the insects were captured in hourly are shown to attract many insect visitors from various schemes (10 min capturing every hour, from 08.00 taxonomic groups (C orbet, 1970, 2006; Grace and to 19.00, during 4 days of the peak fl owering period) Nelson, 1981; E llis and Ellis-Adam, 1993; using an entomological net or exhaustor, and killed in Ollerton et al. 2007; Z ych, 2004, 2007), this is ethyl acetate for further identifi cation. Every study day also true for the taxa examined in the present paper. 12 rounds of capturings were conducted, but in case of Flowers of each of the studied umbellifers were visited strong winds or rain the observations were halted and on average by 86 insect taxa from at least eight taxono- the remaining rounds were completed at the correspond- mic orders; the list also includes specialized fl ower vis- ing hour on subsequent days, this adds to 48 plants be- itors. Most of the fl ower visitors belonged to the orders ing observed in each season in the case of either species. Hymenoptera and Diptera (Fig. 1, Tab. 1) regarded as The plant used for a single capturing event was random- groups of principal pollinators in the temperate regions ly selected and not excluded from the subsequent round (Proctor et al. 1996; Kearns, 2001; Larson et of capturing, and therefore it was possible that the same al. 2001). umbel was observed more than once. Only primary um- The extended fl owering period, due to continu- bels in full bloom, in either male or female phase, were ous fl owering of numerous infl orescences produced chosen for capturing. by an individual plant, provided insect visitors with In both populations, we also randomly selected foraging opportunities during a large part of the se- 50 plants to calculate the duration of the fl owering pe- ason (up to eight weeks in the case of populations of riod. H. sphondylium and Angelica sylvestris). Being common During literature survey we also extracted data on European species that often naturally co-occur with rare insect visitation to widespread European Apiaceae spe- and endangered species, such plants may act as catalysts cies: Anthriscus sylvestris and Daucus carota (Knuth, of rare plants reproduction via attracting insects to less 1898). numerous plants of conservation interest. In one of the surveyed sites, for instance, the abundant population RESULTS AND DISCUSSION of Angelica sylvestris is visited by a group of insects also present on, and pollinators of, rare and endangered The studied plants were visited by insects from Polemonium caeruleum (Zych, unpubl.). eight taxonomic orders: Coleoptera, Diptera, Heteropte- In our opinion, the above-mentioned facts make ra, Hymenoptera, Lepidoptera, Mecoptera, Neuroptera, the umbelliferean plants good candidates for ‘magnet- and Orthoptera (the list of insect taxa for H. sphondy- species’ (T h omson, 1978) with a potentially benefi - lium has already been published in Zych (2007), and cial impact on pollinators’ performance in communities for Anthriscus sylvestris and Daucus carota in Knuth where under-pollination may be expected. We encourage (1898), the list for A. sylvestris is given in Tab. 1). further studies on the role of umbellifers and other allophi- In all four cases, the ‘core’ of the fl ower visitors’ lous taxa (e.g. Asteraceae, Rosaceae or Ranunculaceae) assemblage was composed of Diptera, Hymenoptera and in plant-pollinator networks as keystone species greatly Coleoptera, which constituted 84-95% of the total ento- affecting pollination services on the community level. mofauna. We observed the largest pollinator assemblage for H. sphondylium. Its umbels were visited by 108 inse- Acknowledgments ct taxa (Fig. 1). This species was also the most attractive The project was supported by the Departmental for ‘Other’ insect taxa (Heteroptera, Lepidoptera, Me- Grant BW 1720/69 (to MZ) from Faculty of Biology, coptera, Neuroptera, and Orthoptera), which constituted University of Warsaw. 16% of its total entomofauna. In case of H. sphondy- Table 1 List of insect visitors to fl owers of Angelica sylvestris. Taxonomic names are given according to Polish Animal Checklist (R a zowski 1990-1997). Some insects were identifi ed only to family or order level. Order Family Species Diptera* Anthomyidae Calliphoridae Calliphora loevii Ender., C. uralensis Vill., C. vomitoria (L.), Cynomya mortuorum (L.), Lucilia (R.-D.), Pollenia R.-D. Culicidae Muscidae