Williams Paul, Colla Sheila, Xie Zhenghua
Department of Entomology, The Natural History Museum, South Kensington, London, United Kingdom.
Conserv Biol. 2009 Aug;23(4):931-40. doi: 10.1111/j.1523-1739.2009.01176.x. Epub 2009 Feb 24.
It is widely agreed that in many parts of the world some bumblebee (Bombus) species have declined, and that this has often been driven by land-use changes that cause reductions in the abundance of food plants. There is much less agreement about how changes in food plants affect some bumblebee species more than others. We sought to identify which species' characteristics are generally associated with the relative winners and losers by comparing the 3 independent bumblebee faunas from parts of Britain, Canada, and China. Using available survey data, we assessed species characteristics, including competition with congeners, climatic specialization, proximity to climatic range edge, food specialization, phenology, body size, and range size. Results of our meta-analysis of correlations showed support for the hypotheses that decline susceptibility is generally greater for species that have greater climatic specialization, for species in areas where they occur closest to the edges of their climatic ranges, and for species that have queens that become active later in the year. The latter characteristic may render a species at a particular disadvantage when they have long colony cycles if there are losses of food plants in mid to late colony development.
人们普遍认为,在世界许多地区,一些熊蜂( Bombus )物种数量已经减少,而这通常是由土地利用变化导致食源植物数量减少所驱动的。然而,对于食源植物的变化如何对某些熊蜂物种产生比其他物种更大的影响,人们的共识要少得多。我们试图通过比较来自英国、加拿大和中国部分地区的3个独立熊蜂动物区系,来确定哪些物种特征通常与相对的赢家和输家相关。利用现有的调查数据,我们评估了物种特征,包括与同属物种的竞争、气候适应性、与气候范围边缘的距离、食物专一性、物候、体型和分布范围大小。我们对相关性进行的荟萃分析结果支持了以下假设:对于气候适应性更强的物种、在其出现区域最接近气候范围边缘的物种以及蜂王在一年中较晚活跃的物种,其数量下降的易感性通常更大。如果在蜂群发育中期至后期出现食源植物损失的情况,那么后一种特征可能会使一个物种在其蜂群周期较长时处于特别不利的地位。