Corridors Restore Animal-mediated Pollination in Fragmented Tropical Forest Landscapes

Overview

Journal Proc Biol Sci

Specialty Biology

Date 2016 Jan 29

PMID 26817765

Citations 14

Authors

Urs Kormann

Christoph Scherber

Teja Tscharntke

Nadja Klein

Manuel Larbig

Jonathon J Valente

Adam S Hadley

Matthew G Betts

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Tropical biodiversity and associated ecosystem functions have become heavily eroded through habitat loss. Animal-mediated pollination is required in more than 94% of higher tropical plant species and 75% of the world's leading food crops, but it remains unclear if corridors avert deforestation-driven pollination breakdown in fragmented tropical landscapes. Here, we used manipulative resource experiments and field observations to show that corridors functionally connect neotropical forest fragments for forest-associated hummingbirds and increase pollen transfer. Further, corridors boosted forest-associated pollinator availability in fragments by 14.3 times compared with unconnected equivalents, increasing overall pollination success. Plants in patches without corridors showed pollination rates equal to bagged control flowers, indicating pollination failure in isolated fragments. This indicates, for the first time, that corridors benefit tropical forest ecosystems beyond boosting local species richness, by functionally connecting mutualistic network partners. We conclude that small-scale adjustments to landscape configuration safeguard native pollinators and associated pollination services in tropical forest landscapes.

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