Food for Pollinators: Quantifying the Nectar and Pollen Resources of Urban Flower Meadows.
Food for Pollinators: Quantifying the Nectar and Pollen Resources of Urban Flower Meadows.
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DOI：
10.1371/journal.pone.0158117
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发表时间：
2016
期刊：
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
Stone GN
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Hicks DM;Ouvrard P;Baldock KC;Baude M;Goddard MA;Kunin WE;Mitschunas N;Memmott J;Morse H;Nikolitsi M;Osgathorpe LM;Potts SG;Robertson KM;Scott AV;Sinclair F;Westbury DB;Stone GN
人工草地越来越多地用于改善城市地区的生物多样性和美学舒适价值。虽然有许多“传粉者友好”的种子混合物可用，但这些种子为访花昆虫提供的花卉资源以及这些资源如何随时间变化，在很大程度上是未知的。这些数据是必要的，以比较资源提供的替代草甸种子混合彼此和其他开花栖息地。我们使用了超过200万朵鲜花的定量调查，以估计两种示例性商业种子混合物（一种一年生，一种多年生）和相关杂草提供的花蜜和花粉资源，这些种子混合物在2013年5月至9月期间的6个时间点在英国4个城市的300平方米的草地上生长。每朵花的花蜜糖和花粉奖励在调查的65个物种中变化很大，英国本土的杂草物种（包括蒲公英，蒲公英）贡献了前五名花蜜生产者和前十名花粉生产者中的两个。每朵花获得最高奖励的种子混合物种包括Leontodon hispidus，Centaurea cyanus和C。花蜜为黑果，花粉为虞美人、加州锦葵和锦葵。多年生草地产生高达20倍以上的花蜜和高达6倍以上的花粉比一年生草地，这反过来又产生远远超过舒适的草地控制。多年生草地生产的资源早在一年中比一年生草地，但这两种种子混合提供了非常低的资源水平在年初，这些几乎完全由本地杂草。每朵花的花粉量是很好的预测统计花的形态，花蜜糖质量和花粉量每单位面积与花数，提高资源水平的可能性，可以估计物种或生境，他们不能直接测量。我们的方法不包括资源质量信息（例如，花粉蛋白质或必需氨基酸含量），但当存在合适的数据时，可以很容易地这样做。我们的方法应告知新的种子组合的设计，以确保全年花卉资源供应的连续性，并确定合适的物种，以填补现有组合的资源缺口。
Planted meadows are increasingly used to improve the biodiversity and aesthetic amenity value of urban areas. Although many ‘pollinator-friendly’ seed mixes are available, the floral resources these provide to flower-visiting insects, and how these change through time, are largely unknown. Such data are necessary to compare the resources provided by alternative meadow seed mixes to each other and to other flowering habitats. We used quantitative surveys of over 2 million flowers to estimate the nectar and pollen resources offered by two exemplar commercial seed mixes (one annual, one perennial) and associated weeds grown as 300m2 meadows across four UK cities, sampled at six time points between May and September 2013. Nectar sugar and pollen rewards per flower varied widely across 65 species surveyed, with native British weed species (including dandelion, Taraxacum agg.) contributing the top five nectar producers and two of the top ten pollen producers. Seed mix species yielding the highest rewards per flower included Leontodon hispidus, Centaurea cyanus and C. nigra for nectar, and Papaver rhoeas, Eschscholzia californica and Malva moschata for pollen. Perennial meadows produced up to 20x more nectar and up to 6x more pollen than annual meadows, which in turn produced far more than amenity grassland controls. Perennial meadows produced resources earlier in the year than annual meadows, but both seed mixes delivered very low resource levels early in the year and these were provided almost entirely by native weeds. Pollen volume per flower is well predicted statistically by floral morphology, and nectar sugar mass and pollen volume per unit area are correlated with flower counts, raising the possibility that resource levels can be estimated for species or habitats where they cannot be measured directly. Our approach does not incorporate resource quality information (for example, pollen protein or essential amino acid content), but can easily do so when suitable data exist. Our approach should inform the design of new seed mixes to ensure continuity in floral resource availability throughout the year, and to identify suitable species to fill resource gaps in established mixes.