Urban green space patchiness hinders a keystone pollinator functional group and pollination effectiveness in Western Europe
Abstract
Pollination is the basis of ecosystem functioning, as it conditions the reproduction of most flowering plants. With the expected future expansion of the urban environment, evaluating the status of pollination in these habitats becomes essential. Using a two-year replicated experiment carried out on a scale of 16 cities across western Europe, we estimated pollination function in these urban environments, and inferred the effects of local and landscape variables, using white mustard Sinapis alba as a pollinometer, i.e . a model plant species used to estimate pollination function. We found the pollinometer reproductive success to be positively affected by pollinator visitation rates, more specifically by small wild bee visitation rates, which in turn were negatively impacted by urban green space patchiness at the city scale. In contrast, visitation rates of hoverflies, the most abundant floral visitors, were not affected by urban green space configuration and their visitation rate did not impact the reproductive success of the pollinometer. Moreover, the visitation rate of all pollinator categories, except hoverflies, was positively affected by the pollinometer floral display. These results emphasize that urban habitat patchiness may affect pollination function through its impact on a single pollinator functional group, namely the small wild bees, which are not necessarily the most abundant pollinators. These results also highlight the need for more studies on how local management practices of urban green spaces influence pollinator diversity and pollination function.
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