Warm or bright – Temperature and light microhabitat use in insect pollinators
Bartholomée, Océane LU ; Jie, Vun Wen ; Caplat, Paul LU ; Smith, Henrik G. LU
and Baird, Emily
LU
(2025)
In Ecological Entomology
- Abstract
Environmental heterogeneity in forest understories creates microhabitat niches that differ both spatially and temporally in light intensity and temperature. Do animal communities segregate in relation to these niche dimensions, and can this be explained by functional traits? Answering these questions is particularly important for insect pollinators, as they play a critical role in maintaining flowering plant biodiversity. Bumblebees are essential pollinators of high altitude/latitude ecosystems and are particularly sensitive to climate change. In early spring, they forage on bilberry, a keystone species in heterogeneous habitats – hemi-boreal forests. We capitalised on these conditions to study a species-specific selection of foraging... (More)
Environmental heterogeneity in forest understories creates microhabitat niches that differ both spatially and temporally in light intensity and temperature. Do animal communities segregate in relation to these niche dimensions, and can this be explained by functional traits? Answering these questions is particularly important for insect pollinators, as they play a critical role in maintaining flowering plant biodiversity. Bumblebees are essential pollinators of high altitude/latitude ecosystems and are particularly sensitive to climate change. In early spring, they forage on bilberry, a keystone species in heterogeneous habitats – hemi-boreal forests. We capitalised on these conditions to study a species-specific selection of foraging niches in relation to abiotic conditions. We combined full-day monitoring of bumblebee communities foraging in bilberry-dominated forests with joint species distribution modelling, which showed that temperature conditioned species occurrence, while light intensity explained species abundance. The inclusion of functional traits did not improve the overall explanatory and predictive power of the models. Our results suggest that temperature acts as a first filter of the local species pool and that species, once present, partition along a light intensity gradient. This study confirms and extends upon previous findings that microhabitat partitioning may act as a mechanism underpinning bumblebee coexistence. It highlights the importance of focusing on micro-scales when studying how species interact with their environment, as this could, for example, help improve our ability to predict the consequences of global changes.
(Less)
- author
- Bartholomée, Océane
LU
; Jie, Vun Wen
; Caplat, Paul
LU
; Smith, Henrik G.
LU
and Baird, Emily
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2025
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- epub
- subject
- keywords
- bilberry, bumblebee, coexistence, hemi-boreal forests, joint species distribution modelling, microhabitat
- in
- Ecological Entomology
- publisher
- Wiley-Blackwell
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:105004701648
- ISSN
- 0307-6946
- DOI
- 10.1111/een.13452
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- additional info
- Publisher Copyright: © 2025 The Author(s). Ecological Entomology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Royal Entomological Society.
- id
- f5a50441-dc1f-4bd2-8cbf-34e50fbf897f
- date added to LUP
- 2025-08-15 14:14:58
- date last changed
- 2025-08-18 14:31:15
@article{f5a50441-dc1f-4bd2-8cbf-34e50fbf897f,
abstract = {{<p>Environmental heterogeneity in forest understories creates microhabitat niches that differ both spatially and temporally in light intensity and temperature. Do animal communities segregate in relation to these niche dimensions, and can this be explained by functional traits? Answering these questions is particularly important for insect pollinators, as they play a critical role in maintaining flowering plant biodiversity. Bumblebees are essential pollinators of high altitude/latitude ecosystems and are particularly sensitive to climate change. In early spring, they forage on bilberry, a keystone species in heterogeneous habitats – hemi-boreal forests. We capitalised on these conditions to study a species-specific selection of foraging niches in relation to abiotic conditions. We combined full-day monitoring of bumblebee communities foraging in bilberry-dominated forests with joint species distribution modelling, which showed that temperature conditioned species occurrence, while light intensity explained species abundance. The inclusion of functional traits did not improve the overall explanatory and predictive power of the models. Our results suggest that temperature acts as a first filter of the local species pool and that species, once present, partition along a light intensity gradient. This study confirms and extends upon previous findings that microhabitat partitioning may act as a mechanism underpinning bumblebee coexistence. It highlights the importance of focusing on micro-scales when studying how species interact with their environment, as this could, for example, help improve our ability to predict the consequences of global changes.</p>}},
author = {{Bartholomée, Océane and Jie, Vun Wen and Caplat, Paul and Smith, Henrik G. and Baird, Emily}},
issn = {{0307-6946}},
keywords = {{bilberry; bumblebee; coexistence; hemi-boreal forests; joint species distribution modelling; microhabitat}},
language = {{eng}},
publisher = {{Wiley-Blackwell}},
series = {{Ecological Entomology}},
title = {{Warm or bright – Temperature and light microhabitat use in insect pollinators}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/een.13452}},
doi = {{10.1111/een.13452}},
year = {{2025}},
}