Functional traits help to explain half-century long shifts in pollinator distributions

• DOI: 10.1038/srep24451
• Publication Date: 2016-04-15T09:28:42Z
• Authors: Jesús Aguirre-Gut...; W. Daniel Kissling; Luísa G. Carvalheiro; Michiel F. Wallis...; Markus Franzén; Jacobus C. Biesme...
• Keywords: Trait; Taxonomic rank

Abstract Changes in climate and land use can have important impacts on biodiversity. Species respond to such environmental modifications by adapting new conditions or shifting their geographic distributions towards more suitable areas. The latter might be constrained species’ functional traits that influence ability move, reproduce establish. Here, we show related dispersal, reproduction, habitat diet influenced how three pollinator groups (bees, butterflies hoverflies) responded changes land-use the Netherlands since 1950. Across groups, found pronounced areal range expansions (>53%) modelled shifts north (all taxa: 17–22 km), west (bees: 14 km) east (butterflies: 11 km). importance of specific for explaining distributional varied among groups. Larval preferences (i.e. carnivorous vs. herbivorous/detritivorous nitrogen values host plants, respectively) were hoverflies butterflies, adult body size flight period length all Moreover, interactions multiple explain shifts, suggesting taxon-specific multi-trait analyses are needed predict global change will affect biodiversity ecosystem services.