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Displacement of a native by an alien bumblebee: lower pollinator efficiency overcome by overwhelmingly higher visitation frequency

  • Plant-Animal Interactions - Original Paper
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Abstract

Biological invasions might constitute a major threat to mutualisms. Introduced pollinators might competitively displace their native counterparts, which in turn affects the pollination of native plants, if native and alien visitors differ in pollinator effectiveness. Since its invasion in 1994 into south-west Argentina, the introduced European bumblebee Bombus ruderatus has continuously increased in abundance, along with a simultaneous decrease in the abundance of the native Bombus dahlbomii. The latter is the only native bumblebee species of the temperate forests of southern South America, and the main pollinator of the endemic herb Alstroemeria aurea. In order to evaluate the impact of the ongoing displacement of the native by the alien bumblebee, we compared the pollinator effectiveness (i.e., the combination of pollinator efficiency per visit and visitation frequency) between both bumblebee species, as well as related pollinator traits that might account for potential differences in pollinator efficiency. Native Bombus dahlbomii, which has a larger body and spent more time per flower, was the more efficient pollinator compared to Bombus ruderatus, both in terms of quantity and quality of pollen deposited per visit. However, Bombus ruderatus was a much more frequent flower visitor than Bombus dahlbomii. As a consequence, Bombus ruderatus is nowadays a more effective pollinator of A. aurea than its native congener. Despite the lack of evidence of an increase in seed set at the population level, comparisons with historical records of Bombus dahlbomii abundances prior to Bombus ruderatus’ invasion suggest that the overall pollination intensity of A. aurea might in fact have risen as a consequence of this invasion. Field experiments like these, that incorporate the natural variation in abundance of native and alien species, are powerful means to demonstrate that the consequences of invasions are more complex than previous manipulated and controlled experiments have suggested.

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Acknowledgments

We thank M. Arbetman for field and laboratory assistance, the Adminstración de Parques Nacionales, Delegación Regional Patagonia (Argentina), for research permits, and the staff of Refugio Neumeyer for logistic support. Jane Stout and Marcelo Aizen provided valuable comments on a previous draft. We thank Marcelo Aizen for encouraging discussion and sharing ideas. J. A. M. was supported by the Exchange Program for Students and Teachers between the Universidad Nacional del Comahue (Argentina) and the Plant Ecology Department of Lund (Sweden), funded by Linnaeus-Palme. C. L. M. was supported by The Canon National Parks Science Scholars Program and the National Research Council of Argentina (CONICET). H. G. S was supported by a grant from the Swedish Research Council Formas. The experiments performed within this study comply with the current laws of Argentina.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology, Plant Ecology and Systematics, Lund University, Lund, Sweden

    Josefin A. Madjidian & Henrik G. Smith

  2. Laboratorio Ecotono, Universidad Nacional del Comahue, Bariloche, Argentina

    Carolina L. Morales

  3. Plant Ecology and Systematics, Ecology Building, 223 62, Lund, Sweden

    Josefin A. Madjidian

Authors
  1. Josefin A. Madjidian
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  2. Carolina L. Morales
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  3. Henrik G. Smith
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Correspondence to Josefin A. Madjidian.

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Communicated by Florian Schiestl.

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Madjidian, J.A., Morales, C.L. & Smith, H.G. Displacement of a native by an alien bumblebee: lower pollinator efficiency overcome by overwhelmingly higher visitation frequency. Oecologia 156, 835–845 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-008-1039-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-008-1039-5

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