INVESTIGADORES
SAEZ agustin
artículos
Título:
When mutualism goes bad: density-dependent impacts of introduced bees on plant reproduction
Autor/es:
AIZEN MARCELO; MORALES CAROLINA; VAZQUEZ DIEGO; GARIBALDI LUCAS; SAEZ AGUSTÍN; HARDER LAWRENCE
Revista:
NEW PHYTOLOGIST
Editorial:
WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC
Referencias:
Lugar: Londres; Año: 2014 p. 1 - 7
ISSN:
0028-646X
Resumen:
Invasive, alien plants and pollinators have varying effects on their interaction partners, ranging
from highly beneficial to strongly detrimental. To understand these contrasting impacts, we
review the benefits and costs associated with plant?pollinator interactions and enquire as to how
the presence of abundant invaders affects the benefit?cost balance. We provide a conceptual
framework that predicts that mutualism shifts to antagonism when invaders increase
disproportionally in abundance relative to their interaction partners. This outcome is illustrated
by an empirical example of a crop in which flower damage and an associated reduction in fruit
quality represent interaction costs of intense visitation by invasive bees. More generally, the
extremely high density of invasive flower visitors, such as Apis mellifera and Bombus terrestris,
might have population- and community-level consequences by hampering reproduction of
native plants while promoting reproduction of alien plants. Furthermore, modification of the
structure of pollination networks resulting from intense visitation of native plants by
superabundant alien flower visitors in highly invaded communities could predict accentuated
interaction costs for many native plants. Owing to their high density and the exclusion of native
pollinators, invasive bees, originally introduced for honey production and crop pollination, may
negatively impact both the native biota and agriculture.