%0 Journal Article
%T Human-Induced Disturbance Alters Pollinator Communities in Tropical Mountain Forests
%A Stephan Kambach
%A Fernando Guerra
%A Stephan G. Beck
%A Isabell Hensen
%A Matthias Schleuning
%J Diversity
%D 2013
%I MDPI AG
%R 10.3390/d5010001
%X Mountain forest ecosystems in the Andes are threatened by deforestation. Increasing fire frequencies lead to fire-degraded habitats that are often characterized by a persistent fern-dominated vegetation. Little is known about the consequences of these drastic changes in habitat conditions for pollinator communities. In a rapid diversity assessment, we collected individuals of two major groups of insect pollinators (bees and butterflies/moths) with pan traps and compared pollinator diversities in a spatial block design between forest interior, forest edge and adjacent fire-degraded habitats at eight sites in the Bolivian Andes. We found that bee species richness and abundance were significantly higher in fire-degraded habitats than in forest habitats, whereas species richness and abundance of butterflies/moths increased towards the forests interior. Species turnover between forest and fire-degraded habitats was very high for both pollinator groups and was reflected by an increase in the body size of bee species and a decrease in the body size of butterfly/moth species in fire-degraded habitats. We conclude that deforestation by frequent fires has profound impacts on the diversity and composition of pollinator communities. Our tentative findings suggest shifts towards bee-dominated pollinator communities in fire-degraded habitats that may have important feedbacks on the regenerating communities of insect-pollinated plant species.
%K Anthropogenic fires
%K Apiformes
%K biodiversity
%K body size
%K Bolivian Andes
%K human disturbance
%K insect pollinators
%K Lepidoptera
%K rain forest
%K species traits
%U http://www.mdpi.com/1424-2818/5/1/1