Anselm Rodrigo

Centre for Research on Ecology and Forestry Applications | CREAF

Differences in pollination effectiveness (PE) among pollinators have been widely documented. However, the morphological and behavioural traits underlying these differences have been less investigated. We used single-visit pollen deposition to apple flowers to explore the relationship between pollinator traits and PE. Our objectives were to determin...

When studying forest disturbances, it is essential to examine biodiversity from different perspectives, which includes considering its taxonomic and functional facets. Indeed, different taxa may respond differently based on their functional traits. We analyzed the short-term effects of a wildfire on epigeic ant and spider communities in a Mediterra...

Larger geographical areas contain more species—an observation raised to a law in ecology. Less explored is whether biodiversity changes are accompanied by a modification of interaction networks. We use data from 32 spatial interaction networks from different ecosystems to analyse how network structure changes with area. We find that basic community...

Functional traits mediate the response of communities to disturbances (response traits) and their contribution to ecosystem functions (effect traits). To predict how anthropogenic disturbances influence ecosystem services requires a dual approach including both trait concepts. Here, we used a response–effect trait conceptual framework to understand...

https://www.uab.cat/web/detalle-noticia/los-cambios-en-la-composicion-de-las-plantas-alteran-las-comunidades-de-polinizadores-y-la-polinizacion-1345680342040.html?noticiaid=1345830959700

Biotic homogenization—the erosion of biological differences among ecosystems due to human disturbance—is a pervasive threat to forest landscapes given the current global biodiversity crisis. In Mediterranean forests, wildfire is a particularly common disturbance that affects biodiversity at local, regional, and global scales. However, little is kno...

Ecological communities are dynamic entities subjected to extinction/colonization events. Because species are connected through complex interaction networks, the arrival of a new species is likely to affect various species across the community, as observed in plant biological invasions. However, plant invasions usually represent extreme scenarios in...

Abstract Species assemblages and their interactions vary through space, generating diversity patterns at different spatial scales. Here, we study the local‐scale spatial variation of a cavity‐nesting bee and wasp community (hosts), their nest associates (parasitoids), and the resulting antagonistic network over a continuous and homogeneous habitat....

Abstract Hairiness is a salient trait of insect pollinators that has been linked to thermoregulation, pollen uptake and transportation, and pollination success. Despite its potential importance in pollination ecology, hairiness is rarely included in pollinator trait analyses. This is likely due to the lack of standardized and efficient methods to m...

Understanding how ecological networks are assembled is important because network structure reflects ecosystem functioning and stability. Quantitative network analysis incorporates measures of interaction strength as an estimate of the magnitude of the effect of interaction partners on one another. Most plant-pollinator network studies use frequency...

Large‐scale spatial variability in plant‐pollinator communities (e.g., along geographic gradients, across different landscapes) is relatively well understood. However, we know much less about how these communities vary at small scales within a uniform landscape. Plants are sessile and highly sensitive to microhabitat conditions, whereas pollinators...

Local agri-environmental schemes, including hedgerows, flowering strips, organic management, and a landscape rich in semi-natural habitat patches, are assumed to enhance the presence of beneficial arthropods and their contribution to biological control in fruit crops. We studied the influence of local factors (orchard management and adjacent habita...

Apple is considered the most important fruit crop in temperate areas and profitable production depends on multiple ecosystem services, including the reduction of pest damage and the provision of sufficient pollination levels. Management approaches present an inherent trade‐off as each affects species differently. We quantified the direct and indire...

La biodiversidad comprende las distintas especies de seres vivos, los genes que estos poseen, los ecosistemas que habitan y los procesos que se dan en estos ecosistemas. Generalmente el componente taxonómico es el que más rápido se asocia al estudio de la biodiversidad, pero para comprender las relaciones entre la biodiversidad, las funciones ecoló...

La biodiversidad comprende las distintas especies de seres vivos, los genes que estos poseen, los ecosistemas que habitan y los procesos que se dan en estos ecosistemas. Generalmente el componente taxonómico es el que más rápido se asocia al estudio de la biodiversidad, pero para comprender las relaciones entre la biodiversidad, las funciones ecoló...

Species flower production and flowering phenology vary from year to year due to extrinsic factors. Inter-annual variability in flowering patterns may have important consequences for attractiveness to pollinators, and ultimately, plant reproductive output. To understand the consequences of flowering pattern variability, a community approach is neces...

Non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) analysis describing yearly and monthly variation in nectar composition. Ellipses correspond to standard deviations of the sampling events of each grouping factor (years or months). 1: March; 2: April; 3: May; 4: June. Points on figure (A) represents transect–year values. Points on figure (B) represents eac...

Mean nectar and pollen production per flower. (PDF)

Descriptive statistics of flower density, flowering peak and flowering duration of the 23 main plant species of the Garraf community. Species ordered by timing of flowering peak. (PDF)

Results of analyses exploring phylogenetic (Bloomberg’s K test) constraints on flowering pattern variability. (PDF)

Database used in the analyses. (ZIP)

En los ecosistemas mediterráneos, las prácticas de gestión forestal post incendio se utilizan para mejorar la estructura forestal y reducir el riesgo de incendio en el monte bajo dominado por especies rebrotadoras. En este trabajo estudiamos el efecto sobre la capacidad reproductiva de la especie rebrotadora Arbutus unedo L. de dos tratamientos for...

Climate change, alteration of atmospheric composition, land abandonment in some areas and land use intensification in others, wildfires and biological invasions threaten forests, shrublands and pastures all over the world. However, the impacts of the combinations between global change factors are not well understood despite its pressing importance....

Bergmann's rule originally described a positive relationship between body size and latitude in warm-blooded animals. Larger animals, with a smaller surface/volume ratio, are better enabled to conserve heat in cooler climates (thermoregulatory hypothesis). Studies on endothermic vertebrates have provided support for Bergmann's rule, whereas studies...

Natural and semi-natural habitats within agricultural landscapes provide food and nesting resources for wild bees, thus promoting crop pollination services. In central Spain, a large network of drove roads (DRs) crosses extensive areas of intensive agricultural fields. DRs are tracks (20–75 m wide) with semi-natural vegetation, protected for their...

Due to the contribution of honey bees (Apis mellifera) to wild flower and crop pollination, beekeeping has traditionally been considered a sustainable practice. However, high honey bee densities may have an impact on local pollen and nectar availability, which in turn may negatively affect other pollinators. This is exacerbated by the ability of ho...

In Mediterranean ecosystems, post-fire forestry management practices are often used to improve forest structure and to reduce the risk of fire in coppices of resprouting species. Such practices enhance tree growth (i.e., height), probably because they release resources. On the one hand, resource release may stimulate reproduction. On the other hand...

• Context: In Mediterranean area different post-fire management strategies are used for coppices of resprouting species to promote a more regular forest structure, enhance plant growth, and reduce fire risk. However, the effects of these management treatments on forest-associated fauna are unknown, which in turn could be limiting their beneficial e...

Fire weather indices predict fire extent from meteorological conditions assuming a monotonic function; this approach is frequently used to predict future fire patterns under climate change scenarios using linear extrapolation. However, the relationship between weather and fire extent may potentially depend on the existence of fuel moisture content...

Gynodioecy is a dimorphic breeding system in which female individuals coexist with hermaphroditic individuals in the same population. Females only contribute to the next generation via ovules, and many studies have shown that they are usually less attractive than hermaphrodites to pollinators. Several mechanisms have been proposed to explain how fe...

Understanding biodiversity distribution is a primary goal of community ecology. At a landscape scale, bee communities are affected by habitat composition, anthropogenic land use, and fragmentation. However, little information is available on local-scale spatial distribution of bee communities within habitats that are uniform at the landscape scale....

Fire plays a key role in ecosystem dynamics worldwide, altering energy flows and species community structure and composition. However, the functional mechanisms underlying these effects are not well understood. Many ground-dwelling animal species can shelter themselves from exposure to heat and therefore rarely suffer direct mortality. However, fir...

Plant-pollinator systems may be considered as biological markets in which pollinators choose between different flowers that advertise their nectar/pollen rewards. Although expected to play a major role in structuring plant-pollinator interactions, community-wide patterns of flower scent signals remain largely unexplored. Here we show for the first...

This work explored the invasion patterns of Conyza species in Mediterranean pine forests after fire and identified their main correlates through a temporal study approach. We hypothesised that wildfires might favour Conyza spp. invasion in these forests, but only transiently and depending on fire regime. We recorded Conyza spp. invasion and subsequ...

Little is known about the impact of disturbances on functional diversity and the long-term provisioning of ecosystem services, especially in animals. In this work we analyze the effect of wildfire on the functional composition of Mediterranean ant communities. In particular, we asked whether a) fire changes functional composition (mean and dissimil...

SOSTENIBILIDAD EN ESPAÑA 2011 327 l Observatorio de la Sostenibilidad de España (OSE) ha preparado el presente capítulo espe-cial sobre bosques, en el marco de su Informe Sostenibilidad en España 2011, con ocasión de la celebración del Año Internacional de los Bosques. La Asamblea General de Naciones Unidas acordó en 2006 celebrar en 2011 este impo...

Appendix 1. Figure. Nest temperature and daily rhythms of ant activity in B (burnt) and UB (unburnt) plots for the five observation days.

Appendix 2. Table. Mean±SE seed density (seeds/m2) availability around Aphaenogaster gibbosa nests during this study.

1. Fire greatly affects plant and animal biodiversity. There is an extensive body of literature on the effects of fire on insect communities, in which a large variability of responses has been observed. Very few studies, however, have addressed functional responses at the species level, information that would greatly enhance our understanding of th...

Resumen El madroño (Arbutus unedo L.) se encuentra mayoritariamente como especie acompañante en bosques mediterráneos de pinos y quercinias, si bien se ha documentado un aumento de zonas de monte bajo dominados por esta especie en zonas quemadas en Cataluña. La información de cómo gestionar estos montes es escasa y no es evidente que los tratamient...

How many dimensions (trait-axes) are required to predict whether two species interact? This unanswered question originated with the idea of ecological niches, and yet bears relevance today for understanding what determines network structure. Here, we analyse a set of 200 ecological networks, including food webs, antagonistic and mutualistic network...

Here we report how fire recurrence increases the distribution of a scarce forest type in NE Spain that is dominated by the resprouter tree species Arbutus unedo. We used a combination of GIS and field surveys to determine the effect of fire and pre-fire vegetation on the appearance of A. unedo forests. In the field, we also analyzed the factors tha...

In recent years, several Mediterranean forests subject to fire are becoming increasingly dominated by the resprouter species Arbutus unedo L. (strawberry tree). However, there is little information available about the management of these areas, and it is not clear if the approaches utilized for other, more abundant Mediterranean resprouter species...

We study compartmentalization in a Mediterranean pollination network using three different analytical approaches: unipartite modularity (UM), bipartite modularity (BM) and the group model (GM). Our objectives are to compare compartments obtained with these three approaches and to explore the role of several species attributes related to pollination...

Land use changes and shifts in disturbance regimes (e.g. wildfires) are recognized worldwide as two of the major drivers of the current global change in terrestrial ecosystems. We expect that, in areas with large-scale land use changes, legacies from previous land uses persist and affect current ecosystem responses to climate-associated disturbance...

This chapter analyzes the post-fire regeneration of Mediterranean broadleaved forests, the factors that may constrain this process and the best alternatives to improve the structure and dynamics of these forests after fire. Most Mediterranean broadleaved species share in common their ability to resprout from a protected bud bank after disturbances...

Secondary seed dispersal is an important plant-animal interaction, which is central to understanding plant population and community dynamics. Very little information is still available on the effects of dispersal on plant demography and, particularly, for ant-seed dispersal interactions. As many other interactions, seed dispersal by animals involve...

Yearly transition matrix (in %) for microhabitat types based on field observations. We first carried out field measurements between 2005 and 2007 and converted those biannual rates to yearly values. Abbreviations: BS, bare soil; LSV, low sparse vegetation; LDV, low dense vegetation; and HV, high vegetation. (DOC)

Initial distribution of plants and example of simulated distribution after 5 years. Observed distribution of plants for C. minima (A), F. ericoides (B) and D. pentaphyllum (C), and example of an output from the simulation model for the same species (labels D, E and F, respectively). The study area is outlined by a continuous solid line. The diamete...

Rates (in %) of newly emptied and newly occupied cells as employed in the random mortality module of the simulation algorithm, per plant species. (DOC)

Detailed description of the methodology carried out at field to get the data used to parameterize the different life cycle stages of the three plant species that have been implemented in the model. (DOC)

Experimental data and fitted curves for primary and secondary seed dispersal, per plant species. Figures correspond to C. minima (A and D), F. ericoides (B and E) and D. pentaphyllum (C and F). All three figures on the left column show primary dispersal results, whereas those on the right column correspond to seed dispersal by ants through seed dro...

We examined the density and composition of the immediate seed supply (i.e. instant potential post-fire germination from soil seed bank and off-site seed rain) after a large wildfire in a sub-Mediterranean pine forest. We also tested the effects of fire severity and distance from unburned edges on the density and composition of the seed bank and the...

Aim Forest ecosystems dominated by fire‐sensitive species could suffer shifts in composition under altered crown fire regimes mediated by climate change. The aims of this study were to: (1) study the spatio‐temporal patterns and the climatic distribution of fires in Scots pine ( Pinus sylvestris ) forests during the last 31 years in north‐eastern S...

Aim: Forest ecosystems dominated by fire-sensitive species could suffer shifts in composition under altered crown fire regimes mediated by climate change. The aims of this study were to: (1) study the spatio-temporal patterns and the climatic distribution of fires in Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) forests during the last 31 years in north-eastern Sp...

This chapter analyzes the post-fire management of non serotinous pine forests. These pine species do not regenerate after fire and depend on the arrival of seeds from the unburned vegetation to recover after wildfires. The chapter starts with an overview of the ecological context of these forests, from their distribution, vegetation composition and...

Messor bouvieri is a seed-harvesting ant species in which workers forage in trails from the nest to a search area. A previous observation of seed transfer events between workers returning to the nest suggested potential task partitioning. In this study, we describe seed transportation and analyze the role of task partitioning in the foraging strate...

Background/Question/Methods Fire is an important natural disturbance force in many ecosystems that can affect community biodiversity. Ants are crucial members of ecosystems, altering the abiotic and biotic properties of their environment. While the effect of fire on ant community composition has been frequently examined, little is known about how...

Strong interactions between dry-fruited shrubs and seed-harvesting ants are expected in early successional scrubs, where both groups have a major presence. We have analysed the implications of the seed characteristics of two dry-fruited shrub species (Coronilla minima and Dorycnium pentaphyllum) on seed predation and dispersal mediated by harvester...

The advantages of canopy seed retention (serotiny) for plants inhabiting fire-prone ecosystems are well documented. However, very few species are completely serotinous and non-fire induced opening of serotinous fruits is commonly observed (weak serotiny). Two non-mutually exclusive causes are envisaged to contribute to this process: mechanical chan...

Harvesting ants can affect the regeneration of plants through at least two different processes: seed removal and seed dispersal. We analyse the role of different foraging strategies of ants on patterns of seed removal and dispersal by three Messor species with considerable differences in their foraging systems. Messor capitatus workers rarely leave...

Most obligate seeder species build up a soil seed bank that is associated with massive seed germination in the year immediately after a fire. These species are also shade-intolerant and disappear when vegetation cover closes, creating unsuitable conditions for seedling recruitment. The only way for these plants to expand their populations is when h...

Plant trait information is essential for understanding plant evolution, vegetation dynamics, and vegetation responses to disturbance and management. Furthermore, in Mediterranean ecosystems, changes in fire regime may be more relevant than direct changes in climatic conditions, making the knowledge of fire‐related traits especially important. Thus...

Pollination network studies are based on pollinator surveys conducted on focal plants. This plant-centred approach provides insufficient information on flower visitation habits of rare pollinator species, which are the majority in pollinator communities. As a result, pollination networks contain very high proportions of pollinator species linked to...

Question: We tested whether (1) the change in composition and structure of whole plant communities after fire is directly related to regeneration of the dominant tree species in the canopy; (2) the change in structure and composition of plant communities several years after fire decreases with the proportion of obligate seeders and (3) the proporti...

Cette étude analyse l'effet du feu sur la composition et l'abondance des coléoptères terrestres dans des forêts de Pinus nigra. Nous avons utilisé des pièges à fosse pour échantillonner les coléoptères dans une forêt brûlée de P. nigra en Catalogne (Espagne). Puisque le feu modifie radicalement la structure et la composition de la forêt et que les...

Dans cette étude, nous analysons la récupération de Pinus pinea dans des secteurs forestiers qui ont brûlé au cours des 30 dernières années. Les principaux objectifs de l'étude sont : (i) d'analyser le succès de régénération de P. pinea lorsque des arbres adultes survivants sont présents ou absents du secteur et (ii) d'examiner si la réponse après...

Evolutionary and paleoecological studies suggest that fires are natural in the Mediterranean basin. However, the important increase in the number of fires and area burned during the 20th century has created the perception that fires are disasters. In the present paper, we review to what extent fires are generating ecological disasters in the Medite...