Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40983340›Full record

ArticleEcological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America2025

Agricultural intensification indirectly reshapes bee-plant interaction networks through shifts in bee functional traits.

Domingo Cano, Carlos Martínez-Núñez, Antonio J Pérez, Julio M Alcántara, Marco Moretti, Teresa Salido, Pedro J Rey

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Agricultural intensification indirectly reshapes bee-plant interaction networks through shifts in bee functional traits.Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America · 2025
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors.

Domingo CanoDepartamento de Biología Animal, Biología Vegetal y Ecología, Universidad de Jaén, Jaén, Spain.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3933-0456
Carlos Martínez-NúñezDepartment of Ecology and Evolution, Estación Biológica de Doñana (EBD-CSIC), Seville, Spain.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7814-4985
Antonio J PérezDepartamento de Biología Animal, Biología Vegetal y Ecología, Universidad de Jaén, Jaén, Spain.
Julio M AlcántaraDepartamento de Biología Animal, Biología Vegetal y Ecología, Universidad de Jaén, Jaén, Spain.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8003-7844
Marco MorettiBiodiversity and Conservation Biology, Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Birmensdorf, Switzerland.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5845-3198
Teresa SalidoDepartamento de Biología Animal, Biología Vegetal y Ecología, Universidad de Jaén, Jaén, Spain.
Pedro J ReyDepartamento de Biología Animal, Biología Vegetal y Ecología, Universidad de Jaén, Jaén, Spain.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5550-0393

Funding

European Commission LIFE20AT/ES/001487European Regional Development Fund SUMHAL,LIFEWATCH-2019-09-CSIC-4,POPE2014-2020MICIN FJC2021-046829-IMICIN FPU17/02186MICIN (RECOVECOS)PID2019-108332GB-I00
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

High-intensity farming can lead to non-random local extinctions and functional filtering of pollinating insect assemblages, disproportionately harming species with certain traits. This process can ultimately reshape pollinator-plant interaction networks in predictable, consistent manners, although this pathway remains largely unexplored. Here, we investigate how agricultural intensification affects the structure of bee-plant interaction networks both directly and indirectly by influencing the functional composition and diversity (in terms of foraging and nesting traits) of the bee assemblages. We considered 24 paired olive farms with contrasting management over a gradient of landscape complexity. We characterized the network structure and functional composition of bee assemblages visiting floral patches in the olive fields by using both functional identity and diversity metrics. We then built Bayesian multilevel models to assess the direct and indirect (via functional filtering processes) effects of agricultural intensification on network properties. We found that most of the effects of agricultural intensification on bee-plant network properties in floral patches occur through the filtering of the bee functional traits. However, while the effects of farming practices occur fundamentally through the filtering of foraging traits, the landscape effects occur via the modification of the nesting guilds. High-intensity herb cover management negatively affected larger bees (also highly correlated with longer proboscis), resulting in a decrease in the overlap of bees' interaction niches. This filtering was mitigated in flowering patches with higher floral cover, which increased the functional diversity of bees, ultimately reducing the overlap of the plants' interaction niches. In turn, the loss of semi-natural habitats in the landscape disproportionately favored ground excavators, causing homogenization of nesting guild composition. This, coupled with decreased floral abundance (patch scale), led to less diverse and structurally simpler networks. In conclusion, our study suggests that agricultural intensification reshapes bee-plant networks in olive landscapes through functional filtering of bee assemblages and provides cues to mitigate these effects. On a small scale, floral patches with abundant flowers buffer the filtering of bees' foraging traits, suggesting that well-managed flower patches help mitigate the functional depletion imposed by agricultural intensification. Meanwhile, favoring semi-natural remnants at a large scale attenuates the homogenization of nesting guild composition.

Indexed as

AgricultureOleaPollinationAnimalsBeesfloral resourcesforaging traitsfunctional filteringland‐use intensificationnesting traitsplant–pollinator interactionstrophic niches

Identifiers

PMID40983340
PMCPMC12453942

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.