This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Human development may be changing more than where pollinators live—it may also be changing when they are active. University of Florida researchers at the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) have found that pollinator seasons shifted later in the year across some of the most human-modified landscapes in the eastern United States.
Using more than 80,000 observations submitted to iNaturalist, UF/IFAS researchers found that pollinator activity began about 22 days later and ended about 21 days later in the most human-modified landscapes compared with the least modified landscapes. Researchers were surprised to learn that the overall season did not become longer but instead shifted later. The findings, published in Royal Society Open Science, provide one of the broadest looks at how human changes to natural areas may be altering the seasonal timing of pollinators across multiple insect groups, including butterflies, beetles and moths.
"We often think about cities as changing where species can live, but our results suggest it may also change when certain species are active," said Marina Marquis, lead author and a former graduate student of Corey Callaghan, an assistant professor of global ecology at UF/IFAS Fort Lauderdale Research and Education Center. Using data from a region stretching from central Alabama to central New York, the team compared the timing of pollinator seasonal activity across landscapes ranging from relatively natural to heavily modified by people. They measured human modification using factors such as development, agriculture and roads while accounting for differences in temperature, precipitation, geography and species.
"Cities, and those who live in cities, change vegetation, resources and many other features of the landscape at the same time," said Callaghan. "If we are shifting the pollinator calendar, the big question is whether the plants and other species they interact with are shifting their calendars too. Ecological relationships depend on species being in the same place at the same time." The researchers also found that pollinators did not all respond in the same way.
Findings suggest that individual species may respond differently depending on their biology, temperature sensitivity and relationships with plants. Of the 52 species analyzed, 19 showed changes in at least one measure of seasonal activity. Some species began their activity earlier in more heavily modified areas, while others began later.
Some species also had shorter or longer activity periods. That variation could be important because pollinators depend on plants being available at the right time. "For pollinators, timing matters," said Marquis.
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