| Full text | |
| Author(s): |
Jaffe, Rodolfo
[1, 2]
;
Castilla, Antonio
[3]
;
Pope, Nathaniel
[3]
;
Imperatriz-Fonseca, Vera Lucia
[1, 2]
;
Metzger, Jean Paul
[1]
;
Arias, Maria Cristina
[4]
;
Jha, Shalene
[3]
Total Authors: 7
|
| Affiliation: | [1] Univ Sao Paulo, Dept Ecol, Rua Matao 321, BR-05508090 Sao Paulo, SP - Brazil
[2] Vale Inst Technol Sustainable Dev, Rua Boaventura Silva 955, BR-66055090 Belem, Para - Brazil
[3] Univ Texas Austin, Dept Integrat Biol, Biol Labs 401, Austin, TX 78712 - USA
[4] Univ Sao Paulo, Dept Genet & Evolutionary Biol, Rua Matao 321, BR-05508090 Sao Paulo, SP - Brazil
Total Affiliations: 4
|
| Document type: | Journal article |
| Source: | CONSERVATION GENETICS; v. 17, n. 2, p. 267-278, APR 2016. |
| Web of Science Citations: | 23 |
| Abstract | |
Pollination services are increasingly threatened by the loss and modification of natural habitats, posing a risk to the maintenance of both native plant biodiversity and agricultural production. In order to safeguard pollination services, it is essential to examine the impacts of habitat degradation on the population dynamics of key pollinators and identify potential ``rescue pollinators{''} capable of persisting in these human-altered landscapes. Using a landscape genetic approach, we assessed the impact of landscape structure on genetic differentiation in the widely-distributed tropical stingless bee Trigona spinipes (Apidae: Meliponini) across agricultural landscape mosaics composed of coffee plantations and Atlantic forest fragments in southeastern Brazil. We genotyped 115 bees at 16 specific and highly polymorphic microsatellite loci, developed using next-generation sequencing. Our results reveal that T. spinipes is capable of dispersing across remarkably long distances, as we did not find genetic differentiation across a 200 km range, nor fine-scale spatial genetic structure. Furthermore, gene flow was not affected by forest cover, land cover, or elevation, indicating that reproductive individuals are able to disperse well through agricultural landscapes and across altitudinal gradients. We also found evidence of a recent population expansion, suggesting that this opportunistic stingless bee is capable of colonizing degraded habitats. Our results thus suggest that T. spinipes can persist in heavily-altered landscapes and can be regarded as a rescue pollinator, potentially compensating for the decline of other native pollinators in degraded tropical landscapes. (AU) | |
| FAPESP's process: | 12/13200-5 - Promoting meliponiculture to achieve rural sustainable development |
| Grantee: | Rodolfo Jaffé Ribbi |
| Support Opportunities: | Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral |
| FAPESP's process: | 13/23661-2 - Landscape genetics to safeguard bee pollination services |
| Grantee: | Rodolfo Jaffé Ribbi |
| Support Opportunities: | Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Post-doctor |
| FAPESP's process: | 13/23457-6 - Interface project: relationships among landscape structure, ecological processes, biodiversity and ecosystem services |
| Grantee: | Jean Paul Walter Metzger |
| Support Opportunities: | BIOTA-FAPESP Program - Thematic Grants |