Insect-pollinators and their interactions with plants differ in disturbed and semi-natural areas: Tanzania’s Southern Highlands case study.
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Date
2023
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SCIENCE PROGRESS
Abstract
Due to inadequate insect-pollinator data, particularly in sub-Saharan African countries like
Tanzania, it is difficult to manage and protect these species in disturbed and semi-natural areas.
Field surveys were conducted to assess insect-pollinator abundance and diversity and their interactions
with plants in disturbed and semi-natural areas in Tanzania’s Southern Highlands using pan
traps, sweep netting, transect counts, and timed observations techniques. We found that species
diversity and richness of insect-pollinators were high in semi-natural areas, and there was 14.29%
more abundance than in disturbed areas. The highest plant-pollinator interactions were recorded
in semi-natural areas. In these areas, the total number of visits by Hymenoptera was more than
three times that of Coleoptera, while that of Lepidoptera and Diptera was more than 237 and
12 times, respectively. Hymenoptera pollinators had twice the total number of visits of
Lepidoptera, and threefold of Coleoptera, and five times more visits than Diptera in disturbed
habitats. Although disturbed areas had fewer insect-pollinators and fewer plant–insect–pollinator
interactions, our findings indicate that both disturbed and semi-natural areas are potential habitats
for insect-pollinators. The study revealed that the over-dominant species Apis mellifera could influence
diversity indices and network-level metrics in the study areas. When A. mellifera was
excluded from the analysis, the number of interactions differed significantly between insect orders
Description
This article was publishing by SCIENCE PROGRESS in 2023