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A recipe for weed disaster in islands: a super-generalist native pollinator aided by a 'Parlourmaid' plant welcome new arrivals in Fiji

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dc.contributor.authorHayes, S.E.
dc.contributor.authorTuiwawa, M.
dc.contributor.authorStevens, M.I.
dc.contributor.authorSchwarz, M.P.
dc.date.issued2019
dc.descriptionData source: Supplementary material, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-019-01923-z
dc.description.abstractIn isolated islands with low pollinator diversity, it has been suggested that native pollinators should evolve into super-generalists that could facilitate the spread of exotic plant species that might otherwise rely on specialist pollinators. Consequently,in the absence of exotic pollinators isolated islands may still be particularly vulnerable to a wide variety of introduced plants. Fiji has a highly abundant and iverse introduced plant fauna, as well as a variety of introduced bee species, but has extremely low endemic bee fauna diversity. We examined bee–plant pollination networks in lowland regions of Viti Levu Fiji) where there is only one endemic bee species, Homalictus fijiensis. We show that this bee is a super-generalist for introduced plants, and whilst introduced bee species can show high intensities of floral visits,they do not substantially increase the breadth of weeds receiving bee visits. Surprisingly, one introduced plant species, Sphagneticola trilobata, receives high visitations from introduced bee species, even though it spreads vegetatively. We regard this species as a ‘Parlourmaid’ weed that likely augments the spread of exotic bees without gaining pollination benefits. Our results indicate a ‘twofold’ promotion of invasive species, namely, super-generalist native pollinators can promote the spread of diverse introduced plants, and Parlourmaid plants provide resources that can promote the spread of introduced pollinators.
dc.identifier.citationBiological Invasions, 2019; 21(5):1643-1655
dc.identifier.doi10.1007/s10530-019-01923-z
dc.identifier.issn1387-3547
dc.identifier.issn1573-1464
dc.identifier.orcidStevens, M.I. [0000-0003-1505-1639]
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/11541.2/135980
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherSpringer
dc.rightsCopyright 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland
dc.source.urihttps://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-019-01923-z
dc.subjectApis mellifera
dc.subjectHomalictus
dc.subjectinvasive weeds
dc.subjectpollination
dc.subjectsuper-generalist
dc.titleA recipe for weed disaster in islands: a super-generalist native pollinator aided by a 'Parlourmaid' plant welcome new arrivals in Fiji
dc.typeJournal article
pubs.publication-statusPublished
ror.mmsid9916263210601831

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