Abstract
In 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 diverse 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.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Almeida-Neto M, Ulrich W (2011) A straightforward computational approach for measuring nestedness using quantitative matrices. Environ Model Softw 26:173–178
Ash J (1992) Vegetation ecology of Fiji: past, present, and future perspectives. Pac Sci 46:111–127
Beekman M, Ratnieks F (2000) Long-range foraging by the honey-bee, Apis mellifera L. Funct Ecol 14:490–496. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2435.2000.00443.x
Blüthgen N, Menzel F, Blüthgen N (2006) Measuring specialization in species interaction networks. BMC Ecol 6:1–12. https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6785-6-9
Chao A, Chazdon RL, Colwell RK, Shen T-J (2005) A new statistical approach for assessing similarity of species composition with incidence and abundance data. Ecol Lett 8:148–159. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2004.00707.x
Colwell R (2013) EstimateS: Statistical estimation of richness and shared species from samples. Version 9
Crichton A, Francis N, Doherty S, Tuiwawa M, Hayes S, Stevens MI, Schwarz MP (2018) Low endemic bee diversity and very wide host range in lowland Fiji: support for the pollinator super-generalist hypothesis in island biogeography. Pac Conserv Biol. https://doi.org/10.1071/pc18037
D’Antonio C, Dudley T (1993) Alien species: the insidious invasion of ecosystems by plants and animals from around the world has become a major environmental problem. Pac Discov 1993(summer):9–11
da Silva CRB, Groom SVC, Stevens MI, Schwarz MP (2016) Current status of the introduced allodapine bee Braunsapis puangensis (Hymenoptera: Apidae) in Fiji. Aust Entomol 55:43–48. https://doi.org/10.1111/aen.12149
Davies OK, Groom SV, Ngo HT, Stevens MI, Schwarz MP (2013) Diversity and Origins of Fijian Leaf-Cutter Bees (Megachilidae). Pac Sci 67:561–570. https://doi.org/10.2984/67.4.7
Dormann CF, Gruber B, Fruend J (2008) Introducing the bipartite package: analysing ecological networks. R News 9:8–11. ISSN 1609-3631
Gillespie RG, Roderick GK (2002) Arthropods on Islands: colonization, speciation, and conservation. Annu Rev Entomol 47:595–632. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.ento.47.091201.145244
Gillespie R, Brewer M, Roderick G (2017) Ancient biogeography of generalist predators on remote oceanic islands. J Biogeogr 44:1098–1109. https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.12967
Groom SV, Stevens MI, Schwarz MP (2013) Diversification of Fijian halictine bees: insights into a recent island radiation. Mol Phylogenet Evol 68:582–594. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2013.04.015
Groom SVC, Stevens MI, Schwarz MP (2014) Parallel responses of bees to Pleistocene climate change in three isolated archipelagos of the southwestern Pacific. Proc R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 281:20133293. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2013.3293
Groom SV, Tuiwawa MV, Stevens MI, Schwarz MP (2015) Recent introduction of an allodapine bee into Fiji: a new model system for understanding biological invasions by pollinators. Insect Sci 22:532–540. https://doi.org/10.1111/1744-7917.12136
Groutsch JK, Miller NC, Tuiwawa M, Hayes SE, Stevens MI, Schwarz MP (2018) Not all exotic pollinator introductions are bad: an introduced buzz-pollinating bee Amegilla pulchra (Hymenoptera: Apidae) in Fiji indicates little potential for enhancing the spread of weeds. Aust Entomol. https://doi.org/10.1111/aen.12346
Heaney LR (2000) Dynamic disequilibrium: a long-term, large-scale perspective on the equilibrium model of island biogeography. Glob Ecol Biogeogr 9:59–74. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2699.2000.00163.x
Heaney LR, Patterson BD (1986) Island biogeography of mammals. Academic, London
Kier G et al (2009) A global assessment of endemism and species richness across island and mainland regions. Proc Natl Acad Sci 106:9322–9327. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0810306106
Liu H, Pemberton RW (2009) Solitary invasive orchid bee outperforms co-occurring native bees to promote fruit set of an invasive Solanum. Oecologia 159:515–525. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-008-1232-6
Lomolino MV (2000) A call for a new paradigm of island biogeography. Glob Ecol Biogeogr 9:1–6. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2699.2000.00185.x
Lopezaraiza-Mikel ME, Hayes RB, Whalley MR, Memmott J (2007) The impact of an alien plant on a native plant–pollinator network: an experimental approach. Ecol Lett 10:539–550. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2007.01055.x
Losos JB, Ricklefs RE (2009) The theory of island biogeography revisited. Princeton University Press, Princeton
MacArthur RH, Wilson EO (1963) An equilibrium theory of insular zoogeography. Evolution 17:373–387. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1558-5646.1963.tb03295.x
Meza-Lopez M, Siemann E (2015) Experimental test of the invasional meltdown hypothesis: an exotic herbivore facilitates an exotic plant, but the plant does not reciprocally facilitate the herbivore. Freshw Biol 60:1475–1482. https://doi.org/10.1111/fwb.12582
Michener CD (1979) Biogeography of the bees. Ann Missouri Bot Garden. https://doi.org/10.2307/2398833
Nielsen A, Bascompte J (2007) Ecological networks, nestedness and sampling effort. J Ecol 95:1134–1141. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2745.2007.01271.x
Oksanen J, Guillaume Blanchet F, Kindt R, Legendre P, Minchin P, O’Hara R, Simpson G, Solymos P, Henry M, Stevens H, Wagner H (2016) Vegan: community ecology package. R Package version 2.3-5. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=vegan
Olesen JM, Eskildsen LI, Venkatasamy S (2002) Invasion of pollination networks on oceanic islands: importance of invader complexes and endemic super generalists. Divers Distrib 8:181–192. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1472-4642.2002.00148.x
Padrón B, Traveset A, Biedenweg T, Díaz D, Nogales M, Olesen JM (2009) Impact of alien plant invaders on pollination networks in two archipelagos. PLoS ONE 4:e6275. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0006275
Parham JW (1958) Weeds of Fiji. Colony of Fiji at the Government Press, Suva
Ploquin EF, Herrera JM, Obeso JR (2013) Bumblebee community homogenization after uphill shifts in montane areas of northern Spain. Oecologia 173:1649–1660. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-013-2731-7
Prasad A, Hodge S (2013) Factors influencing the foraging activity of the allodapine bee Braunsapis puangensis on creeping daisy (Sphagneticola trilobata) in Fiji. J Hymenopt Res 35:59–69. https://doi.org/10.3897/jhr.35.6006
Qi S-S et al (2014) Light limitation and litter of an invasive clonal plant, Wedelia trilobata, inhibit its seedling recruitment. Ann Bot 114:425–433. https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcu075
Rebola C (2015) Nesting biology of the Fijian Lasioglossum (Homalictus) indicates an extension of the ‘Australian Enigma’. Honours thesis, School of Biology, Flinders University, Adelaide
Shay K, Drake DR, Taylor AD, Sahli HF, Euaparadorn M, Akamine M, Imamura J, Powless D, Aldrich P (2016) Threatened pollination systems in native flora of the Ogasawara (Bonin) Islands. Pac Sci 70(4):409–429. https://doi.org/10.2984/70.4.2
Simberloff D, Von Holle B (1999) Positive interactions of nonindigenous species: invasional meltdown? Biol Invasions 1:21–32
Spengler A, Hartmann P, Buchori D, Schulze CH (2011) How island size and isolation affect bee and wasp ensembles on small tropical islands: a case study from Kepulauan Seribu, Indonesia. J Biogeogr 38:247–258. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2699.2010.02395.x
Staines M, Vo C, Puiu N, Hayes S, Tuiwawa M, Stevens MI, Schwarz MP (2017) Pollen larceny of the tropical weed Solanum torvum by a Fijian endemic halictine bee with implications for the spread of plants with specialized pollinator requirements. J Trop Ecol 33:183–187. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0266467417000098
Sugiura S (2010) Species interactions–area relationships: biological invasions and network structure in relation to island area. Proc R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 277:1807–1815. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2009.2086
Thaman R (1999) Wedelia trilobata: daisy invader of the Pacific Islands. IAS technical report 99
Thaman R (2012) Trees of life: a guide to the trees and shrubs of the University of the South Pacific. University of the South Pacific Press, Adelaide
Traveset A et al (2013) Invaders of pollination networks in the Galápagos Islands: emergence of novel communities. Proc R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 280:20123040. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2012.3040
Warren BH et al (2015) Islands as model systems in ecology and evolution: prospects fifty years after MacArthur-Wilson. Ecol Lett 18:200–217. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.12398
Whistler WA (1995) Wayside plants of the islands: a guide to the lowland flora of the Pacific Islands including Hawai’i, Samoa, Tonga, Tahiti, Fiji, Guam and Belau. Isle Botanica, Honolulu
Williams NM, Cariveau D, Winfree R, Kremen C (2011) Bees in disturbed habitats use, but do not prefer, alien plants. Basic Appl Ecol 12:332–341. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.baae.2010.11.008
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the Australia and Pacific Science Foundation (grant number APSF 14/1) and New Colombo Plan (grant number NCPST Fiji 15482) for funding this Project. Many thanks go to Dr. Randy Thaman for his help with identifying plant species. We would also like to thank Sean Cummings, Kristen Schubert, and Matt Hisee for their help in the field and laboratory.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Hayes, S.E., Tuiwawa, M., Stevens, M.I. et al. A recipe for weed disaster in islands: a super-generalist native pollinator aided by a ‘Parlourmaid’ plant welcome new arrivals in Fiji. Biol Invasions 21, 1643–1655 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-019-01923-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-019-01923-z