One of the greatest challenges of our time is to preserve biological diversity and thereby ensure well-functioning ecosystems. Ecosystem functions such as pollination often depends on intricate interactions between species. Pollination is an important ecosystem function and a whopping 87.5% of flowering plant species are pollinated by animals, primarily insects. The diversity of pollinators increases the resilience of plant-pollinator networks to species loss. Due to the decline in the diversity of pollinators in many parts of the world, and its potential consequences for the pollination of wild and cultivated plants, the conservation of pollinating insects is a central societal challenge. In order to conserve pollinators and pollination, we need to know where the species are found and how environmental changes affect their distributions and their interactions with plants. One challenge is that pollinators can have fragmented populations and are not necessarily found in all apparently good habitats. In areas with few pollinating insects, plant reproduction can be limited by the lack of pollinators. Tools that can identify areas where the interaction between plants and pollinators is intact can help to predict how this interaction is affected by land use changes and be an important contribution to planning measures to preserve the biodiversity of both plants and insects.
MetaComNet has had two overarching objectives. The first objective was to develop an analytical framework that, based on wild bees' requirements for living areas, current land use, and which plant species are found in a habitat, can be used to create maps that show where the interaction between bees and flowers is intact. The second objective was to develop Dr. Sydenham as project leader and give him the opportunity to establish his own research program on pollinators and plant pollination as a focus area on ecosystem functions.
MetaComNet has developed a framework that makes it possible to model the effects of landscape and climate change on the distribution of wild bees, and their interactions with plants. Detailed, digital maps of land use in Denmark and Norway were necessary for the development of the MetaComNet framework. Early in the project, we therefore produced a satellite-based area class map for Europe with a 10m resolution (Venter & Sydenham 2021). With this map and with previously collected data on the occurrence of flower-visiting bees, we developed the MetaComNet framework which, using machine learning, can predict the occurrence of bee-flower interactions. The MetaComNet framework was presented in Sydenham et al. (2022a) as the first example of how machine learning can be used to create maps showing how land use affects the occurrence of bee-flower interactions. In Sydenham et al. 2022b, we used previously collected data from Germany, Denmark, and Norway to show that it is not only climatic conditions, landscape heterogeneity, and different bee species' preferences for particular plant species that affect the occurrence of bee-flower interactions, but that stochastic processes also play a role an important role. Sydenham et al. 2022b served as a final internal validation of the MetaComNet framework and gave us the opportunity to identify which environmental conditions are important to include in statistical models if one is to be able to model where bee-flower interactions are most likely to occur. In Sydenham et al. 2024b we used data collected as part of the MetaComNet project. These data included results from field investigations of bee-flower interactions from 68 roadsides distributed between south-eastern Norway and western Denmark, and from laboratory analyzes of flowers collected from localities in Norway where we counted the number of pollen grains on the stigmas on flowers of the typical bee -pollinated plants Lotus corniculatus and Vicia cracca. In Sydenham et al. 2024b we showed that the parameters, and in particular landscape heterogeneity, which explain the occurrences of bee-flower interactions also explain some of the variation in the number of pollen grains deposited on the scars of bee-pollinated flowers. With Sydenham et al. 2024b we thus showed that with the MetaComNet framework you can create maps that show both how land management affects bee-flower interactions and the pollination of wild plants.
MetaComNet was led by the Norwegian Institute for nature research (NINA) with contributions from the collaborating institutions: University of Oslo, Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research (NIBIO), Western Norway University of Applied Science (HVL), and Aarhus University (AU - Denmark).
Venter & Sydenham (2021). Remote Sensing, 13(12), 2301.
Sydenham m.fl. (2022a). Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 13(2), 500-513.
Sydenham m.fl. (2022b). Ecography, 2022(12), e06379.
Sydenham m.fl. (2024). Ecography, 2024: e07138.
MetaComNet har oppnådd sine forventede virkninger: (1) utviklet et rammeverk for å modellere forekomsten av interaksjoner mellom bier og blomster og derved kunne estimere hvordan arealbruk påvirker potensialet for pollinering av ville planter; (2) produsert 6 vitenskapelige manuskripter, hvorav 4 er publisert i fagfellevurderte tidsskrift, 2 manuskripter hvor 1 foreligger som preprint; (3) innsent 1 ERC starting grant-søknad; (4) presentert resultater fra MetaComNet på 2 vitenskapelige konferanser; (5) viderutviklet Dr. Sydenham som uavhenging forsker og gjort det mulig for ham å etablere sitt eget forskningsprogram med fokus på pollineringsøkologi og bevaring av pollineringstjenester i kulturlandskap.
Data fra MetaComNet-prosjektet bidrar til å flytte forskningsfronten innen pollineringsøkologi. Dataene fra prosjektet inngår som en sentral del av Dr. Sydenhams pågående forskningsprogram og hans PhD-kandidaters prosjekter hvor et utvalg av de innsamlede biene skal helgenomsekvenseres for å studere hvordan landskapsendringer påvirker arters spredningsevne. Dataene fra prosjektet er åpent tilgjengelig gjennom datalagringstjenesten Dryad og inngår som del av dataene i et stort Horizon Europe prosjekt og også i pågående NFR-prosjekter.
Forvaltningsmyndighetene etterspør kartlag som kan brukes til naturregnskap. MetaComNet har vist at det er mulig å lage kart som viser forekomsten av intrikate samspill i naturen. Data-innsamlingsprotokollene som ble utviklet i MetaComNet er siden blitt brukt i flere andre forskningsprosjekter der Dr. Sydenham har en koordinerende rolle. Målet med dette er å kunne lage enda mere detaljerte kart over bie-blomster-interaksjoner ved bruk av MetaComNet-rammeverket. MetaComNet har bidratt til å heve ambisjonene for hva som er mulig å få til innenfor miljø-kart.
One of the greatest challenges of our time is to safeguard biodiversity and associated ecosystem functions. Fundamental ecosystem functions such as pollination are the product of mutualistic interactions between organisms. Our understanding of how these species interactions are influenced by environmental change is hampered by the lack of models for simultaneously predicting effects on the distribution of species, interspecific interactions, and associated ecosystem functions. Given the rate of environmental change, there is an urgent need for modelling frameworks that can quantify the influence of community assembly processes on the structure of interaction networks.
The aim of MetaComNet is to develop a modelling framework that predicts the structure of interaction networks and the sustenance of associated ecosystem functions, based on community assembly processes (dispersal, trait-based ecological filtering and neutral processes). To achieve this goal, we will use a combination of simulated data, data from digital repositories, and data from our own ecological surveys. We will use ecological networks consisting of floral visitations by wild bees as a model system because bee-plant interactions can lead to pollination. We will conduct pollen limitation experiments to test if the predicted structure of bee-plant networks corresponds to the actual pollen limitation within plant communities. Considering the complexity of interaction networks and theirs linkages to ecosystem functioning, MetaComNet has a bold objective. The potential for achieving our goal is maximized through the careful selection of the experts constituting the research group, combined with a thoroughly thought through methodological approach. MetaComNet is therefore likely to make a substantial contribution to our understanding of how processes acting at different spatial scales influence species distributions, and interactions, and ultimately affect ecosystem functioning
