Congrats to Dylan Simpson & Lucia Weinman!

[Above] Bee Halictus ligatus on a partridge pea (Chamaechrista fasciuculata) flower. [Right] Some of the results illustrated in their paper.

Congratulations to Dylan Simpson, Lucia Weinman, and the Winfree Lab for their new publication titled “Many bee species, including rare species, are important for function of entire plant—pollinator networks” in Proceedings of the Royal Society B! 

Plants in nature depend on a diverse bee community, including rare bee species. Dylan and Lucy's study finds that, while few bee species are important to any one plant species, the number of important bees increases rapidly as more plant species are considered. This is because different bees are important to different plants. Previous research, which typically focused on crop monocultures, has shown that pollination often depends on just a few common bees. In contrast, this study finds that even rare bees can be important to particular plants. These results suggest that ecologists have likely underestimated the importance of bee diversity for pollination in diverse, natural ecosystems.
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Click here to read their paper!