New Publication: Do ants defend honey-dew producing hemipterans from their parasitoids?
The relationship between phloem-feeding insects, like aphids, and “shepherd” ants is a paradigmatical example of mutualism in almost every Ecology textbook. However, the knowledge about how ants defend honey-dew producing hemipterans from their major enemies – parasitoids – is scarce and dispersed. Ángel Plata and their colleagues from IVIA-Valencia develop an outstanding and comprehensive review…
New Publication: Bees matter for apple pollination all over the world, especially wild ones
The relevance of pollinators for food production is widely accepted, but we still lack of information on many global crops. Within a big team led by Maxime Eeraerts, we review the current evidence of pollination in apple, a major fruit crop across the world. We found a consistent pattern of pollen limitation in crops of…
New Publication: Who eats blueberry crops? Mostly wild boars and blackbirds, and sometimes affecting yield
Blueberry crops are an attractive and easy-to-eat resource for wild vertebrates, which may ultimately decrease crop yields by intense frugivory. In this new study, a part of Javi Jiménez-Albarral’s PhD, we analyse the patterns of blueberry consumption by wild vertebrates in orchards in northern Spain, estimating experimentally the actual effects on crop yield. By using…
Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Lab 