Semi-arid ecosystems are shaped by frequent wildfires, making the management of landscape disturbances a major conservation challenge in this region. Ant-plant nectar interactions, driven by mutualisms, contribute to ecosystem functioning and biodiversity, with interaction networks a poorly understood aspect of ecosystem recovery from disturbance. In this study we characterised ant interactions with nectar resources in the Scotia mallee region of Australia across three post-fire ages: 35 years (long unburnt), 10 years (old-intermediate) and 6 years (young-intermediate). We did this by describing the number and diversity of interactions between ants and nectar resources and quantifying different ecological network indices. Long unburnt sites were characterised by a higher number of distinct ant-plant interaction combinations, as well as a higher network modularity (Q) and species specialization (d '), reflecting increases in the diversity of plant nectar resources with time since fire. In contrast, the connectance (C) was higher in young-intermediate sites due to frequently repeated interactions between generalist ants and nectar resources, primarily honeydew-producing hemipterans. A comparatively higher incidence of ant-nectar interactions was also observed in young-intermediate sites despite lower vegetation cover, likely due to habitat openness and the dominance of opportunistic ants. Our findings suggest that greater plant diversity in long unburnt sites supports more complex ant-interaction networks indicating higher stability and ecological resilience. Overall, the study highlights the importance of understanding ant-plant interaction networks for assessing biodiversity and informing better management decisions.

Background and Aims Species with small geographical ranges provide insights into adaptation, speciation and genetic drift, while also presenting clear conservation challenges. Homoranthus A.Cunn. ex Schauer (Myrtaceae), an Australian genus with many narrow endemics, offers a model for understanding how ecological and spatial factors drive diversification. We examined a regional hotspot with a high number of Homoranthus narrow endemics to assess patterns of genetic diversity and inform both evolutionary understanding and conservation planning. Methods We generated genome-wide single-nucleotide polymorphism data using DArTseq for 282 individuals across 13 Homoranthus species (40 % of the genus), including 10 narrow endemics, to assess population genetic structure and diversity. Key Results All species showed strong genetic isolation, even over a few kilometres, with populations diverging within hundreds of metres. Homoranthus lunatus includes two highly divergent, non-sister lineages, suggesting taxonomic revision. Inbreeding was common but unrelated to range size, and heterozygosity remained moderate, indicating intrinsic buffering of genetic diversity. Genome sizes were notably small relative to other angiosperms. Conclusions Ecological isolation, life-history traits, and limited dispersal drive both speciation and extinction risk in Homoranthus. Diversification and endemism are linked to spatial isolation, highlighting the need for conservation strategies that address ecological connectivity in addition to species protection.

The genus Homoranthus A.Cunn. ex Schauer currently includes 31 endemic species in eastern and southern Australia. In a c. 400,000-hectare section of the New England Tableland bioregion, there are seven rare described species of Homoranthus endemic to granite outcrops, six of which are each found only in a single small, isolated distribution. The exception, Homoranthus lunatus Craven & S.R.Jones, has populations 70 km apart and broadly spans the range of the other species. Genetic analysis of the seven Homoranthus species in the region revealed a phylogenetically distinct lineage indicative of an eighth, undescribed taxon. Morphological assessment of H. lunatus has led to the formal recognition and conservation assessment of H. wissmannii Pemberton & McMaster (Myrtaceae), with a revised assessment for H. lunatus.

Pollination is a key ecological process sustaining biodiversity and food security, yet global patterns of plant–pollinator specialisation have remained unresolved. Using the largest global dataset of quantitative networks (>3,400 networks, >110,000 interactions), we show that the latitudinal specialisation gradient (LSG) exists, but it is non-linear, hemispherically asymmetric, and strongly taxon-dependent. Network-level and pollinator specialisation were lowest in the tropics and peaked at northern mid-latitudes, whereas plants tended to become more specialised toward higher latitudes. Climate consistently outperformed latitude, species richness, and environmental productivity as a predictor of these patterns. Specialisation declined with increasing temperature, rose with moderate rainfall before declining at the wettest sites, and increased with temperature seasonality, but plants and pollinators responded differently to these drivers. Functional groups diverged strongly: ectothermic insects were most specialised in cooler, seasonal climates, while birds showed weaker links to latitude but reduced specialisation in wetter regions. These findings demonstrate that climate, rather than latitude or species richness, structures global variation in specialisation. Because warmer and less seasonal climates promote generalisation, climate change is likely to disrupt the most specialised pollination systems, unevenly across taxa and regions, with important consequences for biodiversity and ecosystem stability. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. Czech Science Foundation, https://ror.org/01pv73b02, 21-24186M, 19-14620S Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, https://ror.org/012kf4317, 1134644 São Paulo Research Foundation, 2023/03083-6, 2023/02881-6, 2023/17728-9 Consulate General of France in São Paulo Bavarian State Ministry of Science and Art Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council Center for Research on Biodiversity Dynamics and Climate Change CEPID-FAPESP, 2021/10639-5 National Council for Scientific and Technological Development, CNPq, 308559/2022-3, 141736/2020-8, 311665/2022-5, 400904/2019-5, 423939/2021-1, 310508/2019-3, 309893/2023-2, 177005/2024-6, 305204/2024-6 CAPES, Finance Code 001; COOPBRASS: 88887.947041/2024-00, 177005/2024-6, PROEX 88882.347259/2019-01 Brazilian Biodiversity Fund, FunBio, 004/2021, 029/2022 Rufford Foundation, https://ror.org/02bxrrf91, 377031, 28478-1 German Research Foundation DFG, 152112243 Dirección General de Investigación, Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala, 4.8.63.2.27-2012, 4.8.63.8.60-2018, 4.8.63.4.41-2020 FAPEMIG, RED-00039-23 INCT Pollination (CNPq/CAPES/FAPERJ Call 58/2022) Faculty for Future, Schlumberger Foundation the Human Frontier Science Program, RGP023/2023 European Research Council ERC, 101054177, 819374 Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, KAW 2019.0202 LIFE project Olivares Vivos+, LIFE20 NAT/ES/001487 Missouri Department of Conservation, K02442-PI0242-022 National Science Foundation, DGE-2244337 OAPN, 014/2009 CONAHCYT, CBF2023-2024-216 Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, PID2021-127900NB-I00, PGC2018-098498-A-100, RYC2021-032351-I Israel Ministry of Environmental Protection, 121-5-13 German Research Foundation DFG, FZT 118, 202548816

Biodiversity loss is occurring globally with negative impacts on ecosystem function and human wellbeing. There is a scientific consensus that diverse environmental and anthropogenic factors are altering different components of insect biodiversity, with changes occurring at all levels of biological organisation. Here we describe how uncertainty around specific trends and the semantics of ‘decline’ in relation to insect biodiversity have been leveraged by denialist campaigns to manufacture doubt around the insect biodiversity crisis. Disinformation is one of the biggest threats to social cohesion and environmental integrity globally. We argue that scientists, academic institutions, policy makers, and journalists must combat denialism by relying on robust research, supporting efforts to communicate scientific uncertainty more effectively, and build consensus on the global impacts of insect biodiversity loss.

Urban planning which enhances native biodiversity in and around cities is needed to address the impacts of urbanisation and conserve urban biodiversity. The “Biodiversity Sensitive Urban Design” (BSUD) framework incorporates ecological knowledge into urban planning to achieve positive biodiversity outcomes through improved urban design and infrastructure development. BSUD includes principles to direct strategic design and placement of connected wildlife habitat. However, effective BSUD implementation requires defining and quantifying the landscape-scale habitat connectivity needs of a range of taxon groups within urban contexts. The aim of our study was to use expert elicitation to address these gaps in landscape-scale habitat connectivity currently limiting the capacity of urban planning. We estimated habitat connectivity needs for seven representative taxon groups in urban environments, including ideal habitat, habitat constraints, barriers to movement, and movement thresholds that determine habitat connectivity. In using expert elicitation to quantify habitat connectivity requirements for urban biodiversity, our study provides insights on both the usefulness of expert elicitation to inform urban habitat connectivity planning generally, and the functional habitat connectivity requirements of our focal taxon groups specifically. Overall, we consider our expert-derived estimates of connected habitat to be a highly useful set of baseline data for habitat and connectivity modelling and urban planning for a range of taxon groups.

Communicating results and ideas to a wider audience has been an important, but challenging component of scientists working in an academic environment. Particularly in recent decades, various social media platforms have become increasingly important to facilitate this. In addition, many scientists have used blogging platforms to communicate and discuss their work. Although the online dynamics of science communication are continuously changing, blogging has been used in a remarkably stable form for several decades. For this work, we brought several ecology bloggers to reflect on blogging as a science communication medium. We argue that blogging can be a powerful way to present new ideas and discuss them with a wide audience. Although blogs are not the same as scientific articles, they often serve as the initial brainstorm session. Importantly, we argue that blogs are most effective when bloggers and readers actively engage in conversations. We believe that blogging will be here to stay in science communication because of its unique and independent form of outreach.

A majority of the world's flowering plants benefit from insect pollination. Bees in particular are known to carry large amounts of pollen, and the pollen load transported is often highly conspecific. However, there is limited knowledge about the transfer of pollen by other non-bee flower-visiting insect taxa. We observed and collected insects visiting flowers in an Australian alpine plant community. We identified insect body pollen loads to evaluate the relative differences among taxa using visitation and pollen transport networks. We sampled a diverse pollinator community from 39 insect families that visited 31 plant species (n = 488 individual insects). Pollen abundance and richness on insect bodies varied significantly among Diptera, Hymenoptera and Lepidoptera both among individuals and across insect families. Bees carried more pollen overall than the other three insect orders surveyed, yet dipterans were the most frequent flower visitors overall, with six dipteran families observed visiting flowers more frequently than the most frequent hymenopteran visitor (Apis mellifera L.). Apidae was also the only family in this study to carry consistently large quantities of pollen. At the order level, Diptera carried the second highest quantity of pollen but greater diversity of pollen than other insect orders. Importantly, visitation networks revealed visits to plant taxa that were not identified in pollen transport networks and vice versa. Given the missing links in both visitor observation and pollen transfer networks, we advocate combining both types of networks to provide a more accurate estimate of the full range of plant-pollinator interactions occurring within and across taxa at the community level. Understanding the variation in plant-pollinator interactions as a result of differences among taxa and between networks of flower visitors, pollen transfer is important to evaluate the level of generalisation/specialisation among plants and their pollinator partners. Pollen abundance and richness on insect bodies varied significantly among Diptera, Hymenoptera and Lepidoptera. Diptera carried the second highest quantity of pollen, but greater diversity of pollen than other insect orders (Hymenoptera and Lepidoptera). Missing links were detected in both alpine visitor observation and pollen transfer networks. Thus, combining both types of networks could provide a more accurate estimate of plant-pollinator communities. image

Lack of ecological knowledge is a major challenge for effective conservation of threatened plant species in Australia as disturbance events, such as wildfire, increase in frequency and magnitude. Rapid on-ground surveys are increasingly important to inform recovery strategies for rare and threatened plants in response to extreme wildfire events, yet resources are rarely available to deploy time-sensitive surveys. Here, we utilize a rapid on-ground survey and monitoring program to document basic biological and ecological information for 21 rare and threatened plant species from the New England bioregion in northern New South Wales, which were affected by the catastrophic 2019-2020 megafires. Our results fill an important knowledge gap of ecology, population size, distribution and response to fire for these taxa, document for the first time a species distribution pattern within the Torrington State Conservation Area and reveal previously undocumented plant-insect interactions for nine species, including likely pollination of Persoonia terminalis ssp. terminalis and Monotaxis macrophylla by native bee (Hymenoptera) and fly (Diptera) species. Our findings reveal that two species (Cassinia heleniae and Hakea macrorrhyncha) have scarce distribution and low population sizes, despite neither having a conservation listing and their threat status should be urgently assessed. Simple rapid on-ground surveys can be more cost effective for delivering long-term conservation outcomes for rare and threatened taxa and we advocate that future funding and prioritisation processes must support the immediate delivery of such surveys in response to disturbance events. Lack of ecological knowledge is a major challenge for effective conservation of threatened plant species in Australia as disturbance events, such as wildfire, increase in frequency and magnitude. We use a rapid on-ground survey and monitoring program to fill an important knowledge gap of ecology, population size, distribution and response to fire for 21 rare and threatened plant species from the New England bioregion of northern NSW. Future funding and prioritisation processes must support the immediate delivery of such surveys in response to disturbance events.image

1. Urban expansion across the globe profoundly impacts local biodiversity. The growing body of urban ecology research on animals has largely focused on mammals and birds, whereas knowledge of insect ecology and conservation in urban areas remains limited. 2. To anchor this Special Issue (SI), we have taken a broad approach to editorial and conducted a structured literature search to set the scene. We provide here an overview of existing literature reviews on urban insect ecology and conservation, indicate where the articles included in this SI contribute to developing our understanding and point to priority areas for further investigation. 3. Key themes in the growing literature (at individual, species, and/or community level) include the influence of habitat quality, quantity and land use type on insect diversity; the impacts of anthropogenic pollution (for instance, heat, noise, light and chemicals); habitat connectivity and changes in habitat structure and impacts of urban density on genetic diversity. Insect diversity and abundance broadly decline with urban density and loss of habitat. Beyond this, variation in responses of different taxa, or in different regions, and methodological limitations of individual studies make it challenging to identify general patterns. 4. Insect ecology and conservation research in urban environments should focus on applying ecological theory to understand variation in diversity patterns; investigating interactions between climate change and urban contexts; identifying impacts of novel environments on insect biodiversity; addressing methodological limitations and harmonising methodological approaches; and exploring the influence of social and historical factors on urban insect biodiversity. Insect conservation must also consider research into how best to communicate the value of urban insects to urban humans.

Aim: Understanding how climate conditions influence plant-pollinator interactions at the global scale is crucial to understand how pollinator communities and ecosystem function respond to environmental change. Here, we investigate whether climate drives differences in network roles of the main insect pollinator orders: Diptera, Coleoptera, Lepidoptera and Hymenoptera.Location: Global.Time period: 1968-2020.Major taxa studied: Diptera, Coleoptera, Lepidoptera and Hymenoptera.Methods: We collated plant-pollinator networks from 26 countries and territories across the five main Koppen-Geiger climate zones. In total, we compiled data from 101 networks that included > 1500 plant species from 167 families and > 2800 pollinator species from 163 families. We assessed differences in the composition of plant-pollinator interactions among climate zones using a permutational ANOVA. We calculated standard network metrics for pollinator taxonomic groups and used Bayesian generalized mixed models to test whether climate zone influenced the proportion of pollinator network links and the level of pollinator generalism.Results: We found that climate is a strong driver of compositional dissimilarities between plant-pollinator interactions. Relative to other taxa, bees and flies made up the greatest proportion of network links across climate zones. When network size was accounted for, bees were the most generalist pollinator group in the tropics, whereas non-bee Hymenoptera were the most generalist in arid zones, and syrphid flies were the most generalist in polar networks.Main conclusions: We provide empirical evidence at the global scale that climate strongly influences the roles of different pollinator taxa within networks. Importantly, non-bee taxa, particularly flies, play central network roles across most climate zones, despite often being overlooked in pollination research and conservation. Our results identify the need for greater understanding of how global environmental change affects plant-pollinator interactions.

Protective covers are commonly employed in agricultural systems to reduce the impacts of extreme weather events, pest species and to control the environmental conditions in which crop plants are grown. As protected cropping systems are expanding rapidly, there is an urgent need to better understand how variations in netting practices might impact pollination service delivery by wild and managed insects to pollinator dependent crops. We used southern highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum L. interspecific hybrid) crops to investigate (i) how variations in protected cropping structures (fully netted, partially netted and unnetted blocks) influence the amount and composition of pollen deposited on crop stigmas; (ii) to what extent blueberry floral abundance and plant richness in remnant vegetation influence pollen composition on crop stigmas; and (iii) the difference between stigmatic pollen load composition in the middle and at the edge of crop blocks. We collected data from 15 field blocks of 6 different cultivars distributed on 10 farms. We collected blueberry stigmas to analyse the pollen load and measured blueberry floral abundance and richness of flowering plant taxa in remnant vegetation every two weeks. Our results indicate that blueberry pollen abundance on stigmas was reduced by up to 81% under full netting and 36% by partial netting. On blueberry stigmas, we identified a total of 31 morphospecies of non-blueberry pollen from 20 plant families. There was no relationship between blueberry stigmatic pollen loads and blueberry floral abundance. Moreover, the composition of non-blueberry pollen on stigmas differed between blueberry blocks under different netting categories. However, there was no relationship between plant taxa present in the surrounding remnant vegetation of each block and the pollen load on the stigmas of each block. Combining all netting treatments, stigmas located at the edge of the blocks received a greater amount of both conspecific (5% more) and heterospecific (40% more) pollen grains than those within the middle of blocks. Pollen flow in fields is reduced under netting structures as well as in the middle of blocks. Reduced blueberry pollen flow under nets may be detrimental to fruit yield and quality for some varieties of pollinator dependent crops, particularly those that are self-incompatible.

Insects are important pollinators of global food crops and wild plants. The adult and larval diet and habitat needs are well known for many bee taxa, but poorly understood for other pollinating taxa. Non-bee pollinators often feed on different substrates in their larval and adult life stages, and this diet and habitat diversity has important implications for their conservation and management. We reviewed the global literature on crop pollinating Diptera (the true flies) to identify both larval and adult fly diet and habitat needs. We then assembled the published larval and adult diets and habitat needs of beneficial fly pollinators found globally into a freely accessible database. Of the 405 fly species known to visit global food crops, we found relevant published evidence regarding larval and adult diet and habitat information for 254 species, which inhabited all eight global biogeographic regions. We found the larvae of these species lived in 35 different natural habitats and belong to 10 different feeding guilds. Additionally, differences between adult Diptera sexes also impacted diet needs; females from 14 species across five families fed on protein sources other than pollen to start the reproductive process of oogenesis (egg development) while males of the same species fed exclusively on pollen and nectar. While all adult species fed at least partially on floral nectar and/or pollen, only five species were recorded feeding on pollen and no fly larvae fed on nectar. Of the 242 species of larvae with established diet information, 33% were predators (n = 79) and 30% were detritivores (n = 73). Detritivores were the most generalist taxa and utilized 17 different habitats and 12 different feeding substrates. Of all fly taxa, only 2% belonged to the same feeding guild in both active life stages. Our results show that many floral management schemes may be insufficient to support pollinating Diptera. Pollinator conservation strategies in agroecosystems should consider other non-floral resources, such as wet organic materials and dung, as habitats for beneficial fly larvae.

1. Globally, plants display enormous variation in life-history strategies and trait combinations. However, evidence suggests that evolutionary and physiological constraints limit the number of plant ecological strategies. Although there have been recent advances in understanding correlations among plant traits, reproductive traits are rarely considered, despite their key role in shaping plant life history strategies and interactions with pollinators.2. Here, using a global dataset of 18 reproductive traits for 1506 species, we investigate the reproductive spectrum of flowering plants to identify how it shapes interactions with pollinators.3. We show that over 50% of all trait variation is explained by the first two reproductive axes, which represent the negative correlation between flower number and flower size, and the negative correlation between autonomous selfing and floral display size. In addition, these reproductive axes were associated with the identity and number of visits of the distinct pollinator guilds. However, reproductive axes explain a relatively small amount of variance in pollinator interactions highlighting the need to incorporate other factors along with reproductive traits to fully explain large scale patterns of plant- pollinator interactions.4. Our study identifies the major reproductive trait correlations in flowering plants and their role in shaping plant- pollinator interactions at a macro-ecological scale. These findings emphasise the importance of considering reproductive traits in the global spectrum of plant form and function, and the need to explore beyond floral morphological traits to broaden our understanding of plant- pollinator interactions.

Almond is one of the world's most economically valuable crops and many varieties require cross pollination for optimal fruit set. For this reason, western honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) hives are often placed in almond orchards. However, little is known about the usage of almond and other pollen sources by individual hives during almond bloom. Here, we investigated the timing, identity and quantity of pollen collection associated with almond floral abundance and spatial location of individual hives by sampling 440 individual pollen tray samples and counting 45,072 pollen grains from 13,200 pollen pellets collected from 80 individual hives across the flowering season in Victoria, south-eastern Australia. A large proportion of hives collected nonalmond pollen in addition to almond pollen (63/80 = 79%). The weight of almond pollen collected by the hives at each sampling time was positively related to the number of concurrently open almond flowers. However, non-almond pollen richness and abundance was not related to the number of almond flowers but had a positive relationship with the weight of almond pollen collected. There was no relationship between the distance among hives and identity of pollen collected. Yet, three plant families in the study area were found to account for a high percentage of the non-almond pollen collected, Euphorbiaceae, Fabaceae and Asteraceae. Understanding crop and non-crop pollen collection could inform honey bee diet needs and identify the plant species of importance to inform best practice bee management during almond flowering. (C) 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier GmbH on behalf of Gesellschaft fur Okologie.

Abstract Understanding broad trends in the distribution and composition of wetlands is essential for making evidence‐based management decisions. Determining temporal change in the extent of inundation in wetlands using remote sensing remains challenging and requires on‐ground verification to determine accuracy and precision. Therefore, optimization and validation of remote sensing methods in threatened wetlands is a high priority for their conservation. Despite their ecological importance in the landscape, we have little knowledge of the variation in the spatial extent of inundation in upland lagoons, a threatened ecological community in New South Wales, Australia. Our project developed locally trained algorithms to predict the extent of water and emergent vegetation using imagery from the Landsat‐5, ‐7, and ‐8 satellites. The best model for upland lagoons used shortwave infrared reflectance (performing better than normalized difference spectral indices), with model accuracy against validation transects greater than 95%. We applied the model to images from 1988 to 2020 across 58 lagoons to generate a dataset that demonstrates the variable water regime and vegetation change in response to local rainfall over 32 years such as in the lagoons. Our results reduce threats to a dynamic threatened ecological community by filling an important knowledge gap and demonstrate a valuable method to understand historical and current changes in the hydrology of dynamic wetland systems more broadly.