Ausgabe 04/2022 - Neue Forschungsergebnisse
Monitoring plant biodiversity in protected areas to determine which plants are visited by insects at which times of the year
Responsibility: University of Kassel (UniKS)
With metabarcoding tools we identify plant traces on insects. This will provide information about which plants are used by the insects at which time of the year. The plant traces refer either to insect excretions (plant sap or tissue) or to flower visitation (e.g. pollen on the insects' body). The results are used to provide management recommendations for sustainable nature and insect conservation, e.g. also with regard to the management of plant biodiversity for the insects’ benefit.
The samples are taken with Malaise traps in 21 different nature reserves with five traps per transect into the agricultural landscape. A total of 105 Malaise traps will be sampled over a period of two years, the sample containers will be changed every two weeks.
The transect of the Malaise traps on the Rhine slopes of Gutenfels Castle in Rhineland-Palatinate with the changing vegetation along the transect.
The plant traces are plotted on a filter paper by vacuum filtration. This paper is quartered, three replicates are processed by metabarcoding, one serves as a voucher and one as a control. The results are species lists that reflect the plant-insect interaction in the course of the year.
Filtered plant remains and microscopic pollen images.
Vegetation surveys in the immediate vicinity of the Malaysian traps are used to analyse which potential resources are available to the insects, while the metabarcoding analyses show which resources are actually being used throught the season. Vegetation images in a plot design along the transects additionally allow to trace spatial activities of the insects in the course of the year, since very little is known about insect flight distances for plant and flower visits.
Orchis militaris and Himantoglossum hircinum in the Koppelstein-Helmestal nature reserve in Rhineland-Palatinate.
apl. Prof. Dr. Birgit Gemeinholzer - Systematic Botany
