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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 30, 2026

Field Experiments of Pollination Ecology: The Case of Lycoris sanguinea var. sanguinea

Field Experiments of Pollination Ecology: The Case of Lycoris sanguinea var. sanguinea

Published on: November 25, 2016

Are ecosystem services stabilized by differences among species? A test using crop pollination.

Rachael Winfree¹, Claire Kremen

¹Department of Entomology, Rutgers, The State University, 119 Blake Hall, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA. rwinfree@rci.rutgers.edu

Proceedings. Biological Sciences

|September 18, 2008

Summary

Biological diversity stabilizes ecosystem services through mechanisms like response diversity and cross-scale resilience. However, density compensation was absent in real landscapes, challenging previous assumptions about ecosystem stability.

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Area of Science:

Ecology
Conservation Biology
Ecosystem Services

Background:

Biological diversity can enhance ecosystem service provision and stability.
Ecological theory posits that stabilizing mechanisms enhance ecosystem resilience against disturbances.
Few studies have empirically tested these mechanisms in human-impacted landscapes.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the presence and interplay of three key stabilizing mechanisms in natural landscapes.
To differentiate between density compensation, response diversity, and cross-scale resilience in crop pollination services.
To assess the contribution of these mechanisms to ecosystem service stability under real-world conditions.

Main Methods:

Utilized two distinct datasets focusing on crop pollination by wild native bees.
Screened for and differentiated three stabilizing mechanisms: density compensation, response diversity, and cross-scale resilience.
Analyzed species abundances and responses to environmental variables at landscape scales.

Main Results:

Response diversity and cross-scale resilience were consistently identified in both datasets.
Density compensation was notably absent in the studied landscape-scale data.
Findings indicate that not all theoretically predicted stabilizing mechanisms operate uniformly in real-world ecosystems.

Conclusions:

Response diversity and cross-scale resilience likely contribute to the stability of pollination services.
The absence of density compensation at landscape scales contrasts with small-scale experimental findings.
Ecosystem service stability in real landscapes may rely on mechanisms beyond density compensation, highlighting the value of biodiversity.