Poster for BTBSDAY 2020

1. Pioltelli Emiliano1*, Tommasi Nicola1, Biella Paolo1, Labra Massimo1 and Galimberti Andrea1
1. Department of Biotechnology and Biosciences, University of Milano-Bicocca, Piazza della Scienza 2, Milano, 20126, Italy
*e-mail: e.pioltelli@campus.unimib.it
LIVING IN THE METROPOLIS: HOW LANDSCAPE ANTHROPIZATION
SHAPES MORPHOLOGY OF TWO CHARISMATIC INSECT POLLINATORS
SAMPLING DATA:
CONCLUSIONS:
RESULTS:MATERIALS AND METHODS:BACKGROUND:
Large-scale agriculture and the rapid expansion of urban areas are the
principal causes of natural habitats loss. These shifts in land-use
represent a threat to biodiversity and could negatively affect the provision
of ecosystem services such as pollination. Here we present a study
based on a geometric morphometrics approach to address the
neglected topic of the effects of anthropogenic disturbance on pollinators
functional traits (which are intimately linked to their ecosystemic
function)
47 randomly
selected
lowland sites
• 179 B. pascuorum
• 169 B. terrestris
july 2019
3 LANDSCAPE TYPES
SEMI-NATURAL AGRICULTURAL URBAN
LANDSCAPE AND ENVIRONMENTAL VARIABLES:
MORPHOMETRIC ANALYSES:
• Data on land-cover (DUSAF 6.0)
• Fragmentation of green areas (Edge
Density)
• Data on land surface temperature
• Our results provided evidence of phenotypic variation in the two species associated to
urban stressors.
• Temperature represents a strong driver of phenotypic variation with a species-specific
response associated to this stressor.
• Reduction of body size and increased asymmetry could bring to impaired dispersal
capability and consequently to a less efficient pollination service in cities compared to
semi-natural habitats.
+ +
Stereomicroscope Camera Image processing
software
B. terrestris
B. pascuorum
BODY SIZE : Influence dispersal range
WINGS ASYMMETRY : Influence mobility
CENTROID
SIZE
(CS)
WINGS
ASYMMETRY
BODY SIZE
INTERTEGULAR
DISTANCE
(ITD)
Bodysize
Temperature ≈ Urbanization
BODY SIZE
WING
ASYMMETRY
B. terrestris
For both species we found an effect of temperature, a predictor variable that was positively
corretaled with urbanization level. We observed a species-specific response. B.
pascuorum exhibited a shift toward smaller body size in response to increased
temperature (Fig.1), a possible adaptation to reduce the risk of overheating while foraging
increasing convective heath loss. Nonetheless B. terrestris did not show any variation of
body size but manifested an higher level of wings asymmetry (Fig. 2), an index of lower
developmental stability.
ITD
CS(Stress biomarker)
B. pascuorum
Urban
Agricaltural
Semi-natural
Temperature ≈ Urbanization
B. pascuorum
B. terrestris
Wingsasymmetry
Fig.1
Fig.2