Hoverfly Atlas

Summary

Hoverflies are essential pollinators enormously contributing to plant diversity and agricultural production, but they are declining. However, despite their importance for preserving both biodiversity and food security, hoverflies have been severely understudied compared to other major pollinators such as bees. This substantial gap in knowledge is even more problematic in Luxembourg, one of the most urbanized countries in the world, where future land use change for new infrastructure and urban development will likely be considerable, because of demographic growth. To protect their functional role in the provision of key ecosystem services, we need to document the diversity and distribution of hoverflies. Indeed, developing this basic knowledge about hoverflies is a necessary first step towards a better understanding of how landscape disturbance affect the dynamics of their populations and, in the end, for developing future conservation projects and red lists. Developing an atlas of hoverflies in Luxembourg is, therefore, crucial. Beyond actively hand netting and trapping specimens, we plan to use georeferenced bulk samples from the historical wet collection of the MNHN, as well as collect data from recent and ongoing projects from other institutions to complement our datasets.

Project status

  • Proposal accepted by the Ministre de l’Environnement, du Climat et du Développement durable in the context of the funding line Appel à projets « Pollinisateurs ». Duration: 57 months (04/2023 – 12/2027).
  • Host institution: Fondation faune-flore @ Centre de recherche scientifique, Musée national d’histoire naturelle.
  • Partners: MECB

Funding

With financial support from the Fonds pour la protection de l’environnement

Contacts

National Museum of Natural History (MNHNL)
Research center
Life science department
25, rue Münster
L-2160 Luxembourg

Publications

 

Beelibre.lu: Luxembourg’s open library of wild bee species profiles, pollen data, DNA barcodes and bibliographic references

Summary

Wild bees are insect pollinators of fundamental relevance for both crops and wild plants. Their ecosystem services are valued in billions of euros and their disappearance could cause irreparable damage to biodiversity, plant reproduction, and human food production. Swift action must be taken to prevent further declines on regional wild bee biodiversity, but the success of effective conservation strategies relies heavily on our understanding of wild bee taxonomy and ecology. For this purpose, well curated reference material plays a vital role.

High quality descriptions are necessary for morphological wild bee identification in monitoring programs, voucher specimens from natural history collections are important to address open research questions and for general educational purposes, and validated DNA barcodes are crucial for molecular identification of morphologically undeterminable cryptic species or complicated taxa groups.

However, reliable reference data of all kinds for the wild bee fauna of Luxembourg is usually scattered and hard to find. Identification keys often lack images of appropriate resolution or regional relevance. Data regarding regional wild bee species diversity and distribution is spread among diverse sources, languages and media formats. Moreover, despite the growing volume of DNA barcodes available in the Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD), misidentifications and gaps in the regional reference library constrain the detection capacity of DNA based identification tools. Finally, the study of fine-scale ecological interactions between local pollinators and their host plants based on insect-focused approaches is hard to develop due to a general lack of curated reference samples. These obstacles restrain our understanding of local wild bees and our capacity to propose well informed conservation initiatives.

In the context of the ‘beelibre’ project (duration 04/2023 – 12/2024) led by the Fondation Faune- Flore (FFF), we propose the development of an open access, user-friendly online database for the storage of national wild bee data, grounding on the results of the “Atlas of the wild bee fauna of Luxembourg” project and the Hymenoptera collection of the MNHNL. This project aims to collate on a single multi-lingual website (beelibre.lu) relevant content concerning wild bee identification, sensibilisation and ecology, building four reference ‘libraries’:

  1. a database of high-quality images taken from live bees and museum specimens (for morpho-taxonomic identification and outreach)
  2. a bibliographic repository of all nationally relevant publications (for metadata analysis and knowledge exchange), incl. short summaries
  3. a pollen inventory pilot experiment aiming to uncover potential ecological interactions between local host flowering plants and their associated wild bee pollinators.
  4. a curated DNA barcode reference library of wild bee species from Luxembourg currently lacking reference material in BOLD systems (for molecular taxonomic identification).

All materials will be freely available to both researchers and the general public, socializing scientific knowledge to a wider audience and raising awareness on national pollinator biodiversity. With this initiative, we aim to provide a space that combines past efforts with current technology, building a platform that can be used to further assist and develop national conservation strategies protecting the wild bee fauna of Luxembourg.

Project status

  • Proposal accepted by the Ministre de l’Environnement, du Climat et du Développement durable in the context of the funding line Appel à projets « Pollinisateurs ». Duration: 20 months (04/2023 – 12/2024).
  • Host institution: Fondation faune-flore @ Centre de recherche scientifique, Musée national d’histoire naturelle.
  • Partners: MECDD

Funding

With financial support from the Fonds pour la protection de l’environnement

Contact

National Museum of Natural History (MNHNL)
Research center
Life science department
25, rue Münster
L-2160 Luxembourg

Publications

 

Generating scientific knowledge, synchronising baseline data and conducting monitoring for subterranean habitats in Luxembourg

Abstract

 

Underground cavities have a high cultural value. As a deposit of prehistoric artifacts and paintings, they provide information about the life of our ancestors and, with their sinter formations, serve as a magnet for tourists and as a climate archive. Yet, the simultaneously high natural value of underground cavities as a structurally rich habitat is often lost.
In Central Europe, around 20 species of bats and about 450 mainly invertebrate animals depend on subterranean terrestrial habitats. The European Union’s Habitats Directive (92/43/EU) recognizes the ecological importance of subterranean sites and protects “caves not open to the public” as a specific habitat type (8310), which implies also a regular reporting to the EU. In Luxembourg, there is no reporting on LRT8310 and no basic status assessment available. Furthermore, semi-natural and artificial underground habitats such as caves, abandoned quarries and mines are recognized and protected as important ecosystems in Luxembourg via the Biotope Protection (BK22). For this reason, the project will

a) provide a basic data collection on the status of LRT8310 and BK22-relevant subterranean habitats in Luxembourg,
b) develop and carry out a representative national monitoring for LRT8310, and
c) scientifically study individual subterranean sites, cave-dwelling organisms and biotopes.

Together, these aspects will produce important scientific findings which will be incorporated into nature and species protection plans at various levels. The data generated will over time lead to a better general understanding of the drivers of the decline in underground biodiversity and serve to develop scientifically sound countermeasures.

Project status

  • Project granted by the Fonds d’environnement of the MECDD. Duration: 6 years (30.09.2020 – 31.06.2026).
  • Host institution: Fondation faune-flore @ Centre de recherche scientifique, Musée national d’histoire naturelle.
  • Partners: MECDD, ANF, Groupe Spéléologique Luxembourgeois (GSL), ProChirop, Dieter Weber & Hannah Weigand

Funding

With financial support from the Fonds pour la protection de l’environnement.

Contact

National Museum of Natural History (MNHNL)
Research center
Life science department
25, rue Münster
L-2160 Luxembourg

Publications

  • Weigand AM, Bücs S-L, Deleva S, Lukić Bilela L, Nyssen P, Paragamian K, Ssymank A, Weigand H, Zakšek V, Zagmajster M, Balázs G, Barjadze S, Bürger K, Burn W, Cailhol D, Decrolière A, Didonna F, Doli A, Drazina T, Dreybrodt J, Ðud L, Egri C, Erhard M, Finžgar S, Fröhlich D, Gartrell G, Gazaryan S, Georges M, Godeau J-F, Grunewald R, Gunn J, Hajenga J, Hofmann P, Knight LRFD, Köble H, Kuharic N, Lüthi C, Munteanu CM, Novak R, Ozols D, Petkovic M, Stoch F, Vogel B, Vukovic I, Hall Weberg M, Zaenker C, Zaenker S, Feit U, Thies J-C (2022) Current cave monitoring practices, their variation and recommendations for future improvement in Europe: A synopsis from the 6th EuroSpeleo Protection Symposium. Research Ideas and Outcomes 8: e85859. https://doi.org/10.3897/rio.8.e85859

Using landscape genetic techniques to understand the impact of habitat fragmentation on the dispersal of insect pollinators (Diptera: Syrphidae)

Abstract

Myathropa floreaPollinators provide a key ecosystem service and their importance for food security is widely acknowledged. Alarmingly though, wild pollinators are declining at local, regional, and global scales, primarily as a consequence of human activities. While land-use change is often seen as a main driver of the problem, there is a considerable lack of knowledge on the responses of invertebrate pollinators to the resulting habitat loss and homogenisation. For instance, while hoverflies (Diptera: Syrphidae) are the most important pollinators besides bees, little is known about their dispersal in general and the effects of landscape fragmentation on their dispersal in particular. The overall objective of the proposed study is therefore to use microsatellite genotyping and landscape genetics to analyse the functional connectivity of typical Luxembourg and Western European landscapes from the viewpoint of hoverflies. We aim to understand whether urbanisation and the structural diversity of agro-ecosystems have an impact on hoverfly dispersal and which landscape features facilitate or hinder gene flow. The approach will be conducted for four target species in three urbanised areas and two pairs of rural areas with different degrees of habitat diversity. Furthermore, we will test whether hoverfly size and habitat specialisation may influence the impact of habitat fragmentation on the flies. Finally, we aim to test the validity of extrapolating connectivity models to larger or different study regions. The proposed project has the potential to make an important contribution in the design of effective habitat management practices for hoverflies, if not insect pollinators in general, since we propose to empirically test dispersal capabilities in different landscapes, taking different biological and ecological characteristics into account.

Project status

  • Project granted by the granted by Fonds National de la Recherche Luxembourg. Duration: 3 years (01.02.2021 – 31.01.2024).
  • Host institution: Fondation faune-flore @ Centre de recherche scientifique, Musée national d’histoire naturelle.
  • Postdoctoral Researcher to be hired.

Contact

National Museum of Natural History (MNHNL)
Research centre
Life science department
25, rue Münster
L-2160 Luxembourg

Publications

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Using genetic methods to understand the movement ecology of the crested newt (Triturus cristatus) in Luxembourg

Abstract

The Crested Newt (Triturus cristatus); male specimen in "mating dress" under water.Populations of the pond-breeding Northern crested newt (Triturus cristatus) have severely declined in Luxembourg during the last century. The species is listed on Annexes II and IV of the EU Habitats Directive (Council of the European Communities, 1992) and EU member states must therefore ensure the maintenance or, where appropriate, the re-establishment of a favourable state of conservation of the species’ and its habitats. In order to maintain the species’ metapopulation dynamics, more than 350 artificial freshwater bodies have been created in the west and southwest of the country since 1993. This conservation measure lacked a certain degree of effectiveness as fewer than 75% of the engineered ponds have been colonized by the target species. There is thus an urgent need to generate an evidence-based understanding of the movement ecology of crested newts in the Luxembourg context and to design and place engineered ponds appropriately. We present three work packages that will operate at different spatial scales and that will use population and landscape genetic methods to identify landscape factors influencing newt dispersal and population connectivity. Specifically, we will i) analyse the population genetic structure of the crested newt across Luxembourg in order to identify isolated populations and environmental factors that hinder exchange between populations, ii) model landscape connectivity at the regional scale to empirically identify landscape features that impact on exchange between ponds and to predict crested newt movements across the landscape, iii) identify optimal locations for new ponds using a systematic conservation planning (site-selection algorithm) approach. The overriding objective of the proposed research project is to identify efficient conservation measures that will ensure the long-term survival of crested newts in Luxembourg.

Project status

  • Project granted by the Ministry of Environment, Climate and Sustainable Development (MECDD). Duration: 18 months (01.10.2019 – 31.03.2021).
  • Host institution: Fondation faune-flore @ Centre de recherche scientifique, Musée national d’histoire naturelle.

Contact

National Museum of Natural History (MNHNL)
Research centre
Life science department
24, rue Münster
L-2160 Luxembourg

Publications

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