Agriculturally dominated landscapes reduce bee phylogenetic diversity and pollination services

Agriculturally driven land use change threatens global biodiversity and has the potential to reshape the tree of life by favoring the persistence of some lineages over others. Yet it is unclear if loss of phylogenetic diversity compromises the delivery of ecosystem services. To address this critical knowledge gap, we combine extensive land cover, pollinator survey and crop data with a complete time-calibrated phylogenomic tree for this diverse bee community. Pollinator communities in highly agricultural landscapes contain 230 million fewer years of evolutionary history and loss of pollinator phylogenetic diversity was strongly associated with reduced crop yield and quality. Our study is the first to link landscape mediated changes in the phylogenetic structure of natural communities to the disruption of ecosystem services. Practices that measure their success only by the number of species conserved may fail to protect the full diversity of life impacted by these stressors.

农业驱动的土地利用变化正威胁全球生物多样性，并可通过偏向部分演化支系的存续、抑制其他支系的方式重塑生命之树。然而目前尚不清楚系统发育多样性（phylogenetic diversity）的丧失是否会损害生态系统服务的供给效能。为填补这一关键认知空白，本研究整合了海量土地覆盖、传粉者调查与作物数据，并结合针对该多样化蜂类群落的完整时间校准系统发育基因组树（phylogenomic tree）开展分析。研究结果显示，高度农业化景观中的传粉者群落，其演化历史总时长减少了2.3亿年；传粉者系统发育多样性的丧失，与作物产量与品质的下降显著相关。本研究首次将景观介导的自然群落系统发育结构变化，与生态系统服务的破坏建立了关联。若仅以保护的物种数量来衡量保护成效，相关实践或无法充分保护受此类胁迫因子影响的全部生命多样性。