The study conducted by Prof. DING Ping’s team at the Zhejiang University College of Life Sciences found that in forest ecosystems, open sunny forest edges are able to support more floral resources and pollinators than the dark interior within closed-canopy forests, leading to the positive effect of forest edges. This stands in sharp contrast with the conventional narrative that edge effects often aggravate the negative effects of habitat loss on biodiversity, primarily because most studies on the effects of habitat fragmentation on plant-pollinator communities focus on open-habitat systems such as grasslands or croplands where edge effects are probably negative or neutral.

    The study was published in a research article titled “Forest edges increase pollinator network robustness to extinction with declining area” in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution on January 31.

Source: Global Communications