title: Specialist nectar-yeasts decline with urbanization in Berlin.
abstract: Nectar yeasts are common inhabitants of insect-pollinated flowers but factors determining their distribution are not well understood. We studied the influence of host identity, environmental factors related to pollution/urbanization, and the distance to a target beehive on local distribution of nectar yeasts within Robinia pseudoacacia L. and Tilia tomentosa Moench in Berlin, Germany. Nectar samples of six individuals per species were collected at seven sites in a 2 km radius from each target beehive and plated on YM-Agar to visualise the different morphotypes, which were then identified by sequencing a section of the 26S rDNA gene. Multivariate linear models were used to analyze the effects of all investigated factors on yeast occurrence per tree. Yeast distribution was mainly driven by host identity. The influence of the environmental factors (NO2, height of construction, soil sealing) strongly depended on the radius around the tree, similar to the distance of the sampled beehive. Incidence of specialist nectar-borne yeast species decreased with increasing pollution/urbanization index. Given that specialist yeast species gave way to generalist yeasts that have a reduced dependency on pollinators for between-flower dispersal, our results indicate that increased urbanization may restrict the movement of nectar-specialized yeasts, via limitations of pollinator foraging behavior.
authors.affiliation: Dahlem Center of Plant Sciences, Plant Ecology, Institut für Biologie, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany.|Berlin-Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research (BBIB), Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Jeannine
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wehner
authors.affiliation: Dahlem Center of Plant Sciences, Plant Ecology, Institut für Biologie, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany.|Berlin-Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research (BBIB), Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Moritz
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mittelbach
authors.affiliation: Dahlem Center of Plant Sciences, Plant Ecology, Institut für Biologie, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany.|Berlin-Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research (BBIB), Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Matthias C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Rillig
authors.affiliation: Research Centre of Excellence Plant and Vegetation Ecology (PLECO), Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Wilrijk, Belgium.
authors.forename: Erik
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Verbruggen
mesh_terms: D001604:Berlin; D004271:DNA, Fungal / Q000235:genetics; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal / Q000235:genetics; D058507:Host Specificity; D057048:Plant Nectar / Q000378:metabolism; D054817:Pollination; D012335:RNA, Ribosomal / Q000235:genetics; D031301:Robinia / Q000382:microbiology*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D032384:Tilia / Q000382:microbiology*; D014507:Urbanization; D015003:Yeasts / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification
chemical_list: D004271:DNA, Fungal; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal; D057048:Plant Nectar; D012335:RNA, Ribosomal; C065096:RNA, ribosomal, 26S