Outcomes, limitations, and frontiers in bee functional ecology
Functional traits are increasingly providing a popular framework for
making generalizable predictions about the impacts of global change on
bee biodiversity. The majority of studies analyzed here reported
significant effects of environmental variables on functional trait
diversity or composition. These findings have helped to clarify patterns
of community change in response to environmental disturbances. For
example, one generally consistent finding in functional trait studies of
urbanization is the tendency for urban environments to favor generalist,
cavity-nesting species (Ayers and Rehan, 2021; Banaszak-Cibicka and
Żmihorski, 2012; Buchholz and Egerer, 2020; Cane et al., 2006; Normandin
et al., 2017). In other contexts, however, trait-mediated responses to
environmental change variables may be weak or conflicting across systems
(Bartomeus et al., 2018; Williams et al., 2010). The extent to which
functional trait effects are generalizable across systems appears to be
context- and trait-dependent.