Seventy five percent of the world's food crops benefit from insect pollination. Hence, there has been increased interest in how global change drivers impact this critical ecosystem service. Because standardized data on crop pollination are rarely available, we are limited in our capacity to understand the variation in pollination benefits to crop yield, as well as to anticipate changes in this service, develop predictions, and...

The spawning period can be a period of particular vulnerability for a species. In hermaphroditic species like the long-lived pen shell Pinna nobilis different costs could be associated with female, male or hermaphrodite stages. Here we evaluate gonad development in a population with few anthropogenic pressures and describe the timing and succession of developmental stages, determine the ratio of the sexes and the condition of...