Bumble bees & blueberry fields: An analysis of how coarse-scaled landscape characteristics influence the development ofBombus impatienscolonies

Bumble-bee declines across Europe have been linked to loss of habitat and forage availability due to agricultural intensification. These declines may have severe ecological and commercial consequences since bumble-bees pollinate a range of wildflowers and crops. In England, attempts are being made to reintroduce forage resources through agri-environment schemes, yet there are few data on how the area of forage, or the landscape context in which it is provided, affects their success. We investigated the effects of sown forage patches on bumble-bees across sites varying in landscape characteristics. Bumble-bee densities were higher on sown patches compared with control habitats but did not vary with patch size, i.e. total forager numbers were proportional to patch area. Importantly, the relative response to sown forage patches varied widely across a landscape gradient such that their impact in terms of attracting foraging bumble-bees was greatest where the proportion of arable land was highest.

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Assessing ultraviolet reflection and aspect effects on establishing wild bumble bees (Bombussp.) in arboreal nest boxes

10.1603/ice.2016.115319 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

James Herndon

Keyword(s):

Bumble Bees ◽

Nest Boxes

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Faculty Opinions recommendation of Bumble bees damage plant leaves and accelerate flower production when pollen is scarce.

Faculty Opinions – Post-Publication Peer Review of the Biomedical Literature ◽

10.3410/f.737989354.793574832 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Nicole M van Dam

Keyword(s):

Bumble Bees ◽

Plant Leaves ◽

Flower Production

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Estimation of Regional Parameters in a Macro Scale Hydrological Model

Hydrology Research ◽

10.2166/nh.2001.0010 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 32 (3) ◽

pp. 161-180 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Kolbjørn Engeland ◽

Lars Gottschalk ◽

Lena Tallaksen

Keyword(s):

Additional Data ◽

Hydrological Model ◽

Sampling Methods ◽

Probability Distributions ◽

Repeated Application ◽

Landscape Characteristics ◽

Time Period ◽

Macro Scale ◽

Model Element ◽

Regular Sampling

Macro-scale hydrological modelling implies a repeated application of a model within an area using regional parameters. These parameters are based on climate and landscape characteristics, and they are used to calculate the water balance in ungauged areas. The regional parameters ought to be robust and not too dependent of the catchment and time period used for calibration. The ECOMAG model is applied for the NOPEX-region as a macro-scale hydrological model distributed on a 2×2 km2 grid. Each model element is assigned parameters according to soil and vegetation classes. A Bayesian methodology is followed. An objective function describing the fit between observed and simulated values is used to describe the likelihood of the parameters. Using Baye's theorem these likelihoods are used to update the probability distributions of the parameters using additional data, being it either an additional year of streamflow or an additional streamflow station. Two sampling methods are used, regular sampling and Metropolis-Hastings sampling. The results show that regional parameters exist according to some predefined criteria. The probability distribution of the parameters shows a decreasing variance as data from new catchments are used for updating. A few parameters do, however, not exhibit this property, and they are therefore not suitable in a regional context.

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Urban bumble bees are unaffected by the proportion of intensely developed land within urban environments of the industrial Midwestern USA

Urban Ecosystems ◽

10.1007/s11252-020-00965-9 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 23 (4) ◽

pp. 703-711

Author(s):

Paige Reeher ◽

Jessie Lanterman Novotny ◽

Randy J Mitchell

Keyword(s):

Urban Environments ◽

Bumble Bees ◽

Midwestern Usa

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Landscape Design as a Tool to Reduce Soil Salinization: The Study Case of Keriya Oasis (NW China)

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su11092578 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (9) ◽

pp. 2578

Author(s):

Jumeniyaz Seydehmet ◽

Guang-Hui Lv ◽

Abdugheni Abliz

Keyword(s):

Traditional Knowledge ◽

Land Reclamation ◽

Sand Dunes ◽

Soil Salinization ◽

Landscape Design ◽

Adaptive Landscape ◽

Farmland Abandonment ◽

Landscape Characteristics ◽

Geological Conditions ◽

Water Logging

Irrational use and management of water and land are associated with poor hydro-geological conditions causing water logging and salinization problems, possibly leading to farmland abandonment and economic loss. This poses a great challenge to the sustainability of oasis’ and requires desalinization through reasonable landscape design by multiple crossing studies so we collected traditional knowledge by field interviews and literature schemes, except for the modern desalinization approaches by literature, and we found that the salinization problem has been solved by traditional land reclamation, traditional drainage, natural drainage and flood irrigation, locally. It is worth mentioning that the traditional reclamation in salinized areas requires flood water, sand dunes and a salinized pit area; the sand dunes are used to elevate the pit surface, and water is used to leach salt from the soil. Natural drainage (the depth and width are 4–10 m and 50–100 m, respectively) caused by flash flooding has significant benefits to some salinized villages in the range of 3000–5000 m and ancient groundwater drainage systems, such as Karez are supporting the oasis with drainage water for centuries. In addition landscape characteristics, salinization and hydro-geological conditions of the oasis were studied from Landsat image, DEM, literature and field photos. Then based on the gathered information above, a desalinization model was developed to decrease the groundwater table and salt leaching in the water logging landscape. Then according to landscape characteristics, different desalinization approaches were recommended for different landscapes. To address environmental uncertainties, an adaptive landscape management and refinement approach was developed, and acceptance of the model was validated by stakeholder opinion. The results provide guidelines for sustainable desalinization design and highlight the importance of combining traditional knowledge and modern ecological principles in sustainable landscape design.

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Mite‐y bees: bumble bees ( Bombus spp., Hymenoptera: Apidae) host a relatively homogeneous mite (Acari) community, shaped by bee species identity but not by geographic proximity

Ecological Entomology ◽

10.1111/een.12706 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 44 (3) ◽

pp. 333-346 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Stephanie M. Haas ◽

Sophie Cardinal ◽

Frédéric Beaulieu ◽

Jessica R. K. Forrest

Keyword(s):

Bumble Bees ◽

Geographic Proximity ◽

Species Identity

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Spatial Analysis of the Drivers, Characteristics, and Effects of Forest Fragmentation

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13063246 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (6) ◽

pp. 3246

Author(s):

Zoe Slattery ◽

Richard Fenner

Keyword(s):

Forest Fragmentation ◽

Forest Fires ◽

Geographical Information ◽

Agricultural Expansion ◽

Forest Patches ◽

Mato Grosso ◽

Remote Imaging ◽

Landscape Characteristics ◽

High Level

Building on the existing literature, this study examines whether specific drivers of forest fragmentation cause particular fragmentation characteristics, and how these characteristics can be linked to their effects on forest-dwelling species. This research uses Landsat remote imaging to examine the changing patterns of forests. It focuses on areas which have undergone a high level of a specific fragmentation driver, in particular either agricultural expansion or commodity-driven deforestation. Seven municipalities in the states of Rondônia and Mato Grosso in Brazil are selected as case study areas, as these states experienced a high level of commodity-driven deforestation and agricultural expansion respectively. Land cover maps of each municipality are created using the Geographical Information System software ArcGIS Spatial Analyst extension. The resulting categorical maps are input into Fragstats fragmentation software to calculate quantifiable fragmentation metrics for each municipality. To determine the effects that these characteristics are likely to cause, this study uses a literature review to determine how species traits affect their responses to forest fragmentation. Results indicate that, in areas that underwent agricultural expansion, the remaining forest patches became more complex in shape with longer edges and lost a large amount of core area. This negatively affects species which are either highly dispersive or specialist to core forest habitat. In areas that underwent commodity-driven deforestation, it was more likely that forest patches would become less aggregated and create disjunct core areas. This negatively affects smaller, sedentary animals which do not naturally travel long distances. This study is significant in that it links individual fragmentation drivers to their landscape characteristics, and in turn uses these to predict effects on species with particular traits. This information will prove useful for forest managers, particularly in the case study municipalities examined in this study, in deciding which species require further protection measures. The methodology could be applied to other drivers of forest fragmentation such as forest fires.

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