scholarly journals Variation of Small and Large Wild Bee Communities Under Honeybee Pressure in Highly Diverse Natural Habitats

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Imre Demeter ◽  
Adalbert Balog ◽  
Miklós Sárospataki

During the study, the honeybee effects on wild bees were tested and hypothesized that smaller distances from beehives will increase competitions between honeybees and wild bees, while greater distances will have a deleterious effect on competition. The impact on species richness and diversity was tested with distances from beehives, considering that this may differ when large and small wild bee species are considered separately. Altogether 158 species and 13,164 individuals were collected, from which 72% (9,542 individuals) were Apis mellifera. High variation in abundances was detected from one year to another, and the species turnover by sites was 67% in site A, 66% in site V, and 63% in site F. This last one was the site with the previous contact with honeybees. Considering distances from beehives, significant decreases in small bee species diversity were detected from one year to another at each distance except site F, 250 m from hives. The changes in species diversity and community structure of small bee species are detected from one year to another.

Insects ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 812
Author(s):  
Justine Rivers-Moore ◽  
Emilie Andrieu ◽  
Aude Vialatte ◽  
Annie Ouin

Loss of semi-natural habitats (SNH) in agricultural landscapes affects wild bees, often negatively. However, how bee communities respond varies and is still unclear. To date, few studies have used precise descriptors to understand these effects. Our aim was to understand the respective and complementary influences of different wooded and herbaceous habitats on wild bee communities. We selected thirty 500-m radius landscapes on a gradient of a percentage of wooded SNH in south-western France. At each landscape, we sampled wild bees in spring 2016 and plants in spring 2015 and 2016 at the forest edge, in a hedgerow, and in a permanent grassland. Pollen carried by the most abundant bee species was collected and identified. Using beta diversity indices, we showed that wild bee community composition differs between the three SNH types, and especially between herbaceous and wooded SNH. Based on Jacobs’ selection index, we showed that pollen of some plant species recorded in wooded SNH are preferentially selected by wild bees. Studying the impact of the loss of each SNH type on the global bee-pollen interaction network, we found that wooded SNH contributed to its resilience, enabling specific plant–bee interactions. Overall, our results underline the non-negligible contribution of wooded SNH to the diversity of wild bees in agricultural landscapes, and thus the importance of maintaining different types of SNH.


2021 ◽  
Vol 67 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-175
Author(s):  
Imre Demeter ◽  
Adalbert Balog ◽  
Zsolt Józan ◽  
Miklós Sárospataki

In the temperate climate wild bees are the most important pollinator organisms. Pollination is essential for the communities of semi-natural habitats since this ecosystem service directly affects plant reproduction. The diversity of wild bees living in such areas is remarkably high, but they are susceptible to various anthropogenic influences.In our study, the composition and structure of wild bee communities were examined in Romania (Transylvania) at three semi-natural areas near Filia, Merești and Vârghiș. The surveyed areas were used as extensive meadows under relatively low but slightly different anthropogenic influence levels. We collected bees in these areas at several places (9 sampling points/area) by individual netting four times during the season. In the studied areas, 129 bee species were found, which makes up about 18% of the approximately 726 wild bee species registered in Romania. In addition to the high number of species, we also observed high diversity values. Our results showed that, even at our sampling site closest to the human settlements, the extensive use of the surveyed areas as meadows allows the development of diverse, species-rich bee communities.


2020 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Harmon-Threatt

Nest site availability and quality are important for maintaining robust populations and communities of wild bees. However, for most species, nesting traits and nest site conditions are poorly known, limiting both our understanding of basic ecology for bee species and conservation efforts. Additionally, many of the threats commonly associated with reducing bee populations have effects that can extend into nests but are largely unstudied. In general, threats such as habitat disturbances and climate change likely affect nest site availability and nest site conditions, which in turn affect nest initiation, growth, development, and overwintering success of bees. To facilitate a better understanding of how these and other threats may affect nesting bees, in this review, I quantify key nesting traits and environmental conditions and then consider how these traits may intersect with observed and anticipated changes in nesting conditions experienced by wild bees. These data suggest that the effects of common threats to bees through nesting may strongly influence their survival and persistence but are vastly understudied. Increasing research into nesting biology and incorporating nesting information into conservation efforts may help improve conservation of this declining but critical group.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole Beyer ◽  
Felix Kirsch ◽  
Doreen Gabriel ◽  
Catrin Westphal

Abstract Context Pollinator declines and functional homogenization of farmland insect communities have been reported. Mass-flowering crops (MFC) can support pollinators by providing floral resources. Knowledge about how MFC with dissimilar flower morphology affect functional groups and functional trait compositions of wild bee communities is scarce. Objective We investigated how two morphologically different MFC, land cover and local flower cover of semi-natural habitats (SNH) and landscape diversity affect wild bees and their functional traits (body size, tongue length, sociality, foraging preferences). Methods We conducted landscape-level wild bee surveys in SNH of 30 paired study landscapes covering an oilseed rape (OSR) (Brassica napus L.) gradient. In 15 study landscapes faba beans (Vicia faba L.) were grown, paired with respective control landscapes without grain legumes. Results Faba bean cultivation promoted bumblebees (Bombus spp. Latreille), whereas non-Bombus densities were only driven by the local flower cover of SNH. High landscape diversity enhanced wild bee species richness. Faba bean cultivation enhanced the proportions of social wild bees, bees foraging on Fabaceae and slightly of long-tongued bumblebees. Solitary bee proportions increased with high covers of OSR. High local SNH flower covers mitigated changes of mean bee sizes caused by faba bean cultivation. Conclusions Our results show that MFC support specific functional bee groups adapted to their flower morphology and can alter pollinators` functional trait composition. We conclude that management practices need to target the cultivation of functionally diverse crops, combined with high local flower covers of diverse SNH to create heterogeneous landscapes, which sustain diverse pollinator communities.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Panlong Wu ◽  
Piaopiao Dai ◽  
Meina Wang ◽  
Sijie Feng ◽  
Aruhan Olhnuud ◽  
...  

Bees provide key pollination services for a wide range of crops. Accumulating evidence shows the effect of semi-natural habitats at the landscape level and local management practices on bee diversity in fields. However, most of the evidence is derived from studies in North America and Europe. Whether this paradigm is applicable in China, which is characterized by smallholder-dominated agricultural landscapes, has rarely been studied. In this study, we aimed to investigate how bee diversity affected apple production, and how landscape and local variables affected bee diversity and species composition on the Northern China Plain. The results showed that bees significantly increased apple fruit set compared to bagged controls. Wild bee diversity was positively related to apple seed numbers. Higher seed numbers reduced the proportion of deformed apples and thus increased fruit quality. Wild bee abundance was positively correlated with flowering ground cover, and both the abundance and species richness of wild bees were positively affected by the percentage of semi-natural habitats. We conclude that apple quality can benefit from ecological intensification comprising the augmentation of wild bees by semi-natural habitats and flowering ground cover. Future pollination management should therefore reduce the intensification level of management at both the local and landscape scales.


2014 ◽  
Vol 83 (4) ◽  
pp. 325-351 ◽  
Author(s):  
Józef Banaszak ◽  
Halina Ratyńska

ABSTRACT Changes in communities of wild bees (Apiformes) were studied in relation to changes in vegetation in six permanent plots (natural forest habitats in the Wielkopolska National Park, and semi-natural habitats in the agricultural landscape near Turew) at the end of four decades (starting from the late 1970s). In 2008-2010, as many as 100 species of Apiformes were recorded there, which is more than reported in earlier decades. The most stable bee communities were those in forest habitats (oak-hornbeam forest, oak forest). Substantial qualitative and quantitative changes in vegetation and bee communities were recorded only after the renaturalisation of a former xerothermic grassland, which had become overgrown with shrubs and trees as a result of plant succession. Human interference (e.g. the felling of some trees growing along a road, clearance of understorey shrubs, ploughing of roadside margins) at selected refuge habitats in the agricultural landscape led to short-term fluctuations in bee abundance and diversity, but an increasing trend in abundance was noted.


2020 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 502-515 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brianne Du Clos ◽  
Francis A Drummond ◽  
Cynthia S Loftin

Abstract Homogeneous, agriculturally intense landscapes have abundant records of pollinator community research, though similar studies in the forest-dominated, heterogeneous mixed-use landscape that dominates the northeastern United States are sparse. Trends of landscape effects on wild bees are consistent across homogeneous agricultural landscapes, whereas reported studies in the northeastern United States have not found this consistency. Additionally, the role of noncrop habitat in mixed-use landscapes is understudied. We assessed wild bee communities in the mixed-use lowbush blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium Ait.) production landscape of Maine, United States at 56 sites in eight land cover types across two regional landscapes and analyzed effects of floral resources, landscape pattern, and spatial scale on bee abundance and species richness. Within survey sites, cover types with abundant floral resources, including lowbush blueberry fields and urban areas, promoted wild bee abundance and diversity. Cover types with few floral resources such as coniferous and deciduous/mixed forest reduced bee abundance and species richness. In the surrounding landscape, lowbush blueberry promoted bee abundance and diversity, while emergent wetland and forested land cover strongly decreased these measures. Our analysis of landscape configuration revealed that patch mixing can promote wild bee abundance and diversity; however, this was influenced by strong variation across our study landscape. More surveys at intra-regional scales may lead to better understanding of the influence of mixed-use landscapes on bee communities.


Author(s):  
V. Radchenko ◽  
H. Honchar

Wild bee populations – important pollinators of many plants – are threatened with extinction due to reduced food resources, destruction of nesting sites and habitat fragmentation. The aim of this study is to determine the species diversity of wild bees in the parks of Kyiv. During the 2012-2017 spring-summer seasons a comprehensive study of the species composition and diversity of wild bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) was investigated. 115 wild bee species of 6 families and 34 genera have been found. Only 39 species among them were found in all parks and the common species are noted: Colletes cunicularius, Hylaeus communis, Andrena flavipes, Evylaeus calceatus, E. malachurus, E. politus, Anthophora plumipes, Bombus lucorum, B. terrestris, B. lapidarius, B. pascuorum. The proportions of species within each ecological group stay constant, except for the small decrease in oligolectic species. In all parks the ground-nesting bees are dominated. Bees that build nests in a different substrate (tree cavities, hollow plant stems, empties, holes, walls of buildings, and like) make up only 20 %. In general, on the territories of urban parks we have registered wild bees on the plants of more than 100 species from the families Asteraceaе, Fabaceaе, Lamiaceae, Rosaceaе. It should be noted, that ornamental flowering vegetation plays a significant role in wild bees nutrition in the city conditions. In some city parks we have found three species of wild bees that included in the Red Book of Ukraine: Bombus argillaceus, Xylocopa valga and Andrena chrysopus. The results of our study show that city parks are important for the conservation of wild bee populations, and the main conditions for this are the availability of flower sources and nesting sites.


Author(s):  
Imam Widhiono ◽  
Eming Sudiana ◽  
Edy Yani

<p class="IsiAbstrakIndo">Wild bee pollinators (Hymenoptera : Apiade) diversity and abundance were studied in three types of plantation forest on Mt. Slamet (Central Java Province, Indonesia). The aims of the research was to know the diversity and abundance of wild bee pollinators and to determine the possibility of plantation forest contribution on wild bees conservation. Sampling has been done at three stands: a pine forest (PF, with <em>Pinus merkusii</em>), an Agathis forest (AF, with <em>Agathis damara</em>) and a community forest (CF, with <em>Albizia falctaria</em>). Each habitat was divided into 5 line transect (100 x 5 m) and sweep nets were used to collect the wild bee samples. Sampling was done eah month from April to August 2015. The diversity of wild bees was high (12 species in 9 genera; members of the Apidae (7 species were dominant). <span lang="EN-GB">The most abundant species across the forests were </span><em>Apis cerana</em><span lang="EN-GB"> (343 individuals; 25.5% of total), </span><em>Trigona laeviceps</em><span lang="EN-GB"> (195 individuals; 14.5%), and </span><em>Megachille relativa </em><span lang="EN-GB">(165 individuals; 12.3%)</span>. Measurements of species diversity (<em>H</em>’), species evenness (<em>E</em>), habitat similarity (<em>Ss</em>) and species richness indicated that the wild bee species diversity in the region was relatively high <span lang="EN-GB">(</span><em>H</em>’ = <span lang="EN-GB">1.275)</span> to <span lang="EN-GB">(</span><em>H</em>’<span lang="EN-GB"> = 1.730);</span><span lang="EN-GB">(</span>E= <span lang="EN-GB">0.870)</span> to<span lang="EN-GB"> (</span>E = <span lang="EN-GB">0.93)</span>. The result showed that t<span lang="EN-GB">he </span>diversity of wild bees<span lang="EN-GB"> in three different plantation forest habitats on Mt. Slamet were similar </span>and can be concluded that plantation<span lang="EN-GB"> forest types were important for pollinator conservation, and an appropriate future preservation strategy should include of the areas of all </span>plantation <span lang="EN-GB">forest types.</span></p>


PeerJ ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. e3051 ◽  
Author(s):  
Étienne Normandin ◽  
Nicolas J. Vereecken ◽  
Christopher M. Buddle ◽  
Valérie Fournier

Urbanization is one of the major anthropogenic processes contributing to local habitat loss and extirpation of numerous species, including wild bees, the most widespread pollinators. Little is known about the mechanisms through which urbanization impacts wild bee communities, or the types of urban green spaces that best promote their conservation in cities. The main objective of this study was to describe and compare wild bee community diversity, structure, and dynamics in two Canadian cities, Montreal and Quebec City. A second objective was to compare functional trait diversity among three habitat types (cemeteries, community gardens and urban parks) within each city. Bees were collected using pan traps and netting on the same 46 sites, multiple times, over the active season in 2012 and 2013. A total of 32,237 specimens were identified, representing 200 species and 6 families, including two new continental records,Hylaeus communisNylander (1852) andAnthidium florentinum(Fabricius, 1775). Despite high community evenness, we found significant abundance of diverse species, including exotic ones. Spatio-temporal analysis showed higher stability in the most urbanized city (Montreal) but low nestedness of species assemblages among the three urban habitats in both cities. Our study demonstrates that cities are home to diverse communities of wild bees, but in turn affect bee community structure and dynamics. We also found that community gardens harbour high levels of functional trait diversity. Urban agriculture therefore contributes substantially to the provision of functionally diverse bee communities and possibly to urban pollination services.


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