The bee fauna (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) of the Niagara Peninsula, at the eastern end of the Carolinian Zone in Ontario, Canada, is poorly known. From April to October 2003, we studied bee abundance and diversity in set-aside grasslands at Brock University and the Glenridge Quarry Naturalization Site in southern St. Catharines, Ontario. Using three sampling methods (pan traps, sweep nets, and aerial nets), we collected and identified 15 733 specimens of 124 species and morphospecies representing all bee families, except Melittidae, found in North America. Abundance-based diversity estimators suggested bee species richness to be as high as 148 species. There were three seasonal peaks in bee abundance (early spring, late spring, and mid-summer) with a lull in activity shortly after the summer solstice. Several indicators suggested substantial impacts of disturbance on the Niagara bee community, including evidence of high dominance by the most abundant species. Comparison of the sampling methods indicated considerable catch variation among taxa; Halictidae and Apidae were dominant in pan trap samples and in sweep–aerial net samples, respectively. However, bee abundances in pan traps and sweep nets were highly correlated, suggesting that both methods fairly sample local bee abundances.
To investigate how bee (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) communities repopulate habitat following severe disturbances, we compared assemblages in new, regenerating landfill sites planted in 2003, recent landfill sites planted in 2000, and control meadows relatively undisturbed for .40 years. All sites were identically sampled using pan traps and sweep netting, from early May to late September 2003, equalising collection effort among sites. In addition, we carried out five-minute aerial net samplings wherever sites contained large patches of wildflowers. We predicted that abundance and diversity of bees would be highest in recent sites and lowest in new sites. This prediction was partially supported: bees were most abundant in recent sites followed by control, then new sites, but species richness was highest (82 species) in recent sites, followed by new sites (67 species), then control (66 species). A randomisation analysis showed that there were more species than expected in new sites and fewer than expected in control sites. Differences in blossom availability likely explain differences in bee abundance and diversity among habitat regeneration levels. Overall, our results suggest that the bee community recolonised newly available sites immediately in the first year and that bee diversity and abundance increased for at least three years, subsequently declining between three and 40 years.Résumé-Afin d'étudier la manière dont les communautés d'abeilles (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) repeuplent les habitats après des perturbations importantes, nous comparons les peuplements dans des nouveaux terrains de remblayage en régénération végétalisés en 2003, des sites de remblayage récents végétalisés en 2000 et des prés témoins relativement peu perturbés pour . 40 ans. Tous ces sites ont été échantillonnés de manière identique à l'aide de pièges à cuvette et de filets fauchoirs du début de mai jusqu'à la fin de septembre en 2003, avec une égalisation des efforts de récolte entre les sites. Nous avons, de plus, fait des échantillonnages de cinq minutes au filet aérien lorsque les sites contenaient d'importantes taches de fleurs sauvages. Nous avons prédit que l'abondance et la diversité des abeilles seraient maximales dans les sites récents et minimales dans les sites nouveaux. Cette prédiction est en partie confirmée par nos résultats: les abeilles sont les plus abondantes dans les sites récents, puis dans les sites témoins et dans les sites nouveaux, mais la richesse spécifique est plus élevée dans les sites récents (82 espèces), puis dans les sites nouveaux (67 espèces) et enfin dans les sites témoins (66 espèces). Une analyse de randomisation montre qu'il y a plus d'espèces qu'attendu dans les nouveaux sites et moins qu'attendu dans les sites témoins. Des différences dans la disponibilité des fleurs expliquent vraisemblablement les différences d'abondance et de diversité des abeilles en fonction des degrés de régénération des habitats. Globalement, nos résultats indiquent que la communauté d'abeilles recolonise les sites nouvellement disp...
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