A review of global trends in the study types used to investigate bee nesting biology

Orr, Michael C.; Jakob, Mirjam; Harmon‐Threatt, Alexandra N.; Mupepele, Anne‐Christine

doi:10.1016/j.baae.2022.03.012

Cited by 13 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…Artificial and ecological experimental studies investigating the nesting preference of groundnesting bee species are limited (Orr et al 2022). This study demonstrates that the provision of bare ground plots can provide a nesting resource for ground-nesting bees.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The importance of soil and vegetation characteristics for establishing ground-nesting bee aggregations

et al. 2022

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Most bee species are ground-nesters, yet knowledge on the nesting behaviour of this diverse group remains sparse. Evidence on the effectiveness of ground-nesting bee species as crop pollinators is growing, but there is limited information on their nesting habits and preferences and how to manage habitats to enhance populations on farms. In this study, artificially prepared plots of bare soil were constructed with the aim to attract ground-nesting bees to nest in a commercial orchard in Kent, UK. Nine soil parameters were measured to determine their preferred soil properties: hydraulic conductivity, soil compaction, soil moisture, soil temperature, soil stoniness, soil organic matter, soil root biomass, soil texture and vegetation cover. Eighteen non-parasitic ground-nesting bee species (7 Andrena, 9 Lasioglossum, 1 Halictus and 1 Colletes spp.) were recorded in the study plots. Soil stoniness and soil temperature at 10cm depth were positively correlated, and vegetation cover and hydraulic conductivity were negatively correlated with the number of ground-nesting bees on the plots. We show that artificially created habitats can be exploited for nesting by several ground-nesting bee species. This study’s findings can inform management practices to enhance ground-nesting bee populations in agricultural and urban areas.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The importance of soil and vegetation characteristics for establishing ground-nesting bee aggregations

et al. 2022

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“…In the second step, to identify the drivers of bee species richness, bee abundance, threatened bees and nesting traits, we choose man- We performed a redundancy analysis (RDA) as direct ordination method to explore patterns in bee community composition in relation to local and landscape factors using the vegan package (Oksanen et al, 2019). To reduce the influence of dominant species, species with less than three occurrences were excluded from the analysis, thus reducing the number of species from 115 to 61 in total.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In contrast, the majority of wild bees build nests belowground but yet studies are mainly based on observations of single species (Cane & Neff, 2011). Hence, ecological and experimental studies on ground‐nesting bees remain underrepresented (Orr et al, 2022). This might be due to the challenge to locate nests (Sardiñas & Kremen, 2014) and the difficulty to apply passive collection measures for this group (Leonard & Harmon‐Threatt, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contrasting effects of vineyard type, soil and landscape factors on ground‐ versus above‐ground‐nesting bees

Wersebeckmann

Warzecha

Entling

et al. 2023

Journal of Applied Ecology

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Agricultural intensification and abandonment of traditional agricultural practices are main drivers of current insect declines. The resulting loss of feeding and nesting opportunities has led to a decrease in pollinator populations like wild bees. While the restoration of floral resources has been widely implemented in wild bee conservation, nesting resources, particularly for ground‐nesting species, are barely considered. We assessed wild bee diversity in a wine‐growing area in Germany in 15 study sites along a soil gradient and evaluated whether wild bees were distinctly affected by different vineyard types (vertically oriented, terraced, abandoned), local conditions (e.g. shrub and flower cover) and landscape factors in response to divergent nesting needs (above‐ground vs. ground‐nesting). We found that wild bees responded more strongly to the availability of nesting sites than to flower resources. While ground‐nesting bees were determined by the suitability of soil aspects for nesting irrespective of vineyard management types, above‐ground‐nesting bees profited from vineyard abandonment and shrub encroachment in vineyard fallows and were enhanced by the availability of semi‐natural habitats (SNHs) in the surrounding landscape. In contrast, floral resource availability in managed vineyards had only marginal effects on above‐ground‐nesting bees. Synthesis and applications: Life‐history traits like nesting strategies have long been neglected in wild bee conservation approaches, but proved to be highly relevant, especially for ground‐nesting bees. For this, agri‐environmental schemes can no longer solely focus on the restoration of floral resources, but should equally address nesting resources. Therefore, management efforts for enhancing wild bees in vineyard landscapes should aim at complementing nesting resources for ground‐nesting bees (e.g. exposed bare ground patches) and above‐ground‐nesting bees (e.g. woody elements, hedges) in addition to floral resources. At the landscape level, conserving heterogeneous landscapes at a mixture of actively managed vineyards and semi‐natural and woody elements is significant to maintain diverse bee communities.

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“…In densely vegetated habitats like tallgrass prairies, little is known about how management techniques, like burning, directly impact nesting habitat availability for ground‐nesting bee communities. Bee nesting is challenging to study because it is difficult to detect and monitor their nests, but is crucial to understand because over 80% of all bee species nest underground (Antoine & Forrest, 2021; Decker & Harmon‐Threatt, 2019; Harmon‐Threatt, 2020; Orr et al, 2022). To directly document bee nesting, researchers often place ‘emergence traps’ on the ground, which are small lightweight tents with a collection bottle at the top.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prescribed fire increases the number of ground‐nesting bee nests in tallgrass prairie remnants

Brokaw

Portman

Bruninga‐Socolar

et al. 2023

Insect Conserv Diversity

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Prescribed burning is a common management technique in tallgrass prairie remnants, but there have been few empirical studies that directly examine burning impacts on the nesting preferences and habitat of ground‐nesting bees. We used emergence traps in remnant tallgrass prairies in western Minnesota, USA to determine whether ground‐nesting bees prefer to nest in burned or unburned prairies. We estimated the total number of nests made by actively nesting bees in burned and unburned patches by assessing each specimen for wing and mandible wear, sex, and sociality. We also measured characteristics that may influence bee nesting preferences including bare ground, thatch depth, vegetative cover, and the floral community. We found more nests of actively nesting ground‐nesting bees in burned patches than unburned patches, but no differences in effective number of species of ground‐nesting bees or community composition. Burned patches had higher amounts of percent bare ground and a thinner thatch layer, but no differences in percent vegetative cover, floral abundance, flowering plant species richness, effective number of species of flowers or community composition. Our results suggest that ground‐nesting bees prefer to nest in burned patches of remnant tallgrass prairies and highlight opportunities for future research to better understand bee nesting ecology in response to prairie management.

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A review of global trends in the study types used to investigate bee nesting biology

Cited by 13 publications

References 46 publications

The importance of soil and vegetation characteristics for establishing ground-nesting bee aggregations

The importance of soil and vegetation characteristics for establishing ground-nesting bee aggregations

Contrasting effects of vineyard type, soil and landscape factors on ground‐ versus above‐ground‐nesting bees

Prescribed fire increases the number of ground‐nesting bee nests in tallgrass prairie remnants

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