Diversity and abundance of solitary and primitively eusocial bees in an urban centre: a case study from Northampton (England)

Abstract

The apparent reduction of solitary and primitively eusocial bees populations has remained a huge concern over the past few decades and urbanisation is considered as one of the factors affecting bees at different scales depending on bee guild. As urbanisation is increasing globally it necessitates more research to understand the complex community dynamics of solitary and primitively eusocial bees in urban settings. We investigated the urban core of a British town for diversity and abundance of solitary bees using standardized methods, and compared the results with nearby meadows and nature reserves. The study recorded 48 species within the town, about 22 % of the total species and 58 % of the genera of solitary bees in the United Kingdom. Furthermore we found the urban core to be more diverse and abundant in solitary and primitively eusocial bees compared to the meadows and nature re-serves. Of particular note was an urban record of the nationally rare Red Data Book species Coelioxys quadridentata and its host Anthophora quadrimaculata. This research demonstrates that urban settings can contribute significantly to the conservation of solitary and primitively eusocial bees in Britain.

City parks vs. natural areas - is it possible to preserve a natural level of bee richness and abundance in a city park?

“…Many researchers report that natural habitats display greater diversity of pollinators compared to urban areas (McIntyre and Hostetler 2001;Eremeeva and Sushchev 2005;Matteson et al 2008;Ahrné et al 2009). At the same time, data provided by other authors show that cities are important habitats for a considerable number of bee species (Saure 1996;Frankie et al 2005;Banaszak-Cibicka and Żmihorski 2012;Frankie et al 2013;Baldock et al 2015;Cariveau and Winfree 2015;Sirohi et al 2015;Threlfall et al 2015;Hall et al 2017;Normandin et al 2017), and urbanization has a lesser effect on bees than on other insects (Deguines et al 2012). For instance, urban parks in San Francisco, USA, support higher mean abundances of bumblebees (Bombus spp.)…”

“…Over the past decade, several studies have assessed bee community richness and/or abundance in urban areas (Eremeeva and Sushchev 2005;McFrederick and LeBuhn 2006;Ahrné et al 2009;Matteson and Langellotto 2010;Banaszak-Cibicka and Żmihorski 2012;Sirohi et al 2015). Some were comparing bee richness and abundance between urban and natural landscapes (McKinney 2008;Baldock et al 2015).…”

Garden Pollinators and the Potential for Ecosystem Service Flow to Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture

“…In fact, the abundance and diversity of bees visiting urban gardens and street trees have been observed to approach, and even exceed, numbers in adjacent wild land [27][28][29][30]. This is likely because cities, unlike intensive agricultural systems, can contain exceptionally rich small patches of flowering plants [31], resulting in a high degree of plant species diversity within properties (α-diversity) between properties (β-diversity), and in aggregate across the city (γ-diversity) [32][33][34].…”

Protecting an Ecosystem Service

“…These approaches could be combined in either highly parameterised 1153 process-based models or more generic conceptual models to explore to what extent different 1154 actions deployed in different scenarios at landscape scales meet biodiversity protection goals 1155 or alter the delivery of more sustainable agriculture Lonsdorf et al, 1156Lonsdorf et al, 2009see: www.naturalcapitalproject.org/InVEST.html). 1157 provide pollinator services has increased in recent years (Baldock et al, 2015;Bates et al, 1163Bates et al, 2011Bonaszak & Zmihorski, 2012;Geslin et al, 2013;Hernandez et al, 2009;Ireneusz-1164Hennig & Ghazoul, 2012Sirohi et al, 2015). Pollinator services provided by insects in urban 1165 areas include pollination for urban food production (i.e.…”

“…subsistence growing of vegetables 1166 and fruits) and pollination of native plant species that grow in urban areas, as well as 1167 providing aesthetic value to people desiring interaction with nature on their doorstep. Urban 1168 habitats can harbour important insect pollinator diversity, with the pollinator fauna of our 1169 towns and cities being at least as diverse as those of the surrounding countryside (Baldock et 1170(Baldock et al, 2015Sirohi et al, 2015). Considering that urbanised land cover in many countries has 1171 greatly expanded in the past few decades (for example, across UK (National Ecosystem 1172 Assessment 2011) and Europe (Gerard et al, 2010)), and that globally the proportion of 1173 people living in urban areas now exceeds 50% (UNFPA 2007), it is perhaps surprising that 1174 we know relatively little about the impact of towns and cities on insect pollinator populations, 1175 communities and networks (Geslin et al, 2013).…”