Mark–recapture experiments reveal foraging behavior and plant fidelity of native bees in plant nurseries

Cecala, Jacob M.; Rankin, Erin E. Wilson

doi:10.1002/ecy.3021

Cited by 11 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 16 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Challenge: Small body sizes Because small-bodied bees are frequently captured in some index sampling methods, such as pan traps (Roulston et al 2007), future comparative work needs to tackle population estimates in these small-bodied groups. Our case study, as well as the work of Cecala & Wilson Rankin (2020), suggests that marking is feasible in these groups. Newer methods -including the use of microdots, protein powders, or genetic mark-recapture-may also improve the feasibility and precision of population estimates in small species.…”

Section: Challenges and Future Directionsmentioning

confidence: 74%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Estimating bee abundance: can mark-recapture methods validate common sampling protocols?

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Wild bees can be essential pollinators in natural, agricultural, and urban systems, but populations of some species have declined. Efforts to assess the status of wild bees are hindered by uncertainty in common sampling methods, such as pan traps and aerial netting, which may or may not provide a valid index of abundance across species and habitats. Mark-recapture methods are a common and effective means of estimating population size, widely used in vertebrates but rarely applied to bees. Here we review existing mark-recapture studies of wild bees and present a new case study comparing mark-recapture population estimates to pan trap and net capture for four taxa in a wild bee community. Net, but not trap, capture was correlated with abundance estimates across sites and taxa. Logistical limitations ensure that mark-recapture studies will not fully replace other bee sampling methods, but they do provide a feasible way to monitor selected species and measure the performance of other sampling methods.

show abstract

Section: Challenges and Future Directionsmentioning

confidence: 74%

“…The families Halictidae, Melittidae, and Stenotritidae were not sampled. However, one study that did not estimate population size collected mark-recapture data for three halictid speciesindicating that population estimates should be feasible for this bee family (Cecala & Wilson Rankin 2020).…”

Section: Target Speciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Estimating bee abundance: can mark-recapture methods validate common sampling protocols?

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…They host diverse, dynamic assemblages of containerised plants year-round (Pincetl et al, 2013), contrasting sharply with the monocultural swaths characterising most food crops (Holzschuh et al, 2011). Flowering ornamentals are known to serve as foraging resources for wild bees in urban areas (Frankie et al, 2005(Frankie et al, , 2019Pardee & Philpott, 2014;Baldock et al, 2019), but only recently are ecological interactions between ornamental plants and wild bees in nurseries garnering attention (Cecala & Wilson Rankin, 2020;Egerer et al, 2020). One potential reason that nurseries have been overlooked by agroecologists is the small proportion of land they occupy relative to other types of agricultural areas.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wild bee functional diversity and plant associations in native and conventional plant nurseries

Cecala

Rankin

2021

Ecological Entomology

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

1. An ongoing challenge in ecology is predicting how characteristics of communities correspond to habitat features. Examining variation in functional traits across species may reveal patterns not discernible from measures of mere abundance or richness. For beneficial insects like wild bees, functional trait-based approaches are often used to characterise communities in different agricultural habitats.2. However, no such approach has yet been applied in horticultural plant nurseries, which represent intensively managed artificial flowering plant assemblages. Certain nurseries mostly cultivate regionally native flowering plants, allowing one to test how differences between local plant assemblages may correlate with bee functional traits.3. We surveyed bee assemblages at native and conventional plant nurseries in southern California from spring through autumn over 2 years, while also documenting the native status of blooming plants in sampling plots. Bees were classified into different functional categories based on their diet breadth, nesting location, and social organisation.4. At native plant nurseries, we netted proportionally more specialist bee species and fewer generalist species than at conventional nurseries. Nesting location and social organisation of bee samples did not differ between nursery types. Meanwhile, landscape-level features were not associated with any observed functional trait metrics of bee collections. Furthermore, network-level specialisation of bee-plant interactions was higher at conventional nurseries.5. Our results suggest that a horticultural cultivation practice is quantifiably correlated with the functional distribution of resident bee assemblages. These results are important and encouraging to pollinator conservation efforts in nursery systems and other human-modified landscapes dominated by ornamental plants.

show abstract

“…Available alternative forage can diminish the impacts of neonicotinoids on solitary bees [ 13 ]. However, previous work on wild bee foraging in nurseries suggests high day-to-day fidelity to floral patches [ 6 ]. The composition of wild Megachile pollen provisions also suggests a narrow use of available flowering species [ 71 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Ornamental plant nurseries represent a major agricultural sector that remains relatively unexplored with regard to its support of local insect communities. While ornamental plants and the urban greenspaces they occupy are well known to serve as foraging resources for pollinators [1,2], the role of horticultural nurseries as bee foraging habitat has just recently received attention [3][4][5][6]. While these facilities occupy less land area than conventional row crops do [7], their high floral diversity [3][4][5] and the potential for exposure to elevated concentrations of insecticides in floral resources [8][9][10] render nurseries pertinent to study from the perspective of wild bee ecology.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pollinators and plant nurseries: how irrigation and pesticide treatment of native ornamental plants impact solitary bees

Cecala

Rankin

2021

Proc. R. Soc. B.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A key conservation goal in agroecosystems is to understand how management practices may affect beneficial species, such as pollinators. Currently, broad gaps exist in our knowledge as to how horticultural management practices, such as irrigation level, might influence bee reproduction, particularly for solitary bees. Despite the extensive use of ornamental plants by bees, especially little is known about how irrigation level may interact with insecticides, like water-soluble neonicotinoids, to influence floral rewards and bee reproduction. We designed a two-factor field cage experiment in which we reared Megachile rotundata (Fabricius) (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae) on containerized ornamental plants grown under two different irrigation levels and imidacloprid treatments (30% label rate dosage of a nursery formulation or an untreated control). Lower irrigation was associated with modest decreases in nectar volume and floral abundance in untreated plants, whereas irrigation did not affect plants treated with imidacloprid. Furthermore, higher irrigation decreased the amount of imidacloprid entering nectar. Imidacloprid application strongly reduced bee foraging activity and reproduction, and higher irrigation did not offset any negative effects on bees. Our study emphasizes the impact of a nursery neonicotinoid formulation on solitary bee foraging and reproduction, while highlighting interactions between irrigation level and neonicotinoid application in containerized plants themselves.

show abstract

Mark–recapture experiments reveal foraging behavior and plant fidelity of native bees in plant nurseries

Abstract: Citation: Cecala, J. M., and E. E. Wilson Rankin. 2020. Mark-recapture experiments reveal foraging behavior and plant fidelity of native bees in plant nurseries. Ecology 101(6):e03021.

Cited by 11 publications

References 16 publications

Estimating bee abundance: can mark-recapture methods validate common sampling protocols?

Estimating bee abundance: can mark-recapture methods validate common sampling protocols?

Wild bee functional diversity and plant associations in native and conventional plant nurseries

Pollinators and plant nurseries: how irrigation and pesticide treatment of native ornamental plants impact solitary bees

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About