Decline of bumble bees in northeastern North America, with special focus on Bombus terricola

Jacobson, Molly Mary; Tucker, Erika M.; Mathiasson, Minna E.; Rehan, Sandra M.

doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2017.11.026

Cited by 111 publications

(118 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…, Jacobson et al. ). However, because a large number of specimens are often collected from the same place on the same day, this can obfuscate the number of true records: unique species, place, and time occurrences (Bartomeus et al.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…, Jacobson et al. , Richardson et al. ), as well as from most of the continental USA (Cameron et al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In Europe, bumble bee species began to decline dramatically after the Second World War, particularly in more agriculturally intensified regions (Williams 1982, Kosior et al 2007, Casey et al 2015. In North America, regional declines have been reported from southern Ontario (Colla and Packer 2008), Illinois (Grixti et al 2009), Arkansas (Tripodi and Szalanski 2015), Oklahoma (Figueroa and Bergey 2015), the northeastern United States (Bartomeus et al 2013, Jacobson et al 2017, Richardson et al 2018, as well as from most of the continental USA (Cameron et al 2011). Compared to Europe, the temporal profile of these declines appears to be different.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Narrow pollen diets are associated with declining Midwestern bumble bee species

Wood

Gibbs

Graham

et al. 2019

Ecology

110

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Many species of bumble bee (Bombus) have declined in range and abundance across Europe, the Americas, and Asia, whereas other species have persisted and remain common and widespread. One explanation as to why some species have declined, based primarily on studies of the European bumble bee fauna, is that declining species have relatively narrow pollen‐foraging niches and are less able to use alternative host plants in the absence of their preferred hosts. Though extensively explored in Europe, this hypothesis has not been investigated in North America, in part due to incomplete information on the foraging niche of many species. We selected 12 bumble bee species found in Michigan and quantified their pollen diets using museum specimens. We also extensively resurveyed the state to understand their contemporary status and distribution. Compared to a pre‐2000 baseline, six species remain relatively common and widespread, whereas six species show range contractions of over 50%. There was a significant relationship between dietary breadth and distributional range change, with declined or declining species collecting around one‐third fewer pollen types than stable species. Though there were significant compositional differences, we found no differences in the number of pollen types collected by species with differing tongue lengths. Overall, these results support the hypothesis that species with narrower dietary niches are at greater risk of decline. However, it is not clear if narrow dietary niches are a cause of declines, or if both are driven by an underlying factor such as proximity to the edge of climatic niches. Further research is needed to improve our understanding of dietary niche in bumble bees, and how it interacts with other factors to influence population trajectories of stable and at‐risk species.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…, Jacobson et al. , Richardson et al. ), as well as from most of the continental USA (Cameron et al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Narrow pollen diets are associated with declining Midwestern bumble bee species

Wood

Gibbs

Graham

et al. 2019

Ecology

110

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“…Despite declines known on both regional and national levels, no unified monitoring protocol for bumble bee species abundance or distribution is currently in place in the United States. While a national approach was taken to survey bumble bees from 2007 to 2010 and developing a national native bee sampling protocol is recognized to be important (Lebuhn et al, 2012, but see Tepedino, Durham, Cameron, &Goodell, 2015 andLebuhn et al, 2015), most other recent efforts have either been regionally focused (Bushmann & Drummond, 2015;Colla & Packer, 2008;Figueroa & Bergey, 2015;Grixti, Wong, Cameron, & Favret, 2009;Jacobson, Tucker, Mathiasson, & Rehan, 2018;Koch et al, 2017;Tripodi & Szalanski, 2015) or do not include a systematic, contemporary survey component (Jacobson et al, 2018;Kerr et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterizing bumble bee (Bombus) communities in the United States and assessing a conservation monitoring method

Strange¹,

Tripodi²

2019

Ecology and Evolution

1,229

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AimBumble bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Bombus) are economically and ecologically important pollinators in agroecosystems and wildland habitats. In the Nearctic region, there are approximately 41 species, of which the IUCN lists twelve species as vulnerable, endangered, or critically endangered. We conducted a standardized faunal survey to inform ongoing conservation efforts including petitions under review for the Endangered Species Act. Furthermore, we test the appropriateness of a methodology for accurately sampling bumble bee communities.LocationThe United States of America, including 31 sites in 15 states.MethodsWe surveyed 15 states in the summer of 2015 to assess community composition and relative species abundance at agricultural and seminatural sites throughout the United States. We collected approximately 100 bees, using aerial nets, from each of 31 sites and identified specimens to species, totaling 3,252 bees. We assessed our survey methodology to understand whether it accurately sampled the potential community of bumble bees at each site for utility in future monitoring efforts.ResultsAverage site species richness was 5.1 ± 2.05, and we detected 30 of the 41 species documented historically within the contiguous United States. Sampling a site beyond 100 bees rarely added additional species detections, whereas adding additional sampling sites within an ecoregion frequently increased the species richness for the ecoregion. Thirteen of the 30 species we detected each accounted for <1% of the total fauna, and two species accounted for 49.02% of all bees captured. Species richness and evenness increased with increasing latitude across communities.Main ConclusionsSpecies diversity and evenness in bumble bees increases in northern latitudes and increasing elevation in the United States; however, a few common species tend to dominate communities while many species occur only in low numbers. The results of this survey effort can inform current conservation evaluations and planning.

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“…Biodiversity and abundance generally show latitudinal gradients although the causes of such differences among taxa are poorly known (Ball-Damerow, M'Gonigle, & Resh, 2014;Deutsch et al, 2008;Jacobson, Tucker, Mathiasson, & Rehan, 2018;Rohde, 1992;Tierno de Figueroa et al, 2010). Although a number of hypotheses have been proposed to account for such gradients, differences in life history such as generation time and differences in the relative importance of interspecific interactions have been hypothesized to be particularly important.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantifying rapidly declining abundance of insects in Europe using a paired experimental design

Møller

2020

Ecology and Evolution

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The abundance of insects has decreased for the last decades in many parts of the world although so far few studies have quantified this reduction because there have only been few baseline studies dating back decades that have allowed comparison of ancient and recent population estimates. Such a paired design is particularly powerful because it reduces or eliminates bias caused by differences in identity and experience of observers, identity of study sites, years, time of season, and time of day, and it ensures identity of sampling procedures. Here, I compiled information on the reduction in abundance of insects in Europe and Algeria by the same persons compiling the abundance of insects from the same 21 study sites during 1951–1997 and again a second time in 1998–2018. There was a reduction by 47% in the abundance of insects. The difference in abundance in old compared to new samples declined with latitude, with a significant variance among taxa. This reduction in abundance of insects was of such a magnitude that it must have consequences for insectivores and the role that insects play in ecosystems.

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Decline of bumble bees in northeastern North America, with special focus on Bombus terricola

Cited by 111 publications

References 58 publications

Narrow pollen diets are associated with declining Midwestern bumble bee species

Narrow pollen diets are associated with declining Midwestern bumble bee species

Characterizing bumble bee (Bombus) communities in the United States and assessing a conservation monitoring method

Quantifying rapidly declining abundance of insects in Europe using a paired experimental design

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