Estimating crop pollinator population using mark–recapture method

Abstract

Xylocopa species are large solitary bees, which are effective pollinators of yellow passion fruit, a self-incompatible crop dependent on pollination for fruit production and economic viability. We tested the mark-recapture method to estimate these bees' population size in a passion fruit commercial orchard in Central Brazil. We collected data during 3 years and population was estimated as 118, 339, and 1,032 individuals. Population size and abundance of Xylocopa bees were higher in the last studied year. These bees maintained 32.5 % of natural fruit set, above economic viability levels, and higher than other commercial orchards, although population size showed no direct correlation with natural fruit set. Improvement of nesting site may explain population increase, reinforcing the importance of management. Our results showed that the markrecapture technique can provide reliable estimates of Xylocopa bees population size and, thus, be useful in monitoring population trends. Brazilian savanna / carpenter bee / Jolly-Seber method / Passiflora edulis f. flavicarpa / Xylocopa

Accessing the genetic content of Xylocopa frontalis bees (Apidae, Xylocopini) for sustainable management in pollination services of passion fruit

“…Our results from BOTTLENECK discard this possibility since ALEF presented the normal Lshaped curve after the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. We believe that heterozigozyte deficiency in ALEF could be due to higher inbreeding, since in this area X. frontalis is not an abundant species, according to population studies performed at the southeast Brazil (Yamamoto et al 2014).…”

“…Bees were removed from trap-nests and placed in modified plastic syringes (see Yamamoto et al 2014), and with the aid of scissors, the pretarsal and one or two tarsomeres were removed from the second pair of legs (Arias et al 2013) for DNA extraction using the Chelex method (Walsh et al 1991).…”

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

“…Similar approaches could be used in studies of bees to identify time periods during which the Jolly-Seber model is appropriate. Although none of the bee markrecapture studies that used the Jolly-Seber method plotted survivorship curves for their target species, some experiments were completed over a very short time period of time, as little as 8 days (Table I) (Tosta et al 2017;Yamamoto et al 2014). However, other studies that lasted weeks or months may be subject to more substantial impacts, and future work would benefit from explicit tests of age-dependent survival.…”

Honey bee surveillance: a tool for understanding and improving honey bee health

“…Application of standardized collection methods allows for ecological network analyses to help quantify the structure of beeplant networks in various landscapes [61][62][63][64]. When standardization is not possible (such as in the case of comparing changes in abundance and diversity over time by using historical collections), statistical analyses can help elucidate important drivers of changing populations, including changes in agricultural policy and practice [65], ecological succession [66], landscape [67] and climate change [68].…”