Floral Resource Competition Between Honey Bees and Wild Bees: Is There Clear Evidence and Can We Guide Management and Conservation?

Wojcik, Victoria; Morandin, Lora A.; Adams, Laurie Davies; Rourke, K.

doi:10.1093/ee/nvy077

Cited by 74 publications

(62 citation statements)

References 79 publications

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“…This has implications for assessing competition between native bees and honeybees (Wojcik et al. ), because relative abundance of honeybees to native bees recorded will vary depending on the survey method used.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The relative performance of sampling methods for native bees: an empirical test and review of the literature

et al. 2020

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Many bee species are declining globally, but to detect trends and monitor bee assemblages, robust sampling methods are required. Numerous sampling methods are used, but a critical review of their relative effectiveness is lacking. Moreover, evidence suggests the relative effectiveness of sampling methods depends on habitat, yet efficacy in urban areas has yet to be evaluated. This study compared the bee community documented using observational records, targeted netting, mobile gardens, pan traps (blue and yellow), vane traps (blue and yellow), and trap‐nests. The comparative surveys of native bees and honeybees were undertaken in an urbanized region of the southwest Australian biodiversity hot spot. The outcomes of the study were then compared to a synthesis based on a comprehensive literature review of studies where two or more bee sampling methods were conducted. Observational records far exceeded all other methods in terms of abundance of bees recorded, but were unable to distinguish finer taxonomic levels. Of methods that captured individuals, thereby permitting taxonomic identification, targeted sweep netting vastly outperformed the passive sampling methods, yielding a total of 1324 individuals, representing 131 taxonomic units—even when deployed over a shorter duration. The relative effectiveness of each method differed according to taxon. From the analysis of the literature, there was high variability in relative effectiveness of methods, but targeted sweep netting and blue vane traps tended to be most effective, in accordance with results from this study. However, results from the present study differed from most previous studies in the extremely low catch rates in pan traps. Species using trap‐nests represented only a subset of all potential cavity‐nesters, and their relative abundances in the trap‐nests differed from those in the field. Mobile gardens were relatively ineffective at attracting bees. For urbanized habitat within this biodiversity hot spot, targeted sweep netting is indispensable for obtaining a comprehensive indication of native bee assemblages; passive sampling methods alone recorded only a small fraction of the native bee community. Overall, a combination of methods should be used for sampling bee communities, as each has their own biases, and certain taxa were well represented in some methods, but poorly represented in others.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The relative performance of sampling methods for native bees: an empirical test and review of the literature

et al. 2020

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“…Earlier studies showed that honeybees may compete with wild bees and other pollinators for resources (Henry and Rodet , Wojcik et al. ). The presence of honeybees within our sites may have changed the visitation rate and occurrence of other pollinators on our experimental plant plots.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plant–pollinator interactions along an urbanization gradient from cities and villages to farmland landscapes

et al. 2020

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Urbanization affects pollinator diversity and plant–pollinator networks by changing resource availability locally and in the surrounding landscape. We experimentally established (N = 12) standardized plant communities in farmland, villages, and cities to identify the relative role of local and landscape effects on plant–pollinator communities along this urbanization gradient. We found that the number of flower visits by solitary bees, but not bumblebees, was highest in cities and lowest in farmland, with villages being intermediate, whereas syrphid flies exhibited lowest numbers in cities. Villages supported the richest pollinator communities, as they appeared to benefit from both farmland and city communities. Plant–pollinator network metrics such as robustness, interaction evenness, and interaction diversity decreased with increasing urbanization, although local plant richness increased toward urban areas. In conclusion, pollinator communities were most diverse and stable in farmland and village sites, despite the high plant richness in cities. The different composition of pollinator communities along the urbanization gradient suggests considering all three landscape types for conservation schemes.

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“…These two morphological groups of Apidae and honey bees have similar dietary requirements, exploiting the same floral resources (pollen and nectar) [17,36]. As summarized in Wojcik et al 2018 [37], previous studies have found that adding honey bee colonies could negatively affect wild bees and particularly bumblebees especially due to this overlap in resource use. On the contrary, flies, syrphids and butterflies do not exclusively rely on floral resources, especially during their larval life-stage, which might explain the absence of negative interactions with honey bees [38].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wild pollinator activities negatively related to honey bee colony densities in urban context

Ropars

Dajoz

Fontaine

et al. 2019

Preprint

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As pollinator decline is increasingly reported in natural and agricultural environments, cities are perceived as shelters for pollinators because of low pesticide exposure and high floral diversity throughout the year. This has led to the development of environmental policies supporting pollinators in urban areas. However, policies are often restricted to the promotion of honey bee colony installations, which resulted in a strong increase in apiary numbers in cities. Recently, competition for floral resources between wild pollinators and honey bees has been highlighted in semi-natural contexts, but whether urban beekeeping could impact wild pollinators remains unknown. Here, we show that in the city of Paris (France), wild pollinator visitation rates is negatively correlated to honey bee colony densities present in the surrounding (500m – slope = −0.614; p = 0.001 – and 1000m – slope = −0.489; p = 0.005). More particularly, large solitary bees and beetles were significantly affected at 500m (respectively slope = −0.425, p = 0.007 and slope = - 0.671, p = 0.002) and bumblebees were significantly affected at 1000m (slope = - 0.451, p = 0.012). Further, lower interaction evenness in plant-pollinator networks was observed with honey bee colony densities within 1000 meter buffers (slope = −0.487, p = 0.008). Finally, honey bees tended to focus their foraging activity on managed rather than spontaneous plant species (student t-test, p = 0.001) whereas wild pollinators equally visited managed and spontaneous species. We advocate responsible practices mitigating the introduction of high density of hives in urban environments. Future studies are needed to deepen our knowledge about the potential negative interactions between wild and domesticated pollinators.

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Floral Resource Competition Between Honey Bees and Wild Bees: Is There Clear Evidence and Can We Guide Management and Conservation?

Cited by 74 publications

References 79 publications

The relative performance of sampling methods for native bees: an empirical test and review of the literature

The relative performance of sampling methods for native bees: an empirical test and review of the literature

Plant–pollinator interactions along an urbanization gradient from cities and villages to farmland landscapes

Wild pollinator activities negatively related to honey bee colony densities in urban context

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