Vertical diversity patterns and biotic interactions of trap-nesting bees along a fragmentation gradient of small secondary rainforest remnants

Abstract

-Secondary rainforest remnants might contribute to biodiversity conservation and preservation of healthy interspecific interactions with ongoing fragmentation. We studied the vertical distribution of trap-nesting bees along a fragmentation gradient of secondary forest remnants in Costa Rica. Fragment size did not affect bee abundance, diversity, and parasitism and mortality rates. However, height and edge effects influenced bee communities. Bees were more abundant in the canopy and the understory compared to an intermediate height, and bee diversity was higher in the canopy. Tree location (forest edge, intermediate distance, forest center) did not affect abundance but did affect bee diversity since most species preferred the forest interior. The cuckoo bees Aglaomelissa duckei and Coelioxys sp. 1 only partly followed their hosts' patterns, two Centris species. We conclude that an increasing amount of edge habitat will have negative consequences for bee communities and will reduce the conservation value of secondary forest fragments. fragmentation effects / parasitism rate / mortality rate / secondary forest fragments / vertical stratification

Male Orchid Bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Euglossini) in Canopy and Understory of Amazon Várzea Floodplain Forest. I. Microclimatic, Seasonal and Faunal Aspects

“…Sobek et al (2009) reported spatial stratification in the abundance of cavity-nesting bees and wasps and their parasitoids as well as higher parasitism rates in the canopy than the understory in temperate deciduous forests in Germany. In a study on the vertical distribution of trapnesting bees along a fragmentation gradient of secondary forest remnants in Costa Rica, Stangler et al (2016) found that bees were more abundant in the canopy and understory in comparison to an intermediate height but the diversity was higher in the canopy.…”

Trap-nesting Bees Communities from Protected Areas of Atlantic Forest, Southeastern Brazil

“…This factor probably influenced the lower species richness than wellpreserved areas, such as Ilhabela and Boraceia, because the values between 35-50% of non-native forest is considered the threshold that affects the richness of bee species and beeplant interaction networks (Winfree et al, 2009;Moreira et al, 2015;Ferreira et al, 2015;Saturni et al, 2016). Moreover, Cantareira is an isolated fragment surrounded by a metropolis, and this is pointed out that with increasing isolation of fragmented habitats the bee species richness declines significantly mainly due to the decrease in food sources and nesting sites (Tscharntke et al, 1998;Morato & Campos, 2000;Steckel et al, 2014;Stangler et al, 2016). Our results reinforce that ongoing fragmentation and deforestation affect diversity of trap-nesting bee communities even in dense vegetation as Atlantic Forest.…”

“…After that, this technique has gained an application to agriculture as a means of increasing the solitary bee as crop pollinators (Bosch & Kemp, 2001;Pitts-Singer & Cane, 2011;Sedivy & Dorn, 2014). This methodology also allowed to investigate the influence of landscape composition on trapnesting bee fauna (Tscharntke et al, 1998;Morato & Campos 2000;Steckel et al, 2014;Stangler et al, 2016). However, nothing is known about the effects of landscape composition on this bee fauna in Atlantic Forest.…”

“…In tropical countries trap-nesting bee species have been recorded in agroecosystems and forest fragments (Camillo et al, 1995;Morato & Campos, 2000;Viana et al, 2001;Klein et al, 2002;Alves-dos-Santos, 2003;Thiele, 2005;Buschini, 2006;Tylianakis et al, 2005;Klein et al, 2006;Pereira-Peixoto et al, 2014;Stangler et al, 2016). In Atlantic Forest, studies on the diversity of trap-nesting bee species and nesting biology were carried out mainly in Semideciduous vegetation (Garófalo, 2000;2008;Gazola & Garófalo, 2009;Rocha-Filho & Garófalo, 2015;Oliveira & Gonçalves, 2017) or forest urban remnants (Alves-dos-Santos, 2003;Loyola & Martins, 2006).…”

What do we know about Neotropical trap‑nesting bees? Synopsis about their nest biology and taxonomy

“…As a consequence of the successful use of traps, studies are common worldwide, with over 1,300 results in Google (January 2018). Traps are used for many reasons, including to sample and monitor cavity nesting species and their predators , to compare habitats among different regions , to examine altitudinal gradients and vertical stratification (Morato, 2001b;Stangler et al, , 2016, to detect responses to fragmentation (Stangler et al, , 2016Rocha-Filho et al, 2017) and urbanization (Pereira-Peixoto et al, 2014), to promote pollination and pollinator conservation (MacIvor & Packer, 2015) and to study the nest biology and behavior of particular groups (Rocha-Filho & Garófalo, 2016a,b;.…”