PARENT SESSION
Organized Oral Session 14: Ecology of arable plants: Linking invertebrate and weed population dynamics
Organizer(s): J Cussans, A Mauchline, and K Gross
Tuesday, August 9, 8:00 AM - 11:30 AM, Meeting Room 511a, Level 5, Palais des congrès de Montréal
Flowering plants associated with the spatial distribution and abundnace of bees and parasitic wasps in cultivated vaccinium agriculture...lowbush blueberry and cranberry.
drummond, francis*,1, woods, steve 1, stubbs, constance 1, loose, jenifer2, karem, joseph1, 1 University of Maine, orono, ME, United States2 Massachusetts Department of Natural Resources, boston, MA, United States
ABSTRACT- Blueberry and cranberry are both native North American plants cultivated for fruit production. In 1997, 1998, and 2004 non-crop floral resources, bees, and parasitic and predaceous wasps were sampled in lowbush blueberry fields and cranberry bogs in Massachusetts and Maine. Sampling was conducted along both horizontal and vertical transects. In both blueberry and cranberry bee abundance and wasp abundance was positively correlated with flowering plant diversity along field edges. Throughout blueberry fields, 85 percent of bees captured (50 species) were trapped at ground level, whereas, wasps were trapped at all heights with 58 percent of the total wasps captured at 7 and 14m above the ground. Bees tended to aggregate along field edges where floral resources were also highest. The relative abundance of wasps was found to be significantly higher at the edge and in the woods compared to the center of fields. During both seasons, overall wasp abundance was positively associated with a common flowering weed, sheep laurel. Wasp morphospecies were also identified from wasp captures. Morphs were positively associated with various flowering weeds in addition to sheep laurel. Specific groups of morphs appear to respond to the same flowering plants as foraging guilds. In addition, many morphs were found to be part of a groups distributed spatially within blueberry fields in similar patterns or communities. No two wasp morphospecies identified in the same foraging guild were also found in the same community. This may be an example of how stable wasp communities are maintained, by partitioning of floral resources.
Key words: floral resources, blueberry, wasp, bee