PARENT SESSION
Contributed Oral Session 137: Agroecology: Pest Control, Dispersal, and Pollination
Thursday, August 11, 1:30 PM - 5:00 PM, Meeting Room 519 A, Level 5, Palais des congrès de Montréal
Bee communities in human-dominated tropical landscapes.
Brosi, Berry*,1, Daily, Gretchen1, Ehrlich, Paul1, 1 Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
ABSTRACT- Conservation science needs a much better understanding of the degree to which human-dominated landscapes support biological diversity and ecological services, and how this support can be efficiently sustained and augmented. Bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) are an ideal study taxon for this effort because they reflect both biodiversity and the ecosystem service of pollination. We investigated bee communities in pastures in southern Costa Rica countryside varying across three factors: distance to forest, pasture tree management, and flowering plant resources. Bee communities were sampled with pan traps and aerial netting; flowering plant resources were measured with line transects. We are continuing to analyze our data, but preliminary results show: 1) similar species richness, diversity, and abundance across all study factors; 2) increases in the proportions of introduced honeybees Apis mellifera with decreasing density of pasture trees and increasing distance from forest; 3) changes in bee tribal composition among distance and pasture classes; and 4) differences in the proportion of sampled bees carrying pollen with distance from forest and pasture type. This work forms part of a foundation for designing biodiversity and ecosystem service conservation strategies on working landscapes in the tropics.
Key words: bees, pollination, human-dominated habitats, tropical landscape ecology