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Paleomodeling reveals priority areas for conservation of stingless bees from the Caatinga region, a neotropical dry forest

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Abstract

Conserving pollinators has been a concern and priority for ecological programs around the world, since these animals play a major role in forest ecosystems. Bees are among the main pollinators of these ecosystems. Here we used paleomodeling to infer refuge areas that putatively concentrate high levels of genetic diversity for stingless bees and that would be priorities for conservation of these pollinators within Caatinga, a seasonally dry forest in Neotropical Dry Diagonal. In this sense, a total of 319 records of 10 species was used to build species models for the current days, Mid-Holocene and Last Glacial Maximum periods using MaxEnt algorithm. The results indicated climatically-stable areas (i.e., refuges) for each stingless bee species, where higher levels of historical genetic diversity are expected in the Caatinga. Moreover, a large continuous range of suitable areas for the assemblage in the Caatinga, divided into four main refuges, which likely concentrate high levels of genetic diversity for these pollinators, were observed. Considering that the Caatinga is threatened and has experienced an increase of deforestation in recent years, this inference of refuge areas should be useful to direct the choice of new conservation units. Our results also provide spatial insights for future phylogeographic studies involving these insects, which are recommended and might reinforce these findings. Conservation policies directed at preserving pollinating species may be an effective mechanism for preserving the biodiversity in the threatened Caatinga.

Implications for insect conservation

Our study inferred four main refuge areas within this region that putatively concentrate high diversity for stingless bees, which should be considered as a priority in conservation strategies in the threatened Caatinga. In addition, we suggest evaluating the creation of new Conservation Units considering refuges areas proposed to the assembly of pollinators from this Neotropical dry forest, since this region exhibits high levels of species richness and endemism.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Jamile Gomes Miranda and Ana Clara Araújo for helping in bee records search for some species. We thank Dr. Rogério Alves, Marcos de Andrade and all beekeepers for providing records of occurrences for some species. We thank Dr. Marco A. Del Lama for comments on an earlier version of this manuscript.

Funding

EAM Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) for his postdoctoral fellowship (154912/2016-6 and 151193/2019-3 PDJ-CNPq); MAC thanks CNPq for a productivity fellowship (CNPq-311790/2019-4).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia da Bahia - IFBA, Campus de Irecê, Bahia, Brazil

    Elder Assis Miranda

  2. Departamento de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz, Ilhéus, Bahia, Brazil

    Elder Assis Miranda & Marco Antonio Costa

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  1. Elder Assis Miranda
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  2. Marco Antonio Costa
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E.A.M. wrote the main manuscript, made all analysis and prepared figures, tables and reviewed the manuscript; MAC wrote the main manuscript and reviewed the text. All authors contributed to the study conception and design.

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Correspondence to Elder Assis Miranda.

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Miranda, E.A., Costa, M.A. Paleomodeling reveals priority areas for conservation of stingless bees from the Caatinga region, a neotropical dry forest. J Insect Conserv 28, 369–377 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10841-023-00536-1

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