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Effects of an early mass-flowering crop on wild bee communities and traits in power line corridors vary with blooming plants and landscape context

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Abstract

Context

Power line corridors have been repeatedly assessed as habitat for wild bees; however, few studies have examined them as bee habitat relative to nearby crop fields and surrounding landscape context.

Objectives

We surveyed bee communities in power line corridors near to and isolated from lowbush blueberry fields in two landscape contexts in Maine, U.S.A. We examined the influences of blooming plant abundance and diversity and bee life-history traits including sociality, nesting preference, and body size.

Methods

We surveyed wild bees and blooming plants in power line corridors from 2013 to 2015. We calculated landscape composition surrounding sites at multiple scales and gathered bee trait information from the literature. We assessed differences in bee communities owing to landscape context with generalized linear models.

Results

We collected 125 wild bee species and observed a rare plant-pollinator relationship within power line corridors. We found greater bee abundance and species richness throughout a complex, resource-rich landscape, while mass-flowering lowbush blueberry fields enhanced bee species richness only in a simple, resource-poor landscape. Landscape composition and blooming plant diversity varied with landscape context, though only landscape composition influenced bee communities. Solitary and ground-nesting species were more sensitive to landscape context than social or cavity-nesting species.

Conclusions

Power line corridors provide crucial refugia for crop pollinating wild bees in agricultural landscapes with resource-poor natural habitat, while bees may selectively forage in power line corridors within agricultural landscapes containing resource-rich natural habitat. We found high-quality forage within corridors; quantifying nesting resources could clarify corridor use by wild bees.

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Data availability

Not applicable, see Acknowledgements.

Code availability

Not applicable, see Acknowledgements.

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Acknowledgements

Thanks to J Eddy, S Kenney, R Jackson, C Thomes, and D Phipps for fieldwork assistance and to landowners for granting sampling permission. This work was funded by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture—Specialty Crops Research Initiative [Grant Number 2011-51181-30673], Northeast Sustainable Agriculture and Research Education [Grant Number GNE14-076], the University of Maine and Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife through the Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Geological Survey Maine Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit. This project was partially supported by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Hatch Project number ME0-50502 through the Maine Agricultural and Forest Experiment Station. This is Maine Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station Journal Number 3884. This manuscript was improved with review by Dr. Kim Russell. At the time of publication, portions of data sets created in this study but omitted from the manuscript tables have limited availability (i.e., ongoing work, proprietary, or sensitive). Contact Brianne Du Clos for more information about availability of data sets. Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.

Funding

Funding was provided by USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture—Specialty Crops Research Initiative (2011-51181-30673), USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Hatch through the Maine Agricultural and Forest Experiment Station (ME0-21505), University of Maine and Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife through the Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Geological Survey Maine Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, and Northeast SARE (GNE14-076).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Conservation Biology, University of Maine, 5755 Nutting Hall, Orono, ME, 04469-5755, USA

    Brianne Du Clos

  2. Professor Emeritus, School of Biology and Ecology, University of Maine, 5751 Murray Hall, Orono, ME, 04469-5751, USA

    Francis A. Drummond

  3. Professor Emeritus, University of Maine Cooperative Extension, University of Maine, 5722 Deering Hall, Orono, ME, 04469-5722, USA

    Francis A. Drummond

  4. U.S. Geological Survey, Maine Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, 5755 Nutting Hall, Orono, ME, 04469-5755, USA

    Cynthia S. Loftin

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  1. Brianne Du Clos
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BD, FD, and CL designed the experiment, BD conducted fieldwork and analyses and wrote the manuscript, FD and CL contributed to the analyses and manuscript and financially supported the research.

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Correspondence to Brianne Du Clos.

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Du Clos, B., Drummond, F.A. & Loftin, C.S. Effects of an early mass-flowering crop on wild bee communities and traits in power line corridors vary with blooming plants and landscape context. Landsc Ecol 37, 2619–2634 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-022-01495-9

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