Summary
The composition and dynamics of foraging assemblages of bees were examined from the standpoint of species-level arrival and departure processes in patches of flowers. Experiments with bees visiting 4 different species of flowers in subalpine meadows in Colorado gave the following results:
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1)
In enriched patches the rates of departure of bees were reduced, resulting in increases in both the number of bees per species and the average number of species present.
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2)
The reduction in bee departure rates from enriched patches was due to mechanical factors-increased flower handling time, and to behavioral factors-an increase in the number of flowers visited per inflorescence and in the number of inflorescences visited per patch. Bees foraging in enriched patches could collect nectar 30–45% faster than those foraging in control patches.
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3)
The quantitative changes in foraging assemblages due to enrichment, in terms of means and variances of species population sizes, fraction of time a species was present in a patch, and in mean and variance of the number of species present, were in reasonable agreement with predictions drawn from queuing theory and studies in island biogeography.
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4)
Experiments performed with 2 species of flowers with different corolla tube lengths demonstrated that manipulation of resources of differing availability had unequal effects on particular subsets of the larger foraging community.
The arrival-departure process of bees on flowers and the immigration-extinction process of species on islands are contrasted, and the value of the stochastic, species-level approach to community composition is briefly discussed.
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Wright, D.H. Patch dynamics of a foraging assemblage of bees. Oecologia 65, 558–565 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00379673
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00379673