Determinants of spatial distribution in a bee community : nesting resources, flower resources, and body size
Torné Noguera, Anna (Centre de Recerca Ecològica i d'Aplicacions Forestals)
Rodrigo Domínguez, Anselm (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Biologia Animal, de Biologia Vegetal i d'Ecologia)
Arnan, Xavier (Centre de Recerca Ecològica i d'Aplicacions Forestals)
Osorio-Canadas, Sergio (Centre de Recerca Ecològica i d'Aplicacions Forestals)
Barril-Graells, Helena (Centre de Recerca Ecològica i d'Aplicacions Forestals)
Rocha-Filho, Léo Correia da (Universidade de São Paulo. Departamento de Biologia)
Bosch, Jordi, 1961- (Centre de Recerca Ecològica i d'Aplicacions Forestals)

Date:	2014
Abstract:	Understanding biodiversity distribution is a primary goal of community ecology. At a landscape scale, bee communities are affected by habitat composition, anthropogenic land use, and fragmentation. However, little information is available on local-scale spatial distribution of bee communities within habitats that are uniform at the landscape scale. We studied a bee community along with floral and nesting resources over a 32 km2 area of uninterrupted Mediterranean scrubland. Our objectives were (i) to analyze floral and nesting resource composition at the habitat scale. We ask whether these resources follow a geographical pattern across the scrubland at bee-foraging relevant distances; (ii) to analyze the distribution of bee composition across the scrubland. Bees being highly mobile organisms, we ask whether bee composition shows a homogeneous distribution or else varies spatially. If so, we ask whether this variation is irregular or follows a geographical pattern and whether bees respond primarily to flower or to nesting resources; and (iii) to establish whether body size influences the response to local resource availability and ultimately spatial distribution. We obtained 6580 specimens belonging to 98 species. Despite bee mobility and the absence of environmental barriers, our bee community shows a clear geographical pattern. This pattern is mostly attributable to heterogeneous distribution of small (<55 mg) species (with presumed smaller foraging ranges), and is mostly explained by flower resources rather than nesting substrates. Even then, a large proportion (54. 8%) of spatial variability remains unexplained by flower or nesting resources. We conclude that bee communities are strongly conditioned by local effects and may exhibit spatial heterogeneity patterns at a scale as low as 500-1000 m in patches of homogeneous habitat. These results have important implications for local pollination dynamics and spatial variation of plant-pollinator networks.
Grants:	Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación BES-2010-042520 Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación CGL2009-12646 Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación CSD2008-0040 Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación CGL2005-00491
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Spatial distribution ; Bees ; Biodiversity
Published in:	PloS one, Vol. 9, Issue 5 (May 2014) , p. e97255, ISSN 1932-6203

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0097255
PMID: 24824445

10 p, 650.9 KB

The record appears in these collections:
Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > CREAF (Centre de Recerca Ecològica i d'Aplicacions Forestals)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles