Concurrent effects of landscape context and managed pollinators on wild bee communities and canola (Brassica napus L.) pollen deposition
Date
2013-01-29
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Abstract
Both wild and managed bees can provide crop pollination, yet agricultural intensification has led to an increasing dependence on managed crop pollinators and the conversion of semi-natural areas to cultivated cropland, both of which affect the floral resources available to wild bees. Canola fields in southern Alberta were sampled for managed and wild bees, and landscape within a 3 km radius was classified. Abundance and diversity of wild bees, as well as pollen deposition in canola varied positively with the area of adjacent semi-natural habitat. Yet the effects of managed bees and landscape context were found to interact such that abundance of wild bees in landscapes with more semi-natural land declined more strongly over time with increased abundance of managed bees. Canola crops in more natural landscapes may have enhanced yields, but also greater impacts on wild-bee assemblages where managed bees are employed.
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Ecology
Citation
Zink, L. (2013). Concurrent effects of landscape context and managed pollinators on wild bee communities and canola (Brassica napus L.) pollen deposition (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/25411