Assessment of the foraging and nesting conditions for solitary bees and bumblebees, and their distribution in a Danish agricultural landscape
Research output: Working paper › Research
In a survey April through November 1997, a total of 72 solitary bee species and 19 bumblebee species were recorded in the semi-natural habitats of a Danish conventional agricultural landscape. The majority of the solitary non-inquiline bee species (59) were polylectic, but four oligoleges of Salix and six oligoleges of other plant families were recorded. The plant community of the studied area is typical of nutrient-rich soils of a conventional farmland, with annuals and vigorous species that benefit from fertilisers dominating the flora. Abundant and widespread mellitophilous plant species were all ones that may sustain a species rich but polylecticly dominated bee fauna. Abundance of solitary bees and bumblebees were correlated with mellitophilous plant coverage in south-facing areas, whereas no correlation was found for honeybees. Furthermore, abundance of honeybees was not correlated with abundance of other bees. Bee species richness could not be explained by plant species richness or coverage in a multiple regression. Habitat parameters in a generalised linear model were able to predict abundance of males and inquilines, a measure of nest abundances in the habitats.
| Original language | English |
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| Place of Publication | Department of Population Ecology, University of Copenhagen |
| Pages | 19-60 |
| Number of pages | 42 |
| Publication status | Published - 2000 |
ID: 9913953