Habitat area but not habitat age determines wild bee richness in limestone quarries

By Jochen Krauss, Thomas Alfert, I. Steffan‐Dewenter. 2009

103 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Summary 1 Within highly modified European landscapes, limestone quarries can act as important secondary habitats for a range of endangered wild bee species. However, the relative influence of quarry habitat area, habitat age and within-habitat diversity on the conservation value of these secondary habitats is mainly unknown. 2 We assessed species richness and abundance of wild bees by variable transect walks in 24 limestone quarries ranging in size from 0·01 to 21·2 ha. Species traits such as social status, resource specialization and nesting substrate were used to define functional guilds of bees. 3 In total, 41% of all wild bee species known from southern Lower Saxony, Germany, were found in the studied quarries. Total species richness increased with habitat area but, in contrast to our expectations, not with habitat age, although we tested an age gradient of over 120 years. Solitary species were more strongly affected by decreasing habitat area than social species but response did not differ with respect to habitat age. 4 Hierarchical partitioning analyses revealed that habitat area per se, within-habitat diversity and sampling effort were of similar importance in explaining species richness patterns. 5 Synthesis and applications. Even newly created limestone quarries provide an important secondary habitat for wild bees. Therefore, maintenance and management of secondary succession of these sites should be given high priority in species conservation plans. Landscape management schemes involving filling or flooding such quarries should be prevented.

Subfields: Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Genetics, Insect Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/2eb86dc283a60f93c6d20d533fbb72f7c6813aa9

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

In Genetics

In Insect Science

Citations in the corpus

Biodiversity, species interactions and ecological networks in a fragmented world (2012, background): “In bees (Box 4), relationships between habitat loss and species traits have been intensively studied (Krauss et al., 2009; Moretti et al., 2009; SteffanDewenter et al., 2006), with diet width and sociality being especially important (Aizen and Feinsinger, 1994a,b; Klein et al.”
Native Pollinators in Anthropogenic Habitats (2011, background): “Most of these studies find that the loss of seminatural habitats has negative effects on pollinators of various taxa (Kleijn & van Langevelde 2006, Krauss et al. 2009, Krauss & Steffan-Dewenter 2003, Sjodin et al. 2008; see Supplemental Tables 5–7).”
Factors affecting bee communities in forest openings and adjacent mature forest (2017, background): “…size, with studies reporting positive relationships with patch area (Aizen and Feinsinger, 1994; Bommarco et al., 2010; Diaz-Forero et al., 2013; Krauss et al., 2009; Meyer et al., 2007; Rubene et al., 2015), no relationships (Brosi et al., 2008), or mixed responses by guild (Cane et al., 2006;…”