Biotope Associations and the Decline of Bumblebees (Bombus spp.)
By Dave Goulson, Michael E. Hanley, Ben Darvill, Jonathan S. Ellis. Journal of Insect Conservation, 2006
118 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Much of the ecology of rare bumblebee species remains poorly understood and in need of further study. It has recently been suggested that differences in the range and rate of decline among bumblebee species may relate to differences in their degree of habitat specialization. We examine biotope use by 17 bumblebee species in the Hebrides, southern UK and South Island, New Zealand. We identify a cluster of widespread and abundant species that occur in almost all biotopes and exploit man-made environments such as gardens and arable margins, this group corresponding to the “mainland ubiquitous” species of previous studies. A second grouping of species includes those associated to varying degrees with heathland. It is notable that some species occupy markedly different biotopes in different parts of their range; for example B. soroeensis is found largely on upland heaths in the Hebrides, but on calcareous grassland in the south. Some species, such as B. subterraneus and B. distinguendus, now survive only in specific rare biotopes and could be mistaken for habitat specialists, but it is clear from their historic distributions that they formerly occupied a broader range of biotopes. Surviving populations of several of the species that have declined most (B. distinguendus, B. sylvarum, B. muscorum sladeni, B. humilis) exhibit a markedly coastal distribution, when once they were widespread inland. We suggest that this is probably simply because some coastal biotopes are less amenable to agricultural improvement, and so more have escaped the detrimental effects of intensive farming. Our results concur with previous suggestions that bumblebees are generally not habitat specialists, so that the conservation of most bumblebee species could be achieved by restoration of flower-rich unimproved meadows.
Subfields: Ecological Modeling, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Nature and Landscape Conservation
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/76c3e750a4c0bdfa24722aa4f693d78f5f89a4f8
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Citations in the corpus
- Cryptic species diversity in a widespread bumble bee complex revealed using mitochondrial DNA RFLPs (2008, background): “…Apidae, genus Bombus) are of great ecological and economic importance in temperate terrestrial ecosystems as major pollinators yet they are a currently declining group (Williams 1986, 2005; Kearns et al. 1998; Goulson 2003; Goulson et al. 2005, 2006; Carvell et al. 2006; Fitzpatrick et al. 2007).”
- Breeding system, pollinator choice and variation in pollen quality in British herbaceous plants (2008, background): “Although it is well known that many pollinators, including honeybees and bumblebees, exhibit fidelity towards certain flowers (reviewed in Goulson 2003; Cane & Sipes 2006), we understand very little about the role of pollen quality in this relationship.”
- Evidence for decline in eastern North American bumblebees (Hymenoptera: Apidae), with special focus on Bombus affinis Cresson (2008, background): “In parts of Europe, many bumblebee species have been observed to be undergoing drastic decline while others remain abundant (Williams 1982; Rasmont 1995; Westrich 1996; Goulson 2003; Sarospataki et al. 2005; Goulson et al. 2006; Fitzpatrick et al. 2007).”
- Diet breadth, coexistence and rarity in bumblebees (2008, background): “Based on studies of forage use by UK bumblebee species, Goulson et al. (2005, 2006) argue that the rare species tend to be long tongued and have narrower diets, with a very large proportion of the pollen they collect being from Fabaceae.”