Causes of rarity in bumblebees

By Dave Goulson, Mick E. Hanley, Ben Darvill, J. Ellis, M. Knight. 2005

512 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Many bumblebee (Bombus) species are thought to have declined in abundance in the last 50 years, while a small number of species remain abundant. Here we examine which factors render some British bumblebee species more susceptible to environmental change than others. We present forage data on workers of 15 bumblebee species gathered from 172 one hour searches conducted at sites in southern UK, the Hebrides (western Scotland) and in New Zealand (to which UK bumblebees were introduced). We also review data on distribution, phenology and tongue length of these species. Overall, Fabaceae appear to be the major pollen source for most bumblebee species. In particular, long-tongued, late emerging species such as Bombus ruderatus, Bombus humilis and Bombus subterraneus specialize heavily in gathering pollen from Fabaceae, and this group of bumblebee species have all declined. Some of them are also at the edge of their geographic range in the UK, which may have rendered them more sensitive to environmental change. The decline of many bumblebee species is probably attributable largely to the loss of unimproved flower-rich grasslands, a habitat rich in Fabaceae. The bumblebee species that remain abundant are mostly short-tongued species that emerge early in the season and have less specialized diets; these species are very common in suburban gardens where they are able to exploit the broad range of floral resources. A third group of bumblebees are strongly associated with Ericaceae in moorland and heathland habitats, and have probably always had restricted distributions. A small number of species are not so easily categorised. Bombus soroeensis and B. ruderarius are not dietary specialists, nor are they close to the limit of their geographic range, but nevertheless they have declined. Much of the ecology of rare bumblebee species remains poorly understood and in need of further study.

Subfields: Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Nature and Landscape Conservation, Plant Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/828c763e72e6dcea67c2f8f9b271b4abc04d8fe1

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Citations in the corpus

Comparing the efficacy of agri‐environment schemes to enhance bumble bee abundance and diversity on arable field margins (2006, background): “This apparent specialization on plant species that have declined in the countryside, combined with proximity to their European range edges, may be the principal cause of rarity and decline in British bumble bees (Goulson et al. 2005; Williams 2005).”
Pollination and other ecosystem services produced by mobile organisms: a conceptual framework for the effects of land-use change. (2007, unknown): “The response of bee individuals, populations and communities to land-use change is largely driven by the spatial and temporal distribution of ﬂoral, nesting and over-wintering”
A field experiment on the effect of Nosema bombi in colonies of the bumblebee Bombus terrestris (2008, background): “The major causes of this decline are thought to relate to changes in the use of agricultural land ( Goulson et al. , 2005; Williams, 2005 ), but also the effects of parasites could play a role – at least, when they hit populations that are diminishing for other reasons.”
Breeding system, pollinator choice and variation in pollen quality in British herbaceous plants (2008, background): “Similarly, the recent rapid decline of Fabaceae-specialist bumblebees seems to be associated with the loss of species-rich, calcareous grasslands and hay meadows throughout Northern Europe (Goulson et al. 2005, 2006; Carvell et al. 2006).”
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).”
Interacting effects of farming practice and landscape context on bumble bees (2008, background): “…in rarity between bumble bee species is not clear, but has been attributed to differences in species traits such as diet (Goulson and Darvill, 2004), tongue length (Goulson et al., 2005), range size (Williams, 2005), foraging range (Benton, 2006) and emergence time (Fitzpatrick et al., 2007).”
Late-season mass-flowering red clover increases bumble bee queen and male densities (2014, unknown): “Red clover is one of the most favoured plants for bumble bee pollen and nectar foraging in summer (Carvell et al., 2006a; Goulson et al., 2005; Kleijn and Raemakers, 2008), but the relative portion of red clover pollen collected by bumble bees is today considerably lower compared to before the 1950s”
Local habitat characteristics but not landscape urbanization drive pollinator visitation and native plant pollination in forest remnants (2013, background): “Habitat loss might be expected to more strongly affect specialist bee species that rely on pollen from a single plant taxon, as has been documented for other trophic specialists in certain bee clades (Goulson et al., 2005; Kleijn and Raemakers, 2008).”
Do linear landscape elements in farmland act as biological corridors for pollen dispersal? (2010, background): “This type of habitat may also offer less nesting opportu- nities for insects and, combined with negative effect of pesti- cides, reduce pollinator service (Kells & Goulson 2003; Goulson et al. 2005).”
Ecological and life-history traits predict bee species responses to environmental disturbances (2010, background): “These same sorts of traits are likely to determine the sensitivity of species to anthropogenic disturbance (Lavorel and Garnier, 2002; Goulson et al., 2005; Larsen et al., 2005; Rundlöf et al., 2008; Jauker et al., 2009; Moretti et al., 2009).”
Quantifying variation among garden plants in attractiveness to bees and other flower‐visiting insects (2014, background): “6b) or the fact that tongue length variation among bumblebees had little effect in our gardens, despite reported effects being noted in the literature (Goulson et al. 2005; Goulson, Lye & Darvill 2008).”
Flower-strip agri-environment schemes provide diverse and valuable summer flower resources for pollinating insects (2018, background): “However, this family provides poor-quality and low-attractive pollen, that does not provide all the requisite essential amino acids, leading to poor larvae development for numerous insect species (Goulson et al. 2005; Hanley et al. 2008; Forcone et al. 2011; Nicolson and Human 2013; Somme et al. 201”
Evidence for decline in eastern North American bumblebees (Hymenoptera: Apidae), with special focus on Bombus affinis Cresson (2008, background): “Firstly, the loss of food plants with long corollas (such as legumes) has been implicated in the decline of long-tongued species (Williams 1988, 1989; Goulson et al. 2005; Carvell et al. 2006; Rasmont et al. 2006).”
Climatic Risk and Distribution Atlas of European Bumblebees (2015, background): “…2012; Hatten et al., 2013), (ii) shortage of flower resources (Peters, 1972; Williams, 1989; Rasmont & Mersch, 1988; Rasmont et al., 1993, 2005; Goulson et al., 2005, 2008a), (iii) killing by car traffic (Donath, 1986), (iv) overgrazing of bumblebee habitat by cattle (Özbek, 1995; Xie et al.,…”
Providing foraging resources for solitary bees on farmland: current schemes for pollinators benefit a limited suite of species (2017, background): “In the United Kingdom, much of the early work on agri-environment schemes focused on bumblebees (Bombus spp.), due in part to their particularly pronounced declines in agricultural areas (Goulson et al. 2005).”