Wild Bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea: Anthophila) of the Michigan Highbush Blueberry Agroecosystem
By Julianna K. Tuell, J. Ascher, R. Isaacs. 2009
113 citations recorded by the source corpus.
ABSTRACT Highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum L.) is a native North American crop dependent upon pollen movement by bees for high fruit set and large berries. Commercial blueberry farms use honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) to provide pollination services, but there is concern regarding their long-term sustainability as crop pollinators. We conducted a 3-yr study at 15 farms to identify the bee community associated with the blueberry agroecosystem in Michigan to improve our understanding of this community and to better target conservation practices. Pan trapping and direct observation were used to determine the relative abundance and diversity of wild bees before, during, and after bloom. We found at least 166 species, representing 30 genera and five families, 112 of which were active during bloom. Most bees captured were solitary, soil-nesting bees. Most species were from subfamily Halictinae (family Halictidae) and genus Andrena (family Andrenidae). Andrena Carolina Viereck, a specialist on Ericaceae, was the most abundant native bee species collected during blueberry bloom. Several native Osmia species that were present in low abundance during bloom are potential targets for management. Honey bees were more often captured in white than in yellow traps, regardless of trap position in the field. Wild bees were more often captured in field perimeters than interiors, but they did not respond differentially to trap color. We report seven new state records for Michigan, including significant range extensions, and three new floral record associations. Implications for the conservation of native bees in this agricultural system are discussed.
Subfields: Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Genetics, Insect Science
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/fe9905cb8a48c68fe3dd4657f98d1b0dc0bac195
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In Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
In Insect Science
Citations in the corpus
- On managing the red mason bee (Osmia bicornis) in apple orchards (2011, unknown): “…as pollinators of crops (Bosch and Blas 1994; Vicens and Bosch 2000; Bosch and Kemp 2002; Bili ń ski and Teper 2004; Ladurner et al. 2004; Giejdasz et al. 2005; Tepedino et al. 2007; Beil et al. 2008; Ladurner et al. 2008; Oliveira and Schlindwein 2009; Teper and Bilinski 2009; Tuell et al. 2009).”
- Comparative Trapping Efficiency to Characterize Bee Abundance, Diversity, and Community Composition in Apple Orchards (2015, background): “In the past, white color pan traps had been found to catch significantly higher number of honey bees than the yellow colored pan traps, but were not significantly different from each other for trapping wild bee species (Tuell et al. 2009).”