Question

how different types of land cover are correlated with different abundances of wild bees?

Answer 1

The answer to your query is as follows:

Different types of land cover are correlated with different abundances of wild bees.

• Research was done in 19 urban agricultural sites. It was found that the land cover and local site variables play a very important role in affecting the wild bee population and the pollination services performed by them.
• The abundance of wild bees gave different responses to landscape and local scale variables based on two important factors. The first factor on which it dependent was body size and the other was nesting habit.
• Some large-bodied bees for example, Bombus and Apis honey bee species showed positive association with the increasing amounts of impervious or impenetrable cover.
• Some small-bodied soil nesting honey bee species like Halictus were found in abundance as the proportion of flower area increased as a local variable.
• With the increase in the impenetrable cover, the bee richness declined and the bee community composition changed with respect to the increasing impervious cover.
• Pollination services were also declined when measured at each site. Thus, a suggestion was given to urban planning strategies to minimize the impervious cover at large scale to improve the conservation of honey bee bee and pollination services at the urban agricultural sites.
• Land managers should also pay some attention on increasing the floral resources, as it will increase the food and nesting resources for smaller bee species.
• The habitat composition strongly affects the abundance of the bee at the landscape scale. As the natural areas increases, the abundance and richness of wild bees also increases.
• For example, forest habitats can act as a complete collection of resources particularly important for providing nesting habitat. The trees in the forest and the herbaceous plants can play a very important role in increasing pollination by offering pollen and can act as a nectar resource in the early spring season.

Hope it helps!