Artificial Nesting Hills Promote Wild Bees in Agricultural Landscapes

SIMPLE SUMMARY: The majority of wild bees nest underground in the soil. Many of these species are threatened by loss of habitat. Adequate nesting sites are particularly limited in agricultural landscapes. We therefore established 20 artificial nesting hills in Germany to promote ground-nesting bees. A detailed construction guide for the hills is presented. On the basis of our study results, we recommend the establishment of hills on sun-exposed sites and to ensure their existence for many years. We constructed hills from local soil with dimensions of 9 × 3 × 1.6 m. During a two-year bee monitoring initiative, we recorded a high diversity of soil-nesting bee species. We conclude that artificial nesting hills can act as a valuable nesting resource for wild bees. ABSTRACT: The availability of nesting resources influences the persistence and survival of bee communities. Although a positive effect of artificial nesting structures has frequently been shown for aboveground cavity-nesting wild bees, studies on below ground-nesting bees are rare. Artificial nesting hills designed to provide nesting habitats for ground-nesting bees were therefore established within the BienABest project in 20 regions across Germany. Wild bee communities were monitored for two consecutive years, accompanied by recordings of landscape and abiotic nest site variables. Bee activity and species richness increased from the first to the second year after establishment; this was particularly pronounced in landscapes with a low cover of semi-natural habitat. The nesting hills were successively colonized, indicating that they should exist for many years, thereby promoting a species-rich bee community. We recommend the construction of nesting hills on sun-exposed sites with a high thermal gain of the substrate because the bees prefer south-facing sites with high soil temperatures. Although the soil composition of the nesting hills plays a minor role, we suggest using local soil to match the needs of the local bee community. We conclude that artificial nesting structures for ground-nesting bees act as a valuable nesting resource for various bee species, particularly in highly degraded landscapes. We offer a construction and maintenance guide for the successful establishment of nesting hills for bee conservation.