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Earlier Morning Arrival to Pollen-Rewarding Flowers May Enable Feral Bumble Bees to Successfully Compete with Local Bee Species and Expand Their Distribution Range in a Mediterranean Habitat

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Many crops and wild plants depend on bee pollination for reproduction. Recent decades have shown evidence for a decline in the populations of many species of bees. One reason for this decline is the introduction of alien bees into new areas. We assessed the potential influence of bum...

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Autores principales: Bar-Shai, Noam, Motro, Uzi, Shmida, Avishai, Bloch, Guy
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9503872/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36135517
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects13090816
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author Bar-Shai, Noam
Motro, Uzi
Shmida, Avishai
Bloch, Guy
author_facet Bar-Shai, Noam
Motro, Uzi
Shmida, Avishai
Bloch, Guy
author_sort Bar-Shai, Noam
collection PubMed
description SIMPLE SUMMARY: Many crops and wild plants depend on bee pollination for reproduction. Recent decades have shown evidence for a decline in the populations of many species of bees. One reason for this decline is the introduction of alien bees into new areas. We assessed the potential influence of bumble bees that are produced on an industrial scale and have continuously expanded their range in the Mediterranean climate regions of Israel. We found that all bee species in study sites in the Judean Hills in Israel tend to visit pollen-providing flowers at earlier times compared to nectar-providing flowers. Bumble bees and honey bees start foraging at earlier times and colder temperatures compared to native bee species. This means that the two species of commercially managed social bees are potentially depleting much of the pollen, which is typically non-replenished, before most local species arrive to gather it. Bumble bee ability to forage at the low temperatures of the early morning, and their capacity to collect pollen at early hours in the dry Mediterranean climate, potentially pose a significant competitive pressure on native bee fauna, and may lead to changes in the reproduction of local flower species. ABSTRACT: During recent decades, bumble bees (Bombus terrestris) have continuously expanded their range in the Mediterranean climate regions of Israel. To assess their potential effects on local bee communities, we monitored their diurnal and seasonal activity patterns, as well as those of native bee species in the Judean Hills. We found that all bee species tend to visit pollen-providing flowers at earlier times compared to nectar-providing flowers. Bumble bees and honey bees start foraging at earlier times and colder temperatures compared to other species of bees. This means that the two species of commercially managed social bees are potentially depleting much of the pollen, which is typically non-replenished, before most local species arrive to gather it. Taking into consideration the long activity season of bumble bees in the Judean hills, their ability to forage at the low temperatures of the early morning, and their capacity to collect pollen at early hours in the dry Mediterranean climate, feral and range-expanding bumble bees potentially pose a significant competitive pressure on native bee fauna. Their effects on local bees can further modify pollination networks, and lead to changes in the local flora.
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spelling pubmed-95038722022-09-24 Earlier Morning Arrival to Pollen-Rewarding Flowers May Enable Feral Bumble Bees to Successfully Compete with Local Bee Species and Expand Their Distribution Range in a Mediterranean Habitat Bar-Shai, Noam Motro, Uzi Shmida, Avishai Bloch, Guy Insects Article SIMPLE SUMMARY: Many crops and wild plants depend on bee pollination for reproduction. Recent decades have shown evidence for a decline in the populations of many species of bees. One reason for this decline is the introduction of alien bees into new areas. We assessed the potential influence of bumble bees that are produced on an industrial scale and have continuously expanded their range in the Mediterranean climate regions of Israel. We found that all bee species in study sites in the Judean Hills in Israel tend to visit pollen-providing flowers at earlier times compared to nectar-providing flowers. Bumble bees and honey bees start foraging at earlier times and colder temperatures compared to native bee species. This means that the two species of commercially managed social bees are potentially depleting much of the pollen, which is typically non-replenished, before most local species arrive to gather it. Bumble bee ability to forage at the low temperatures of the early morning, and their capacity to collect pollen at early hours in the dry Mediterranean climate, potentially pose a significant competitive pressure on native bee fauna, and may lead to changes in the reproduction of local flower species. ABSTRACT: During recent decades, bumble bees (Bombus terrestris) have continuously expanded their range in the Mediterranean climate regions of Israel. To assess their potential effects on local bee communities, we monitored their diurnal and seasonal activity patterns, as well as those of native bee species in the Judean Hills. We found that all bee species tend to visit pollen-providing flowers at earlier times compared to nectar-providing flowers. Bumble bees and honey bees start foraging at earlier times and colder temperatures compared to other species of bees. This means that the two species of commercially managed social bees are potentially depleting much of the pollen, which is typically non-replenished, before most local species arrive to gather it. Taking into consideration the long activity season of bumble bees in the Judean hills, their ability to forage at the low temperatures of the early morning, and their capacity to collect pollen at early hours in the dry Mediterranean climate, feral and range-expanding bumble bees potentially pose a significant competitive pressure on native bee fauna. Their effects on local bees can further modify pollination networks, and lead to changes in the local flora. MDPI 2022-09-07 /pmc/articles/PMC9503872/ /pubmed/36135517 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects13090816 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Bar-Shai, Noam
Motro, Uzi
Shmida, Avishai
Bloch, Guy
Earlier Morning Arrival to Pollen-Rewarding Flowers May Enable Feral Bumble Bees to Successfully Compete with Local Bee Species and Expand Their Distribution Range in a Mediterranean Habitat
title Earlier Morning Arrival to Pollen-Rewarding Flowers May Enable Feral Bumble Bees to Successfully Compete with Local Bee Species and Expand Their Distribution Range in a Mediterranean Habitat
title_full Earlier Morning Arrival to Pollen-Rewarding Flowers May Enable Feral Bumble Bees to Successfully Compete with Local Bee Species and Expand Their Distribution Range in a Mediterranean Habitat
title_fullStr Earlier Morning Arrival to Pollen-Rewarding Flowers May Enable Feral Bumble Bees to Successfully Compete with Local Bee Species and Expand Their Distribution Range in a Mediterranean Habitat
title_full_unstemmed Earlier Morning Arrival to Pollen-Rewarding Flowers May Enable Feral Bumble Bees to Successfully Compete with Local Bee Species and Expand Their Distribution Range in a Mediterranean Habitat
title_short Earlier Morning Arrival to Pollen-Rewarding Flowers May Enable Feral Bumble Bees to Successfully Compete with Local Bee Species and Expand Their Distribution Range in a Mediterranean Habitat
title_sort earlier morning arrival to pollen-rewarding flowers may enable feral bumble bees to successfully compete with local bee species and expand their distribution range in a mediterranean habitat
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9503872/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36135517
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects13090816
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