Evaluating impacts of landscapes, habitat heterogeneity, and floral/nesting resources on native bee pollinators

Research on pollinators generally focuses on honey bees, and native bee ecology is often overlooked despite their documented potential to supplement, enhance, and substitute for pollination done by honey bees. My project evaluates the relative impacts of landscape, habitat heterogeneity, and local resource availability on native bee pollinator ecology. I worked in east Contra Costa County, California where agricultural, natural, and urban areas intersect. Within each land use type I sampled the local bee community through pan trapping and aerial netting, recorded local floral resources, and observed bee-plant associations. I used remote sensing to characterize the surrounding habitat heterogeneity around each collecting site, at a variety of scales, to examine proportion of impervious surface area, roads, land in cultivation (including crop type and management techniques), lawn green space, built-up land, and fallow land. I found general patterns in how native bee pollinator communities respond to land use change, and I extensively researched the life histories of the collected species to evaluate how bee groups are uniquely impacted. Worldwide trends in agricultural intensification and growing urbanization have led to severe environmental problems that are often credited with decreased biodiversity and ecosystem services. However, by establishing species distributions throughout the landscape and understanding how these are altered based on land use change, landscape heterogeneity, and local site-specific resources, we can move forward towards assessing practices that can benefit wildlife communities and may help restore lost ecosystem services.