Habitat fragmentation and bee abundance in Little Rock, Arkansas

As the world’s human population increases, continuously increasing portions of the planet’s surface are changed for anthropogenic use.  Natural habitat is destroyed or broken into pieces that become more isolated as the fragmentation process continues, resulting in adverse effects for populations in these areas.  In this study I measured the effects of fragmentation on bee populations within the city of Little Rock.  Using bowl traps and sight observations, I sampled the number of bees and bee genera within four size fragments: parks (extra large), community gardens (large), backyard gardens (medium), and Master Gardener plots (small).  Overall, more bees occurred within parks; however, when individual genera were examined, some groups were more abundant in community gardens.  All backyard gardens contained many flowering plants; but, with the exception of one house located in a very rural area (and thus better resources available to bees), backyard gardens performed poorly in these surveys.  Thus, as the city continues to expand, parks and community garden may play a vital role in maintaining bee population within the city of Little Rock