Impacts of agricultural land use on the diversity and abundance of wild bees (Apoidea)

With increasing evidence of bee (Apoidea) population declines worldwide, there is rising concern about loss of native bees and their pollination services. Agricultural land occupies broad areas of North America and its management influences conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services. The goal of this research is to correlate bee diversity and abundance with specific landscape features, providing managers with key features to sustain or increase wild bee diversity and abundance. Bees were collected every three to four weeks from May through September in 2010 through 2012 using sweep nets, bowl traps, and trap nests at eighteen sites varying in amounts of agricultural and conservation lands in the prairie pothole region of North Dakota. Floral resources were monitored throughout the summer as were landscape features affecting potential nesting sites. Land use was assessed within 500 km of each site. Over 11,500 individual bees representing 169 species were collected between 2010 and 2012. Preliminary data indicate the importance of wooded areas to bee species richness and the importance of wetlands to bee abundance in the prairie pothole region.