Do honey bees (Apis mellifera) and wild bees (Apoidea) respond differently to pollinator friendly habitat?

Declines in honey bee health along with declines in wild pollinator populations have prompted action to create and maintain pollinator friendly landscapes. Efforts to answer questions about what landscapes best support pollinators often focus on either wild or honey bees, but concurrent assessment of both will help answer questions about how best to support both. This study was based in North Dakota which is home to many honey bee colonies that are used for crop pollination in California, Washington, and Florida in late winter and early spring as well as many wild bees, making this area well suited to an examination of the responses of both honey bees and wild bees to landscapes differing in the amount of bee friendly habitat. Over three years, we examined honey bee success as measured by the proportion of colonies alive from May to March of the following year and the amount of honey produced, and wild bee success as measured by the species and functional diversities of bees. We ask whether landscapes that support successful honey bee colonies also support diverse native bee communities.