RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Bees use anthropogenic habitats despite strong natural habitat preferences
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 278812
DO 10.1101/278812
A1 Miguel Á. Collado
A1 Daniel Sol
A1 Ignasi Bartomeus
YR 2018
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/03/08/278812.abstract
AB Habitat loss and alteration is widely considered one of the main drivers of the current loss of pollinator diversity. Unfortunately, we still lack a comprehensive analysis of habitat importance, use and preference for major groups of pollinators. Here, we address this gap analysing a large dataset of 15,762 bee specimens (more than 400 species) across northeast USA. We found that natural habitats sustain the highest bee diversity, with many species strongly depending on such habitats. By characterizing habitat use and preference for the 45 most abundant species, we also show that many bee species can use human-altered habitats despite exhibiting strong and clear preferences for forested habitats. However, only a few species appear to do well when the habitat has been drastically modified. We conclude that although altered environments may harbor a substantial number of species, preserving natural areas is still essential to guarantee the conservation of bee biodiversity.