10.25338/B83P6K
Stuligross, Clara
0000-0002-5941-0528
University of California, Davis
Williams, Neal
University of California, Davis
Pesticide and resource stressors additively impair wild bee reproduction
Dryad
dataset
2020
2020-09-28T00:00:00Z
2020-09-28T00:00:00Z
en
7829 bytes
2
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Bees and other beneficial insects experience multiple stressors within
agricultural landscapes that act together to impact their health and
diminish their ability to deliver the ecosystem services on which human
food supplies depend. Disentangling the effects of coupled stressors is a
primary challenge for understanding how to promote their populations and
ensure robust pollination and other ecosystem services. We used a crossed
design to quantify the individual and combined effects of food resource
limitation and pesticide exposure on the survival, nesting, and
reproduction of the blue orchard beeĀ Osmia lignaria. Nesting females in
large flight cages accessed wildflowers at high or low densities, treated
with or without the common insecticide, imidacloprid. Pesticides and
resource limitation acted additively to dramatically reduce reproduction
in free-flying bees. Our results emphasize the importance of considering
multiple drivers to inform population persistence, management, and risk
assessment for the long-term sustainability of food production and natural
ecosystems.