10.5061/DRYAD.NS1RN8PSN
Lázaro, Amparo
0000-0001-5626-4134
Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies
Mueller, Andreas
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich
Ebmer, Andreas
Kirchenstrasse 9
Dathe, Holger
0000-0001-7150-3850
Senckenberg German Entomological Institute
Scheuchl, Erwin
Kastanienweg 19
Schwarz, Maximilian
Entomofauna
Risch, Stephan
Imbacher Weg 59
Pauly, Alain
Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences
Devalez, Jelle
0000-0003-1110-0640
University of the Aegean
Tscheulin, Thomas
University of the Aegean
Gómez-Martínez, Carmelo
0000-0003-1449-0138
Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies
Papas, Evangelos
Agricultural University of Athens
Pickering, John
University of Georgia
Waser, Nickolas
Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory
Petanidou, Theodora
University of the Aegean
Impacts of beekeeping on wild bee diversity and pollination networks in
the Aegean Archipelago
Dryad
dataset
2021
bee richness
flower abundance
hive density
honeybee abundance
Interaction networks
2021-05-13T00:00:00Z
2021-05-13T00:00:00Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.05553
94957 bytes
2
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Maintaining the diversity of wild bees is a priority for preserving
ecosystem function and promoting stability and productivity of
agroecosystems. However, wild bee communities face many threats and
beekeeping could be one of them, because honey bees may have a strong
potential to outcompete wild pollinators when placed at high densities.
Yet, we still know little about how beekeeping intensity affects wild bee
diversity and their pollinator interactions. Here, we explore how honey
bee density relates to wild bee diversity and the structure of their
pollination networks in 41 sites on 13 Cycladic Islands (Greece) with
similar landscapes but differing in beekeeping intensity. Our large-scale
study shows that increasing honey bee visitation rate had a negative
effect on wild bee species richness and abundance, although the latter
effect was relatively weak compared to the effect of other landscape
variables. Competition for flowering resources (as indicated by a resource
sharing index) increased with the abundance of honey bees, but the effect
was more moderate for wild bees in family Apidae than for bees in other
families, suggesting a stronger niche segregation in Apidae in response to
honey bees. Honey bees also influenced the structure of wild bee
pollination networks indirectly, through changes in wild bee richness. Low
richness of wild bees in sites with high honey bee abundance resulted in
wild bee networks with fewer links and lower linkage density. Our results
warn against beekeeping intensification in these islands and similar
hotspots of bee diversity, and shed light on how benefits to pollination
services of introducing honey bees may be counterbalanced by detriments to
wild bees and their ecosystem services.