Gervais Amélie, Fournier Valérie, Sheffield Cory S, Chagnon Madeleine
Centre de recherche en innovation sur les végétaux (CRIV), Université Laval, 2480, boulevard Hochelaga, Québec, QC, G1V 0A6.
Royal Saskatchewan Museum, 2445 Albert Street, Regina, SK, S4P 4W7.
J Econ Entomol. 2017 Aug 1;110(4):1424-1432. doi: 10.1093/jee/tox173.
The conservation of bee populations for pollination in agricultural landscapes has attracted a lot of recent research interest, especially for crop industries undergoing expansion to meet increased production demands. In Canada, much growth has been occurring with commercial cranberry production, a field crop which is largely dependent on bee pollination. Wild bee pollinators could be negatively impacted by losses of natural habitat surrounding cranberry fields to accommodate increased production, but growers have little insight on how to manage their lands to maximize the presence of wild bees. Here, we described a 2-yr study where bee diversity and species composition were investigated to better understand the dynamic between natural habitat and cranberry fields. Bees were sampled using pan-traps and hand netting both within cranberry fields and in one of the three adjacent natural habitat types once a week during the crop flowering period. We found that bee community composition among cranberry fields did not differ based on the respective adjacent habitat type, but fields bordered by meadows were marginally less diverse than fields bordered by forest. As one would expect, field and natural habitat communities differed in terms of species composition and species richness. There was no evidence that one type of natural habitat was more favorable for the bees than another. Future agrobiodiversity studies should simultaneously examine bee diversity comprised in both crop fields and adjacent natural environments to better understand the species dynamics essential to the preservation of pollination services.
农业景观中用于授粉的蜜蜂种群保护最近引起了很多研究兴趣，尤其是对于为满足不断增长的生产需求而进行扩张的农作物产业。在加拿大，商业蔓越莓生产发展迅速，这种大田作物很大程度上依赖蜜蜂授粉。蔓越莓田周围自然栖息地的丧失以满足产量增加的需求，可能会对野生蜜蜂传粉者产生负面影响，但种植者对于如何管理土地以最大限度地增加野生蜜蜂的数量了解甚少。在此，我们描述了一项为期两年的研究，其中调查了蜜蜂的多样性和物种组成，以更好地了解自然栖息地与蔓越莓田之间的动态关系。在作物开花期，每周一次在蔓越莓田内以及三种相邻自然栖息地类型之一中，使用诱虫盘和手抄网对蜜蜂进行采样。我们发现，蔓越莓田之间的蜜蜂群落组成并未因各自相邻的栖息地类型而有所不同，但与草地接壤的田块的多样性略低于与森林接壤的田块。正如人们所预期的那样，农田和自然栖息地群落在物种组成和物种丰富度方面存在差异。没有证据表明一种自然栖息地类型比另一种对蜜蜂更有利。未来的农业生物多样性研究应同时考察农田和相邻自然环境中的蜜蜂多样性，以更好地了解对授粉服务保护至关重要的物种动态。
