Department of Entomology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA.
Entomologie, Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany.
J Insect Sci. 2024 Nov 1;24(6). doi: 10.1093/jisesa/ieae108.
Ecological disturbance can promote or reduce community biodiversity depending on its severity. Beekeeping activities represent a type of ecological disturbance when large numbers of honey bees are introduced to a landscape and interact with the local plant and pollinator community. In this study, we characterized the effect of immediate and long-term low-density migratory beekeeping on the diversity and abundance of native bees in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (China). We found that the presence of apiaries and the number of honey bees reduced native bee abundances in the local bee community, likely through displacement from floral resources. However, in locations where apiaries were previously kept for decades but are not currently present, native bee abundances recovered, and phylogenetic diversity increased; yet community relative abundances and dominant species were distinct from those that had never been stocked. Our results suggest that the presence of a transient, intermediate number of migratory honey bee colonies (60-100 colonies spaced ≥15 km from each other) may represent an intermediate ecological disturbance and not permanently reduce native bee abundances past a critical threshold that may lead to local extirpation. Yet, our study demonstrates the potential for even intermediate-scale low-density beekeeping to alter native bee communities in the long-term.
生态干扰的严重程度会影响群落生物多样性，其既可以促进也可以减少群落生物多样性。当大量的蜜蜂被引入到一个景观中，并与当地的植物和传粉者群落相互作用时，养蜂活动就代表了一种生态干扰类型。在这项研究中，我们描述了立即和长期低密度迁徙养蜂对青藏高原（中国）本地蜜蜂多样性和丰度的影响。我们发现，养蜂场的存在和蜜蜂的数量减少了当地蜜蜂群落中本地蜜蜂的数量，这可能是通过对花卉资源的替代作用实现的。然而，在过去几十年一直有养蜂场但目前没有的地方，本地蜜蜂的数量恢复了，系统发育多样性增加了；然而，群落相对丰度和优势物种与从未被养殖过的地方明显不同。我们的研究结果表明，短暂的、中等数量的迁徙蜜蜂群体（每 15 公里间隔有 60-100 个蜂群）的存在可能代表一种中等程度的生态干扰，并且不会永久性地将本地蜜蜂的丰度降低到可能导致局部灭绝的临界阈值以下。然而，我们的研究表明，即使是中等规模的低密度养蜂也可能在长期内改变本地蜜蜂群落。
