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Imprint
Importance of resource diversity to stingless bees in Australia
Project
Project code: 186358927
Contract period: 01.01.2010
- 31.12.2015
Purpose of research: Applied research
Biodiversity is known to be crucial for ecosystem functioning and stability. Moreover, species rich systems provide a diversity of resources to be exploited, with diversity on one level (e.g. primary producers/resources) strongly affecting other levels (e.g. consumers). But how resource diversity affects other species/ higher trophic levels that depend on these resources has been poorly investigated. We attempt to unravel the mechanisms by which resource diversity affects eusocial stingless bees. Stingless bees collect both floral resources (pollen and nectar) for nutrition, but also other plant materials (e.g. plant resins) for nest construction, nest defense and to build up their chemical body and nest profiles. They collect all these resources from various plant species available. We investigate whether this broad resource collection is by chance or adaptive and whether as well as how bees collecting in diverse ecosystems (e.g. rainforests, suburban habitats) gain a fitness advantage over bees collecting in less diverse habitats or even monocultures (e.g., macadamia plantations, eucalypt forests).
Social bees are fitter in more biodiverse environments, Benjamin F. Kaluza, Helen M. Wallace, Tim A. Heard, Vanessa Minden, Alexandra Klein, Sara D. Leonhardt, DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-30126-0, https://rdcu.be/4FDx
Section overview
Subjects
- Crop Production
- Beekeeping and health
Funding programme
Excutive institution
Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology (Zoology III)
