Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Volume 285, Issue 1881, Pages -Publisher
ROYAL SOC
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2018.0807
Keywords
urbanization; Bombus terrestris; reproductive success; land use; pollinator ecology; bee
Categories
Funding
- ICL-RHUL BBSRC DTP [BB/M011178/1]
- ERC Starting Grant BeeDanceGap
- Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship
- NERC grant [NE/L00755X/1]
- Grand Challenges in Ecosystems and the Environment Initiative at Silwood Park
- BBSRC [BB/N000668/1]
- BBSRC [BB/N000668/1] Funding Source: UKRI
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Urbanization represents a rapidly growing driver of land-use change. While it is clear that urbanization impacts species abundance and diversity, direct effects of urban land use on animal reproductive success are rarely documented. Here, we show that urban land use is linked to long-term colony reproductive output in a key pollinator. We reared colonies from wild-caught bumblebee (Bombus terrestris) queens, placed them at sites characterized by varying degrees of urbanization from inner city to rural farmland and monitored the production of sexual offspring across the entire colony cycle. Our land-use cluster analysis identified three site categories, and this categorization was a strong predictor of colony performance. Crucially, colonies in the two clusters characterized by urban development produced more sexual offspring than those in the cluster dominated by agricultural land. These colonies also reached higher peak size, had more food stores, encountered fewer parasite invasions and survived for longer. Our results show a link between urbanization and bumblebee colony reproductive success, supporting the theory that urban areas provide a refuge for pollinator populations in an otherwise barren agricultural landscape.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available