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Effects of forest loss and fragmentation on pollen diets and provision mass of the mason bee,Osmia cornifrons, in central Japan
- Source :
- Ecological Entomology. 43:245-254
- Publication Year :
- 2017
- Publisher :
- Wiley, 2017.
-
Abstract
- 1. Habitat loss and fragmentation potentially affect the performance of bees that forage nectar and pollen of plants in their habitats. In forest landscapes, silvicultural conifer plantations often have reduced and fragmented natural broadleaf forests, which seem to provide more floral resources for bees than do the plantations. 2. This study evaluated the effects of forest characteristics (i.e. elevation, area, edge length, and tree size of natural forests) on pollen diets (plant taxa assemblages of pollen grains in provisions) and total provision mass in oviposited chambers in nests made by a standardised number of Osmia cornifrons bees at 14 sites in a forestry area in central Japan. 3. From April to May, the numbers of nests and chambers per nest increased, and the provision mass per chamber decreased. Main pollen sources were Prunus at higher elevations in April and Wisteria at lower elevations in May, foraging on which increased the numbers of nests and chambers per nest. The provision mass per chamber was smaller at higher elevations in more fragmented natural forests. Decreases in the area of natural forests within the foraging range (400‐m radii) of O. cornifrons increased the utilisation of Rubus pollen and decreased the total provision mass. 4. These findings suggest that the loss and fragmentation of natural broadleaf forests change pollen diets and reduce the provision mass of mason bees, which may reduce the number and size of their offspring.
- Subjects :
- 0106 biological sciences
0301 basic medicine
Forage (honey bee)
Ecology
Foraging
Osmia cornifrons
Biology
medicine.disease_cause
biology.organism_classification
010603 evolutionary biology
01 natural sciences
03 medical and health sciences
030104 developmental biology
Habitat destruction
Nest
Agronomy
Insect Science
Pollen
medicine
Mason bee
Nectar
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 03076946
- Volume :
- 43
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Ecological Entomology
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi...........71dad05f884bf41a08398a4b325f2e9b