"Winfree's team found that although a few dominant species are critical at smaller scales, when an entire region is considered, a high level of biodiversity is needed to ensure farmers' crops receive adequate pollination services. They found that, while on any one farm five or six wild bee species were able to provide half of the pollination, most of the 100 bee species observed in the study were needed to meet that same threshold across the nearly 50 farms in the region.
But biodiversity isn't just for "country" bees on farms. James Hung, who received NSF funding as a doctoral student and who worked in David Holway's lab at the University of California San Diego, investigated the effects of urbanization on changes in wild bee diversity over time. Man-made disturbances to habitats are creating problems for pollinator communities, including significant biodiversity loss.
Hung's research revealed that habitat fragmentation due to human activity reduces bee diversity and creates a shift in natural seasonal changes that influences the number and type of bees present, affecting pollination services. Though the total number of bees was similar, that number peaked later in the year in fragmented habitats compared to undisturbed ones. Hung also found that bees living in urban scrub fragments possess relatively less variation in behaviors and physical characteristics (for example, food preferences), meaning they might not be able to render the range and quality of pollination services that bee communities in undisturbed habitats can provide. The loss of diversity and changes to seasonal turnover of bee species may threaten plant pollination in the community and potentially even crops that rely on wild bee species for pollination."
Source: Research News of the U.S. National Science Foundation on July 5, 2018
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