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Spillover of trap-nesting bees and wasps in an urban–rural interface

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Abstract

A mismatch of resource availability in certain periods can lead to spillover of insects between habitats, resulting in temporal differences in insect diversity. Urban gardens are important anthropogenic habitats but it is unknown whether, when and why spillover of beneficial insects occurs between gardens and agricultural habitats. We used trap nests for Hymenoptera to monthly monitor bee and wasp abundance and species richness in 12 gardens and 12 rapeseed fields. Half of the gardens and rapeseed fields were located in the urban–rural interface and bordered each other (a garden paired with a rapeseed field) and the other half were isolated in the rural landscape (isolated rapeseed fields) and in the urban city centre (isolated gardens). In general, gardens in the urban–rural interface comprised the highest richness of bees and wasps. The abundance of bees but not of wasps was highest in paired habitats and peaked at full rapeseed blooming, indicating that mass-flowering rapeseed offers foraging resources for bees nesting in adjacent gardens. Thus, bees nest and increase their populations in both areas, benefiting from the mass-flowering resource in the agricultural habitat as well as the nesting resources from gardens, suggesting spillover of bees but not of wasps between paired gardens and rapeseed fields. Our study highlights the value of gardens in the urban–rural interface for the biodiversity of functionally important insects. Implementing urban gardening and small-scale agriculture in cities and suburban habitats can promote local pollinator populations and benefit adjacent croplands.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the land and garden owners who allowed us to use their properties for this study. We acknowledge the help of Dr. Thomas Niemeyer with site selection and fieldwork, Isabel Siemers with plant species identification, Dr. Paul Westrich for reassurance of some bee species identities and numerous colleagues with fieldwork support. We thank the DAAD–Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst, Leuphana University Lüneburg and CAPES–Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior for funding this research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Ecology, Ecosystem Functions, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Scharnhorststrase 1, 21335, Lüneburg, Germany

    Maria Helena Pereira-Peixoto, Gesine Pufal & Alexandra-Maria Klein

  2. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Biológicas (Zoologia), CCEN, Universidade Federal da Paraíba, Cidade Universitária, João Pessoa, PB, 58051-900, Brazil

    Maria Helena Pereira-Peixoto

  3. Faculty of Environment and Natural Resources, University of Freiburg, Tennenbacher Str. 4, 79106, Freiburg, Germany

    Maria Helena Pereira-Peixoto, Gesine Pufal & Alexandra-Maria Klein

  4. Departamento de Sistemática e Ecologia, CCEN, Universidade Federal da Paraíba, Cidade Universitária, João Pessoa, PB, 58051-900, Brazil

    Celso Feitosa Martins

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  1. Maria Helena Pereira-Peixoto
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  2. Gesine Pufal
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  3. Celso Feitosa Martins
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Correspondence to Maria Helena Pereira-Peixoto.

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Pereira-Peixoto, M.H., Pufal, G., Martins, C.F. et al. Spillover of trap-nesting bees and wasps in an urban–rural interface. J Insect Conserv 18, 815–826 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10841-014-9688-7

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