Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 
 

Files

File List


MinnickDissertation_Final.pdf (6.4 MB)

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

The roles of forest fragments and an invasive shrub in structuring native bee communities and pollination services in intensive agricultural landscapes

Minnick, Michael John
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4478-4113
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1581000018403528

Abstract Details

2020, Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology.
This dissertation examines how an invasive woody plant, Lonicera maackii, temporally and spatially structures native bee communities of forest-edge habitat in agricultural landscapes. In Chapter 1, I measured bee species composition and pollination services ≤200 m from isolated forest patches in response to L. maackii flower removals. Removing flowers released a subset of small-bodied bees and increased pollination services after two years. Pollination services provisioned by large-bodied and generalist bee species (e.g. Bombus spp) increased when nearby plants were adjacent to intact L. maackii flowers. Findings suggest that L. maackii flowers suppress one component of the bee community and attract another to the forest patch that increases usage of the adjacent crop fields. In Chapter 2, I compared two components of the bee community and their responses to L. maackii density, floral resources of the forest patch, and the surrounding landscape. Bees sampled in pan traps were typically small, specialized, and responded to local patch features. Bees sampled in vane traps were larger in body size, social, and responded to landscape composition 3 km from the forest patch. These findings suggest that L. maackii floral resources support weaker foragers within the forest patch as well as larger bees that forage throughout the landscape. Both components of the bee community responded to tree community composition and were vertically stratified in the tree canopy. In Chapter 3, I measured bee diversity and community composition at different vertical strata in response to L. maackii density and flowering period as well as floral resource availability of woody plants. I found that L. maackii supports a component of the vertically stratified bee community which changes interactions with floral resources of the native woody vegetation at different vertical strata. Collectively, my studies demonstrate that L. maackii structures forest-edge bee communities through mechanisms involving functional and life history traits of individual bee species. Therefore, in my Conclusion Chapter, I developed a synthetic model that assigned an Agricultural Landscape Response Index for Bees (ALRIB) value between 0 and 1 to bees of each species that corresponds with their likelihood of responding to the forest patch as an island or as one land cover type within a broader mosaic of different resources. I conclude that L. maackii invasion into forest fragments within intensively managed agricultural landscapes filters the bee community in favor of species that use its floral resources and exhibits an overall homogenizing effect on species diversity.
Thomas Crist (Advisor)
David Berg (Committee Member)
Amelie Davis (Committee Member)
David Gorchov (Committee Member)
Jign Zhang (Committee Member)
215 p.
Agriculture; Biology; Conservation; Ecology
native, bee communities, invasive plant, Lonicera maackii, Amur honeysuckle, agriculture, forest-edge habitat, landscape, ALRIB, island vs mosaic, honeysuckle density, canopy strata

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Minnick, M. J. (2020). The roles of forest fragments and an invasive shrub in structuring native bee communities and pollination services in intensive agricultural landscapes [Doctoral dissertation, Miami University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1581000018403528

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Minnick, Michael. The roles of forest fragments and an invasive shrub in structuring native bee communities and pollination services in intensive agricultural landscapes. 2020. Miami University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1581000018403528.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Minnick, Michael. "The roles of forest fragments and an invasive shrub in structuring native bee communities and pollination services in intensive agricultural landscapes." Doctoral dissertation, Miami University, 2020. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1581000018403528

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

miami1581000018403528
417
© 2020, some rights reserved.Creative Commons License The roles of forest fragments and an invasive shrub in structuring native bee communities and pollination services in intensive agricultural landscapes by Michael John Minnick is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at etd.ohiolink.edu.
This open access ETD is published by Miami University and OhioLINK.