Lower bumblebee colony reproductive success in agricultural compared with urban environments.

ABSTRACT: 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 b

SUBMITTER: Samuelson AE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6030522 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature