Artificial Nesting Hills Promote Wild Bees in Agricultural Landscapes.

ABSTRACT: The availability of nesting resources influences the persistence and survival of bee communities. Although a positive effect of artificial nesting structures has frequently been shown for aboveground cavity-nesting wild bees, studies on below ground-nesting bees are rare. Artificial nesting hills designed to provide nesting habitats for ground-nesting bees were therefore established within the BienABest project in 20 regions across Germany. Wild bee communities were monitored for two consecutive years, accompanied by recordings of landscape and abiotic nest site variables. Bee activity and species richness increased from the first to the second year after establishment; this was particularly pronounced in landscapes with a low cover of semi-natural habitat. The nesting hills were successiv

SUBMITTER: Neumuller U 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9409424 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature