Effects of burn interval on the native bee community in a pine flatwoods forest

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Allison C. Snyder, Brian D. Inouye and Nora Underwood, Biological Science, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL

Background/Question/Methods
Bees are vital for ecosystem services of natural habitats and there are concerns about potential declines of bee populations. Fire can alter habitat suitability for bees, and thus be used as a tool for bee conservation. Understanding how time since the last fire event (time-since-fire, TSF) affects native bee communities can give land managers guidance for designing beneficial management practices for native bees. In this study we asked how varying TSF in a fire-dependent pine flatwoods habitat affects bee community abundance and richness. We predicted that an intermediate TSF would benefit native bees and result in higher abundance and richness. We sampled the bee community across 22 sites in the Apalachicola National Forest of varying TSF from May to August 2020 using three passive trapping methods: pan traps, blue vane traps, and cavity nest traps. We also characterized floral and nesting resources and other habitat characteristics to understand how these affect the local bee community.
Results/Conclusions
We found that bee abundance and bee genera richness decreased with increasing TSF, and differences in diversity across sites could be partly attributed to differences in available floral resources and habitat characteristics. These patterns of diversity with TSF show that bee communities are benefitting from recently burned areas, however most species were still present with increasing TSF although in lower abundance. These results can be useful for land managers, showing the benefits of recently burned areas while also using heterogeneity in fire history to promote a diversity of habitats and resources available for conservation of native bees.