Bee community differentiation driven by land use types at the urban-forest interface

Land use types continue to fragment as urban areas develop, including at the urban-forest interface. Understanding influences of land use types on pollinator community abundance and diversity in these spaces is fundamental to better informed management decision-making as urban areas expand and pollinators continue to undergo accelerating population stressors.

To better understand the effects of land use in a southeastern U.S. setting, we sampled bees during the summers of 2019 and 2020 and compared communities based on land use types at each sample site. In total 4,938 bees representing 111 species were collected. Landscape scale of effects on bee abundance and diversity were determined for Forest, Development, and Agricultural use types; and bee communities differed significantly based on the primary land use type of sample sites. Generalized linear models found forest cover, development cover, agricultural cover and landscape diversity all significantly influenced bee diversity. Modeled abundance of 22 commonly encountered species found complex dynamics in the roles played by forest cover, development cover, and landscape diversity depending on the species considered. Overall, modeled abundance trends found primarily positive effects of forest cover at larger landscape scales and negative effects of landscape diversity. Taken altogether these findings point to the value of forest spaces for maintaining pollinator communities in urbanizing landscapes.