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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Logan, Utah » Pollinating Insect-Biology, Management, Systematics Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #319870

Title: Late season survey of bumble bees along Canadian highways of British Columbia and Yukon Territories.

Author
item HATTEN, TIMOTHY - Invertebrate Ecology Inc
item Strange, James
item MAXWELL, JILL - Invertebrate Ecology Inc

Submitted to: Western North American Naturalist
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/7/2015
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Several bumble bee species are in decline throughout North America; however, some of these species appear to be healthy and abundant in northern areas. We surveyed areas along highways in Alaska and Canada to understand the status of these declining bees. We collected 14 species of bumble bees and found that bees that are rare south of the USA- Canada border are abundant in the north. We described the distribution of bumble bee communities across western Canada. Specifically, the yellow-banded bumble bee and the western bumble bee are both present and locally abundant at our survey sights. These findings are important for conservation planning and for models exploring the causes underlying global bee declines.

Technical Abstract: Bumble bees are important pollinators of flowering plants, foraging and providing pollination services throughout the growing season. They are adapted to cool temperatures and are among the most important of all pollinators in high elevations and northern latitudes. Over the past several decades, multiple species of bumble bees have experienced declines in both geographic range and abundance in Europe and N. America, while four species of the subgenus Bombus sensu stricto have suffered dramatic declines in the USA. Such declines are not as evident in Alaska, while status of Bombus sensu strict remains relatively unknown in the adjacent territories of Canada. To begin addressing this knowledge gap we sampled the bumble bee fauna foraging on floral patches along five highways of Canada and southeast Alaska during late summer of 2010. We observed 14 species and found Bombus assemblages to be structured by broad geographic features and ecoregions. The Bombus sensu stricto species B. occidentalis and B. terricola were relatively abundant in sample sites west and east of the Rocky Mountains, respectively, while B. vagans, B. rufocinctus and B. occidentalis were the most abundant species across all sites.