Influence of landscape structure on Euglossini composition in open vegetation environments

Authors

  • Eduardo Freitas Moreira Universidade Federal da Bahia, Instituto de Biologia UFBA
  • Rafaela Lorena da Silva Santos Universidade Federal da Bahia, Instituto de Biologia UFBA
  • Maxwell Souza Silveira Universidade Federal da Bahia, Instituto de Biologia UFBA
  • Danilo Boscolo Universidade de São Paulo, Faculdade de Filosofia
  • Edinaldo Luz das Neves Centro Universitário Jorge Amado
  • Blandina Felipe Viana Universidade Federal da Bahia, Instituto de Biologia UFBA

Keywords:

bees, habitat amount hypothesis, landscape heterogeneity, landscape configuration

Abstract

Abstract The fauna of Euglossini bees is poorly known in savanna regions, making it difficult to understand how these bees use open vegetation environments. The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of landscape structure on species abundance and composition of Euglossini bees in naturally heterogeneous savanna landscapes. Nine sites were sampled monthly using six traps with chemical baits. Three aromatic essences (eucalyptol, methyl salicylate and vanillin) were used to attract the Euglossini. Surrounding environmental conditions were measured using three independent variables, calculated in multiple scales: index of local vegetation and two landscape indices (Shannon Diversity and area-weighted shape). We compared the competing hypotheses through model selection based on Second-order Akaike Information Criterion (AICc). The four competing hypothesis were: (1) The local vegetation complexity favors Euglossini bees species richness and/or abundance (local vegetation hypothesis); (2) The proportion of the native vegetation types favors Euglossini bees species richness and/or abundance (habitat amount hypothesis); (3) Higher landscape diversity shall increase species richness of Euglossini bees (landscape heterogeneity hypothesis); (4) More complex landscape configuration shall favor the Euglossini bees richness and/or abundance (landscape heterogeneity hypothesis). We sampled 647 individuals belonging to six species of two distinct genera. Our results support the habitat amount hypothesis since bees’ abundance was strongly related with the proportion of habitat in the surrounding landscape. This may be related to the availability of floral and nesting resources in some types of savanna vegetation.

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Published

2017-01-01

How to Cite

Moreira, E. F., Santos, R. L. da S., Silveira, M. S., Boscolo, D., Neves, E. L. das, & Viana, B. F. (2017). Influence of landscape structure on Euglossini composition in open vegetation environments. Biota Neotropica, 17(1). Retrieved from //www.biotaneotropica.org.br/BN/article/view/1436

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