Australia: Changes in land use significantly affect larger bees, study shows

A new collaborative study has found that bees are increasingly under threat due to environmental degradation caused by changes in land use.The researchers found changes such as land clearing and urban development, altered the availability of flowers in the landscape, significantly impacting bee populations, especially larger-bodied species.Ecologists from The University of Western Australia, University of Canterbury in New Zealand and CSIRO, explored how the availability of floral energy resources in the landscape affected bee populations in 23 Banksia woodland fragments in Western Australia.The researchers found that flowers in areas surrounding bushland were vital for the persistence of bees in remnant woodlands. The study is published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.Dr. Juliana Pille Arnold, who led the study as a Ph.D. candidate at UWA, said the research underscored that floral energy resources in the surrounding landscape, known as "the matrix," ...