Examining Patterns of Native Bee and Plant Abundance in Minnesota Prairie Remnants and Restorations
To improve the conservation of native bees in endangered ecosystems, such as Minnesota’s tallgrass prairies, it is necessary to understand their life histories. One of the most important classifications for bee species is “lecticity,” which refers to the way that female bees collect pollen to feed their developing larvae. Generalist bees gather pollen from any available plant, while specialist bees only gather pollen from a single plant family. These differences are thought to be one of the reasons bee communities differ in restorations and remnant prairie habitats. In this study, I use floral visitation data collected from prairie remnants and restorations in Minnesota and binomial generalized linear models to determine whether common species of speclalist and generalist bees are more abundant in one of the site types. Then, I determined which plants were most frequently visited by specialist and generalist bees and compared their abundances in remnants and restorations to see if differences in floral abundance could explain observed differences in generalist and specialist bee abundance. It was determined that some species of bees had differing abundances in the two site types, and that some of the specialist-preferred plants were more frequently observed in remnants than in restorations. These findings have serious implications for both researchers interested in bee life history and land managers working to protect specialist bees.