[Pollinator] Competition among bees

[thrasia at agro.auth.gr]

A similar research from Greece


Quoting David Inouye <inouye at umd.edu>:

> Lindström, S. A. M., et al. (2016). "Experimental evidence that  
> honeybees depress wild insect densities in a flowering crop."  
> Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 283(1843).
>     While addition of managed honeybees (Apis mellifera) improves  
> pollination of many entomophilous crops, it is unknown if it  
> simultaneously suppresses the densities of wild insects through  
> competition. To investigate this, we added 624 honeybee hives to 23  
> fields of oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.) over 2 years and made  
> sure that the areas around 21 other fields were free from honeybee  
> hives. We demonstrate that honeybee addition depresses the densities  
> of wild insects (bumblebees, solitary bees, hoverflies, marchflies,  
> other flies, and other flying and flower-visiting insects) even in a  
> massive flower resource such as oilseed rape. The effect was  
> independent of the complexity of the surrounding landscape, but  
> increased with the size of the crop field, which suggests that the  
> effect was caused by spatial displacement of wild insects. Our  
> results have potential implications both for the pollination of  
> crops (if displacement of wild pollinators offsets benefits achieved  
> by adding honeybees) and for conservation of wild insects (if  
> displacement results in negative fitness consequences).
>
>
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