Abstract
Abstract Identifying the resources that limit bee populations is essential for both bee conservation and pollination management in agroecosystems. Land‐use change typically leads to decreased habitat availability for wild pollinators, including loss of nesting habitat, which is an essential but often‐overlooked resource for wild bees. Cavity‐nesting bees, such as many Osmia spp. (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae), occupy holes in wood or reeds to build their nests; due to their nesting habits, they are frequently scarce in agricultural settings. Nevertheless, under the right circumstances, these bees can be ideal pollinators of apple and other orchard crops. Artificial nesting structures (‘bee hotels’ or ‘trap‐nests’) are often used to study cavity‐nesting bees and have been proposed as tools for bee conservation. To evaluate the effects of additional nesting habitat on the local abundance of pollinators, we selected 24 sites in apple orchards in eastern Canada in 2021 and 2022. Each site comprised two study plots: one in which we installed artificial nesting structures for cavity‐nesting bees, and one without added nesting habitat (control). Pollinator surveys were conducted in both plot types to measure pollinator visits to apple blossoms and, after apple bloom, to flowers in the undergrowth and/or in shrubs. Numbers and size of developing fruit were also recorded. Both Osmia bees and overall pollinator numbers were significantly higher in the treatment with trap‐nests (respectively, 33% and 22% higher during the 2021 growing season, and 113% and 30% higher during apple bloom across the 2 years of the study); however, there was no consistent difference in apple size or fruit set between the two treatments. Thus, trap‐nests locally increased the numbers of cavity‐nesting bees as well as total pollinator numbers, but they had little effect on apple yield, likely because apple production was not pollinator limited in the years of this study. Synthesis and applications . These findings suggest that bee populations in apple orchards can be limited by nesting resources such that addition of constructed nesting habitat could be an effective means of increasing pollinator numbers in orchards, and potentially, supporting bee conservation.
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Claims 7
Claim · model-written summary
Trap-nests increased Osmia bee numbers by 33% in 2021.
- Taxon
- apple
Malus domesticat0 - Treatment
- trap‐nestse0
- Interactor
- Osmia beese0pollinator
- Outcome
- Osmia beese0
- Direction
- highere0
- Value
- 33%e0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Both Osmia bees and overall pollinator numbers were significantly higher in the treatment with trap‐nests (respectively, 33% and 22% higher during the 2021 growing season, and 113% and 30% higher during apple bloom across the 2 years of the study)”
t0“apple orchards”
Claim · model-written summary
Trap-nests increased overall pollinator numbers by 22% in 2021.
- Taxon
- appleMalus domesticat0
- Treatment
- trap‐nestse0
- Outcome
- overall pollinator numberse0
- Direction
- highere0
- Value
- 22%e0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Both Osmia bees and overall pollinator numbers were significantly higher in the treatment with trap‐nests (respectively, 33% and 22% higher during the 2021 growing season, and 113% and 30% higher during apple bloom across the 2 years of the study)”
t0“apple orchards”
Claim · model-written summary
During apple bloom across two years, Osmia bee numbers were 113% higher with trap-nests.
- Taxon
- appleMalus domesticae0
- Treatment
- trap‐nestse0
- Interactor
- Osmia beese0pollinator
- Outcome
- Osmia beese0
- Direction
- highere0
- Value
- 113%e0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Both Osmia bees and overall pollinator numbers were significantly higher in the treatment with trap‐nests (respectively, 33% and 22% higher during the 2021 growing season, and 113% and 30% higher during apple bloom across the 2 years of the study)”
Claim · model-written summary
During apple bloom across two years, overall pollinator numbers were 30% higher with trap-nests.
- Taxon
- appleMalus domesticae0
- Treatment
- trap‐nestse0
- Outcome
- overall pollinator numberse0
- Direction
- highere0
- Value
- 30%e0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Both Osmia bees and overall pollinator numbers were significantly higher in the treatment with trap‐nests (respectively, 33% and 22% higher during the 2021 growing season, and 113% and 30% higher during apple bloom across the 2 years of the study)”
Claim · model-written summary
Apple size and fruit set showed no consistent difference between treatments.
- Taxon
- appleMalus domesticae0
- Outcome
- apple size or fruit sete0
- Direction
- no consistent differencee0
- Comparator
- the two treatmentse0
Not reportedTreatment
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“there was no consistent difference in apple size or fruit set between the two treatments”
Claim · model-written summary
The authors infer that apple production was not pollinator limited during the study years.
- Taxon
- appleMalus domesticae0
- Outcome
- apple productione0
- Qualifier
- in the years of this studye0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“apple production was not pollinator limited in the years of this study”
Claim · model-written summary
The authors suggest constructed nesting habitat could increase pollinator numbers in orchards.
- Taxon
- appleMalus domesticat0
- Outcome
- increasing pollinator numbers in orchardse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“addition of constructed nesting habitat could be an effective means of increasing pollinator numbers in orchards”
t0“apple orchards”
The same questions in other papers
trap barrier · organism · Malus domestica (apple)Results agree
2 papers in the same direction as this paper
- positive
- positive
Claims are grouped by organism, treatment and what was measured or targeted. A paper counts as positive when any of its claims in the group is positive.