| Bumblebee flight distances in relation to the forage landscape. | |
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MedLine Citation:
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PMID: 17986207 Owner: NLM Status: MEDLINE |
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
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1. Foraging range is a key aspect of the ecology of 'central place foragers'. Estimating how far bees fly under different circumstances is essential for predicting colony success, and for estimating bee-mediated gene flow between plant populations. It is likely to be strongly influenced by forage distribution, something that is hard to quantify in all but the simplest landscapes; and theories of foraging distance tend to assume a homogeneous forage distribution. 2. We quantified the distribution of bumblebee Bombus terrestris L. foragers away from experimentally positioned colonies, in an agricultural landscape, using two methods. We mass-marked foragers as they left the colony, and analysed pollen from foragers returning to the colonies. The data were set within the context of the 'forage landscape': a map of the spatial distribution of forage as determined from remote-sensed data. To our knowledge, this is the first time that empirical data on foraging distances and forage availability, at this resolution and scale, have been collected and combined for bumblebees. 3. The bees foraged at least 1.5 km from their colonies, and the proportion of foragers flying to one field declined, approximately linearly, with radial distance. In this landscape there was great variation in forage availability within 500 m of colonies but little variation beyond 1 km, regardless of colony location. 4. The scale of B. terrestris foraging was large enough to buffer against effects of forage patch and flowering crop heterogeneity, but bee species with shorter foraging ranges may experience highly variable colony success according to location. |
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Authors:
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Juliet L Osborne; Andrew P Martin; Norman L Carreck; Jennifer L Swain; Mairi E Knight; Dave Goulson; Roddy J Hale; Roy A Sanderson |
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Publication Detail:
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Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't Date: 2007-11-06 |
Journal Detail:
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Title: The Journal of animal ecology Volume: 77 ISSN: 1365-2656 ISO Abbreviation: J Anim Ecol Publication Date: 2008 Mar |
Date Detail:
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Created Date: 2008-02-07 Completed Date: 2008-03-28 Revised Date: - |
Medline Journal Info:
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Nlm Unique ID: 0376574 Medline TA: J Anim Ecol Country: England |
Other Details:
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Languages: eng Pagination: 406-15 Citation Subset: IM |
Affiliation:
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Department of Plant & Invertebrate Ecology, Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, Hertfordshire, AL5 2JQ, UK. juliet.osborne@bbsrc.ac.uk |
Export Citation:
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| MeSH Terms | |
Descriptor/Qualifier:
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Animals Bees / physiology* Ecosystem* Feeding Behavior / physiology* Flight, Animal / physiology* Motor Activity / physiology Pollen Seasons Species Specificity |
From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine
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