@article {De Palma:2015:0021-8901:1567,
title = "Ecological traits affect the sensitivity of bees to landuse pressures in European agricultural landscapes",
journal = "Journal of Applied Ecology",
parent_itemid = "infobike://bsc/jappl",
publishercode ="bp",
year = "2015",
volume = "52",
number = "6",
publication date ="2015-12-01T00:00:00",
pages = "1567-1577",
itemtype = "ARTICLE",
issn = "0021-8901",
eissn = "1365-2664",
url = "https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/bsc/jappl/2015/00000052/00000006/art00018",
doi = "doi:10.1111/1365-2664.12524",
keyword = "pollinators, ecosystem services, land‐use change, land‐use intensification, human impacts, life‐history traits, biodiversity",
author = "De Palma, Adriana and Kuhlmann, Michael and Roberts, Stuart P.M. and Potts, Simon G. and B{\"o}rger, Luca and Hudson, Lawrence N. and Lysenko, Igor and Newbold, Tim and Purvis, Andy",
abstract = " Bees are a functionally important and economically valuable group, but are threatened by landuse conversion and intensification. Such pressures are not expected to affect all species identically;
rather, they are likely to be mediated by the species' ecological traits. Understanding which types of species are most vulnerable under which land uses is an important step towards effective conservation planning. We collated
occurrence and abundance data for 257 bee species at 1584 European sites from surveys reported in 30 published papers (70056 records) and combined them with specieslevel ecological trait data. We used mixedeffects models to assess the importance of land use (landuse
class, agricultural useintensity and a remotelysensed measure of vegetation), traits and trait\texttimeslanduse interactions, in explaining species occurrence and abundance. Species' sensitivity to land use was most strongly
influenced by flight season duration and foraging range, but also by niche breadth, reproductive strategy and phenology, with effects that differed among cropland, pastoral and urban habitats. Synthesis and applications. Rather than targeting particular
species or settings, conservation actions may be more effective if focused on mitigating situations where species' traits strongly and negatively interact with landuse pressures. We find evidence that lowintensity agriculture can maintain relatively diverse bee communities;
in more intensive settings, added floral resources may be beneficial, but will require careful placement with respect to foraging ranges of smaller bee species. Protection of seminatural habitats is essential, however; in particular, conversion to urban environments could have severe
effects on bee diversity and pollination services. Our results highlight the importance of exploring how ecological traits mediate species responses to human impacts, but further research is needed to enhance the predictive ability of such analyses. ",
}