Bee landscape relations in changing contexts, implications for stingless bee management
January 1, 2023 - Chevez, Estrella; Porter-Bolland, Luciana; Garcia-Frapolli, Eduardo; Landgrave, Rosario; Revollo-Fernandez, Daniel
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EmailJournal or Book Title: REGIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE
DOI:10.1007/s10113-023-02093-4
Abstract: Giventhe pollinator global crisis and its relation to human activities, it is important to understand how regional landscapes affects pollinators, especially those of ecological, cultural, and economic importance. In the tropics, managed stingless bees (Meliponini) depend on plant resources surrounding hives, in what can be regarded as the bee landscape. As socioecological processes converge shaping landscapes regionally, human-modified landscapes affect resources at the bee landscape level. Through geospatial analyses, we assessed how variables like ecosystem integrity, landscape composition, and land use type affect ecosystem services such as pot-honey production. Based on the case study of Veracruz, Mexico, a state with a long history of land use and land cover change, we found that stingless beekeeping thrives in diverse landscape configurations. In this study, bee landscapes of Scaptotrigona mexicana, an important managed stingless bee species, are mostly agricultural landscapes with patches of tropical forests. The patchy distribution of natural vegetation mixed with the extensive distribution of agriculture related to cattle management and agroforestry systems, result in non-linear relationships between land use composition, land use type, and ecosystem integrity. Multivariate analysis showed that pot-honey harvest benefits from heterogeneous landscapes, although ecosystem integrity and proportion of land use cover were not found to be good predictors of pot-honey production. On the other hand, regional characteristics in interaction with beehive density affect positively the average harvest rate. These findings suggest that beekeeping with S. mexicana is affected by socioecological contexts of complex agricultural landscapes. Given the relevance of stingless bees in tropical areas and the ecological services they provide, this study alleges for integrating bee requirements with development plans in tropical landscapes.
Type of Publication: Article