Changes in Composition and Structure of a Wild Bee Community and Plant- Pollinator Interactions in South-Central Ontario Over a Forty-Nine Year Period
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Changes in composition and structure of a wild bee community and plant- pollinator interactions in South-Central Ontario over a forty-nine year period by Claire Rubens A thesis presented to The University of Guelph In partial fulfilment of requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Environmental Sciences Guelph, Ontario, Canada © Claire Rubens, September 2019 ABSTRACT CHANGES IN COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE OF A WILD BEE COMMUNITY AND PLANT-POLLINATOR INTERACTIONS IN SOUTH-CENTRAL ONTARIO OVER A FORTY-NINE YEAR PERIOD Claire Rubens Advisor: University of Guelph, 2019 Professor Nigel E. Raine Wild pollinators provide important ecosystem services for both agricultural and natural ecosystems. While there is evidence of global pollinator declines, more long-term studies are needed to assess population trends, and the potential impacts of environmental stress factors such as land-use intensification and climate change. This is the first study to examine long-term changes in a wild bee community in Canada. Wild bee abundance, species richness, diversity and evenness were compared across three sampling periods (1968-1969, 2002-03, and 2016-17) in Caledon, Ontario over 49 years. Despite decreases in wild bee abundance since 2002-03, the diversity, evenness and richness increased over time. Extensive restructuring (including loss and frequency changes) of plant-pollinator interactions from 2002-03 to 2016-17 appeared not to affect network resilience. While local trends in land-use patterns did not predict changes in this wild bee community, climatic changes in temperature and snowfall correlated with wild bee abundance at the site. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my advisor Dr. Nigel Raine for taking me on as an undergraduate work-study student and a master’s student, and for helping me to focus my interests on wild bees. His enthusiasm and experience have been very helpful throughout this study. Thank you so much to Dr. Alana Pindar for her help in every aspect of my thesis. I am so grateful for all the time and work she put in, even from across the country. Thank you also to the members of my advisory committee, Drs. Laurence Packer and Madhur Anand for their feedback on my project. I really appreciate the time they spent to help me make the best version of my thesis. Thank you to all my field assistants, especially Emily Agar, Ellen Richard and Sage Handler, who made long days in the field so much more enjoyable. Thank you also to all the members of the Raine Lab for their support and input during this whole process. I would also like to thank Drs. Cory Sheffield, Jason Gibbs and Thomas Onuferko for their identification expertise. Thank you to the Royal Ontario Museum for allowing me to visit their insect collection to review bee specimens. Thank you to Jennifer Grixti for continuing to study this site and providing me with clarifications and extra information during the planning stages. A special thank you to Monika Gschwendtner and family for their continued interest in this project over the years and allowing us to explore and spend time on their beautiful property. This work was supported by funds from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC Discovery grant 2015-06783), the Food from Thought: Agricultural Systems for a Healthy Planet Initiative, by the Canada First Research Excellent Fund (grant 000054) and the W. Garfield Weston Foundation awarded to Dr. Raine. Finally, thank you to my parents Peter and Marion, my brother Calvin, my partner Alex and my cat Marcie for their support, patience and advice throughout the past three years. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................ iii Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................... iv List of Figures .............................................................................................................................. viii List of Appendices ......................................................................................................................... xi CHAPTER 1 Introduction............................................................................................................... 1 1.1 The importance of pollination ............................................................................................... 1 1.2 Drivers of global pollinator declines ..................................................................................... 3 1.2.1 Climate change............................................................................................................... 4 1.2.2 Invasive species ............................................................................................................. 6 1.2.3 Land use intensification ................................................................................................. 6 1.2.4 Pests and pathogens ..................................................................................................... 11 1.2 Objectives ........................................................................................................................... 11 CHAPTER 2 General data collection methods for analysis of wild bee community composition and structure, and plant-pollinator interactions in Caledon, Southern Ontario ............................ 15 2.1 Study site ............................................................................................................................. 15 2.2 Sampling procedures ........................................................................................................... 18 2.2.2 Sweep netting ............................................................................................................... 20 2.2.3 Comparing sampling methods between studies ........................................................... 20 2.3 Specimen processing, curation and identification .............................................................. 22 CHAPTER 3 Assessing wild bee community structure and composition changes over a forty- nine year period in a natural habitat in Caledon, Southern Ontario .............................................. 24 3.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 24 3.2 Analytical methods ............................................................................................................. 28 v 3.3 Results ................................................................................................................................. 31 3.4 Discussion ........................................................................................................................... 39 CHAPTER 4 Changes in plant-pollinator interactions over a 15-year period in Caledon, Southern Ontario .......................................................................................................................................... 47 4.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 47 4.2 Analytical methods ............................................................................................................. 49 4.3 Results ................................................................................................................................. 53 4.4 Discussion ........................................................................................................................... 61 CHAPTER 5 Impacts of climate and habitat change on wild bee diversity in Caledon, Southern Ontario .......................................................................................................................................... 64 5.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 64 5.1.1 Habitat change ............................................................................................................. 64 5.1.2 Climate change............................................................................................................. 66 5.2 Analytical methods ............................................................................................................. 67 5.3 Results ................................................................................................................................. 69 5.4 Discussion ........................................................................................................................... 75 CHAPTER 6 Conclusions............................................................................................................. 81 References ..................................................................................................................................... 83 Appendices .................................................................................................................................. 108 Appendix I .................................................................................................................................. 108 Appendix II ................................................................................................................................. 133 vi LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Differences in sampling methods and intensity between