(Hymenoptera: Euglossini) Communities in Oil Palm Plantations in Brazil Thaline F
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Forest reserves and riparian corridors help maintain orchid bee (Hymenoptera: Euglossini) communities in oil palm plantations in Brazil Thaline F. Brito, Colin C. Phifer, Jessie L. Knowlton, Cynthia M. Fiser, Nia M. Becker, Fernanda C. Barros, Felipe A. L. Contrera, Márcia M. Maués, Leandro Juen, Luciano F. A. Montag, et al. To cite this version: Thaline F. Brito, Colin C. Phifer, Jessie L. Knowlton, Cynthia M. Fiser, Nia M. Becker, et al.. Forest reserves and riparian corridors help maintain orchid bee (Hymenoptera: Euglossini) communities in oil palm plantations in Brazil. Apidologie, 2017, 48 (5), pp.575-587. 10.1007/s13592-017-0500-z. hal-02973425 HAL Id: hal-02973425 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02973425 Submitted on 21 Oct 2020 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Apidologie (2017) 48:575–587 Original article * INRA, DIB and Springer-Verlag France, 2017 DOI: 10.1007/s13592-017-0500-z Forest reserves and riparian corridors help maintain orchid bee (Hymenoptera: Euglossini) communities in oil palm plantations in Brazil 1 2 2 2 Thaline F. BRITO , Colin C. PHIFER , Jessie L. KNOWLTON , Cynthia M. FISER , 2 1 3 4 Nia M. BECKER , Fernanda C. BARROS , Felipe A. L. CONTRERA , Márcia M. MAUÉS , 5 5 2 Leandro JUEN , Luciano F. A. MONTAG , Christopher R. WEBSTER , 2 6 7 David J. FLASPOHLER , Marcos P. D. SANTOS , Daniel P. SILVA 1Programa de Pós-Graduação em Zoologia, Universidade Federal do Pará/Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, Belém, Pará, Brazil 2School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI, USA 3Laboratório de Biologia e Ecologia de Abelhas, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal do Pará, Belém, Pará, Brazil 4Laboratório de Entomologia, Embrapa Amazônia Oriental, Belém, Pará, Brazil 5Laboratório de Ecologia e Conservação, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal do Pará, Belém, Pará, Brazil 6Laboratório de Ecologia e Zoologia de Vertebrados – Ornitologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal do Pará, Belém, Pará, Brazil 7Departamento de Ciências Biológicas, Instituto Federal Goiano, Urutaí, Goiás, Brazil Received 5 September 2016 – Revised 9 January 2017 – Accepted 24 January 2017 Abstract – Orchid bees (Apidae, Euglossini) are important pollinators in the Amazon forest. In eastern Brazilian Amazon, secondary forest and pastures are being replaced by oil palm plantations. Here, we tested the role of forest reserves and riparian corridors in maintaining orchid bees. We sampled bees in three different soil-type uses, comparing richness, abundance, and assemblage composition. Estimated richness was lowest in palm plantations than in forest reserves and riparian corridors on diversity of orchid bees. Riparian corridors had the highest abundance, followed by reserves, and oil palm plantations. Bee assemblage also varied with land cover, with the reserves having the most distinct composition. We also identified indicator bees for primary forest. Our results demonstrate riparian corridors and forest reserves can maintain orchid bees in oil palm landscapes. Amazon / Euglossini / fragmentation / land use / permanent protection areas 1. INTRODUCTION expansion for food, fiber, and fuel is understand- ing how to retain biodiversity and associated eco- One of the greatest challenges facing conserva- system services within sustainable production tion biologists in an age of rapid agricultural landscapes (MEA 2005;Tomichetal.2011; Laurance et al. 2014). Pollination is a critical biodiversity-dependent ecosystem service in both Electronic supplementary material The online version of natural and human landscapes that can be nega- this article (doi:10.1007/s13592-017-0500-z) contains tively impacted by land-use changes (Steffan- supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. Dewenter et al. 2005; Klein et al. 2007; Giannini Corresponding author: T. Brito, et al. 2015). In tropical plantations, such as coffee [email protected] and cacao, proximity to natural areas and forests Manuscript Editor: Klaus Hartfelder can boost farmers’ yields by providing habitat to 576 T.F. Brito et al. wild pollinators that pollinate farmers’ crops Center biodiversity hotspot (Gascon et al. 2001; (De Marco Jr and Coelho 2004; Greenleaf and Brandão and Schoneveld 2015). In general, con- Kremen 2006). However, despite their ecological ventional oil palm plantations have low conserva- and economic importance, pollinators are tion value due to the loss of biodiversity and declining worldwide due to habitat loss, land-use simplification of habitats compared to native for- changes, and the pervasive use of pesticides ests (Turner and Foster 2009;Fosteretal.2011). (Henry et al. 2012;Burkleetal.2013; Oliveira Further, oil palm plantation insect assemblages are et al. 2016). typically dominated by a few abundant general- In the Neotropics, orchid bees (Apidae, ists, non-forest species, and pests (Chey 2006; Euglossini) compose an important group of Fitzherbert et al. 2008). endemic pollinators containing nearly 250 spe- Some studies in the Neotropics found that or- cies (Nemésio and Rasmussen 2011). They are chid bee communities are sensitive to oil palm known for their striking metallic colors and plantations and increasing isolation from forest males’ scent-collecting behaviors from bloom- habitat, as well as other landscape changes ing orchids and other flowers, which is alleg- (Livingston et al. 2013;PowellandPowell1987, edly used to attract females (Dressler 1982a). respectively). To mitigate some of these effects, This behavior makes orchid bees ecologically Brazilian law requires land owners to preserve critical as long-distance pollinators (Dressler forest reserves and riparian corridors (permanent 1982a), where individual plants are often wide- protection areas or BÁreas de Preservação ly spaced at low densities (Janzen 1971). Or- Permanente ^ in Portuguese, henceforth APPs), chid bees pollinate more than 600 species of believing that these refuges may maintain biodi- plants and are frequent visitors to hundreds versity and corridors can connect fragmented pop- more (Dressler 1982a; Ramírez et al. 2002; ulations (Brazilian Law n° 12.651 2012;Marques Rocha-Filho et al. 2012), including economi- and Ranieri 2012). cally important species like Brazil nuts (Maués In this study, we examined the role of forest 2002). Orchid bees are more diverse in reserves and riparian corridors in conserving and rainforests (Nemésio and Silveira 2007), and maintaining orchid bee biodiversity in the oil palm many species are forest-interior specialists and landscape in the Brazilian State of Pará, the most are sensitive to forest fragmentation (Milet- important agricultural frontier for oil palm in the Pinheiro and Schlindwein 2005), in contrary region (Fitzherbert et al. 2008; Butler and to most bee groups that are usually more di- Laurance 2009). Since some orchid bees species verse in xeric and temperate zones (Michener are very sensitive to fragmentation and do not use 2007). Consequently, habitat loss, conversion, the matrix environment surrounding forest frag- and degradation negatively impact orchid bee ments to disperse throughout their habitats (Milet- assemblages (Brosi 2009). Pinheiro and Schlindwein 2005;Rosaetal.2015), In the tropics, oil palm (Elaeis guineensis we hypothesized that orchid bee richness and Jacq.) is one of the of the most important com- abundance would be greatest in the forest reserves modity plantations, as the oil has multiple uses and lowest in the palm plantation, with the APPs from food to cosmetics to biofuel (Fitzherbert containing intermediate levels of richness and et al. 2008). Oil palm plantations now cover more abundance. than 14.5 million hectares worldwide, and contin- ue to rapidly expand (Foster et al. 2011; Livingston et al. 2013). Most oil palm is in South- 2. MATERIALS AND METHODS east Asia, but Neotropical oil palm plantations are expanding, particularly in Brazil where oil palm 2.1. Study site production doubled from 46,000 ha in 2001 to 109,000 ha in 2009 (FAO 2013). The great ma- The study was carried out in oil palm plan- jority of oil palm plantations in Brazil are located tations, forest reserves, and APPs at the in the State of Pará, within the Belém Endemism Agropalma Industrial Complex, near the Orchid Bees in Oil Palm Plantations 577 municipality of Tailândia, in the southeast of the 2.2. Orchid bee sampling state of Pará, Brazil (Figure 1), approximately 02°20′ and 02°40′S by 48°30′ and 49°0′W. We sampled male orchid bees from 12 July to Agropalma consists of 107,000 ha where 28 July 2015 in three areas (sites) of each land-use 64,000 ha are preserved as forest reserves and type (3 forest reserves, 3 APPs, and 3 oil palm the other 40,000 ha are conventional palm plan- plantations) (Figure 1), totaling nine sampling tation (the remainder being company infrastruc- days. This rapid survey approach is appropriate ture). The region’s climate is hot and humid, for this group of bees, and short sampling