Bee community response to local and landscape factors along an urban-rural gradient
Kristen R. Birdshire, Adrian L. Carper, Christy E. Briles
Urban Ecosystems
Urban Farm DB summary
A study examined bee community responses along a high-plains semi-arid urban-rural gradient in Denver, Colorado, United States, using percent impervious surface across 12 sites to define urbanization extent and combining field assessment with geospatial analysis of local and landscape characteristics; wild bees were collected and analyzed against urbanization using linear modeling. Bee abundance and diversity decreased with increasing urbanization, indicating a negative impact of urban areas on bee communities. All bee guilds responded positively to local floral richness and negatively to landscape-level urbanization, suggesting a shared response pattern across bee types.