Floral resource effects on bumble bee colony and population dynamics

Neal Williams about the seminar:

There is a widely held belief that floral resources limit wild bee populations in intensive agricultural lands. Most research to date correlates flowers with patterns bee foraging activity, but stops short of documenting demographic responses of bees to differences in available floral resources.

I report on recent empirical and modeling work that quantifies the impacts of floral resources on vital rates of bumble bees, and examines how the seasonal timing of available forage may deferentially effect colony growth and reproduction through latent effects. Providing a mechanistic link from resources to population response allows for clearer understanding of how bees response to environmental change and may better inform management actions to bolster important pollinator populations.