A century of pollen foraging by the endangered rusty patched bumble bee ( Bombus affinis ): inferences from molecular se
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ORIGINAL PAPER
A century of pollen foraging by the endangered rusty patched bumble bee (Bombus affinis): inferences from molecular sequencing of museum specimens Michael P. Simanonok1 • Clint R. V. Otto1 • R. Scott Cornman2 • Deborah D. Iwanowicz3 • James P. Strange4,5 • Tamara A. Smith6 Received: 29 June 2020 / Revised: 1 October 2020 / Accepted: 31 October 2020 Ó This is a U.S. Government work and not under copyright protection in the US; foreign copyright protection may apply 2020
Abstract In 2017 the rusty patched bumble bee (Bombus affinis) became the first bee listed under the Endangered Species Act in the continental United States due to population declines and an 87% reduction in the species’ distribution. Bombus affinis decline began in the 1990s, predating modern bee surveying initiatives, and obfuscating drivers of decline. While understood to be a highly generalist forager, little is known about the role that resource limitation or shifting floral community composition could have played in B. affinis decline. Determining which floral species support B. affinis could assist conservation efforts where B. affinis persists and identify floral species for restoration efforts. We constructed a historical foraging profile of B. affinis via DNA sequencing of pollen from museum specimens spanning seven states collected from 1913 to 2013. Molecular analysis revealed no temporal changes in the floral richness or composition of B. affinis pollen samples across our sampling period. Likewise, we found no temporal changes in the presence or proportion of native vs. introduced species in pollen samples, though we observed much greater use of introduced floral species than previously determined for B. affinis. Floral community composition was regionally dissimilar, inconsistent with patterns of B. affinis decline by state. Our results suggest B. affinis decline was unlikely to have been driven by spatial or temporal limitations of specific floral species. This work greatly expands the known forage of B. affinis and will provide managers with insight to aid the conservation of B. affinis. Keywords Entomological collections ITS2 rRNA Palynology Pollination Pollen DNA
Communicated by Nigel E. Stork. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531020-02081-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. & Michael P. Simanonok [email protected] Extended author information available on the last page of the article
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Biodiversity and Conservation
Introduction North American bumble bee population declines are driven in-part by habitat loss and degradation (Grixti et al. 2009; Williams and Osborne 2009; Cameron et al. 2011; Colla et al. 2012). In 2017 the rusty patched bumble bee (Bombus affinis Cresson) became the first bee species listed under the Endangered Species Act in the continental United States (USFWS 2017). The listing decision was informed through research that estimated
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