Decline of Bumble Bees (Bombus) in the North American Midwest

Decline of bumble bees (Bombus) in the North American Midwest was investigated. Bumble bees provided the vital ecosystem service of pollination in both natural and managed systems, and declined in their abundance and distribution had serious ecological and economic ramifications. Potential causes ci...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Biological conservation 2008-01, Vol.142 (1), p.75-75
Main Authors: Grixti, Jennifer C, Wong, Lisa T, Cameron, Sydney A, Favret, Colin
Format: Article
Language:English
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Decline of bumble bees (Bombus) in the North American Midwest was investigated. Bumble bees provided the vital ecosystem service of pollination in both natural and managed systems, and declined in their abundance and distribution had serious ecological and economic ramifications. Potential causes cited for the decline of North American bumble bees included land-use changes in the form of urbanization and agricultural conversion, extensive pesticide use, and pathogen spillover from commercial bumble bee colonies that contained many parasites. The results showed that species diversity was significantly higher in the northern region, when compared to the central and southern regions. It was concluded that museum collections contained valuable baseline data on species distribution and richness over large geographic and temporal scales.
ISSN:0006-3207