Changes in composition and structure of a wild bee community and plant-pollinator interactions in South-Central Ontario over a forty-nine year period
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Wild pollinators provide important ecosystem services for both agricultural and natural ecosystems. While there is evidence of global pollinator declines, more long-term studies are needed to assess population trends, and the potential impacts of environmental stress factors such as land-use intensification and climate change. This is the first study to examine long-term changes in a wild bee community in Canada. Wild bee abundance, species richness, diversity and evenness were compared across three sampling periods (1968-1969, 2002-03, and 2016-17) in Caledon, Ontario over 49 years. Despite decreases in wild bee abundance since 2002-03, the diversity, evenness and richness increased over time. Extensive restructuring (including loss and frequency changes) of plant-pollinator interactions from 2002-03 to 2016-17 appeared not to affect network resilience. While local trends in land-use patterns did not predict changes in this wild bee community, climatic changes in temperature and snowfall correlated with wild bee abundance at the site.