D3284: Diet diversity and niche overlap of Bombus spp. collected along an urbanization gradient in eastern Virginia

As land use change continues at a rapid pace, it is increasingly important to understand how such environmental alterations influence beneficial insects, including pollinators. In eastern North America, bumble bees, are an important group of pollinators within managed and non-managed ecosystems. Here, we investigated changes in dietary diversity and niche overlap across common bumble bee species along an urbanization gradient. We hypothesized that more urbanized sites will harbor greater dietary diversity and exhibit increased dietary niche overlap across species. We collected common bumble species in eastern Virginia from three urban, two suburban, and three rural landscape locations. Corbicular pollen was carefully separated from whole body pollen to differentiate pollen actively collected by bees versus those incidentally collected during nectar and pollen foraging. Molecular analysis through next generation sequencing will be used to identify plant diversity from the collected pollen.