D3294: The impact of disturbed and undisturbed habitats on the Bombus community in the Maritime provinces, Canada

Anthropogenic habitat alteration and agricultural intensification have been recognized as global concerns for wild bees. While the overall impacts of anthropogenic disturbance on the wild bee community have been negative, certain species can benefit from changes in floral or nesting resources. The focus of our study was to investigate if there were differences in the abundance, richness and Simpson’s diversity of the bumble bee community in the Maritime provinces, Canada. In particular, we focused on the impact of disturbed sites, such as agricultural and pasture habitats versus less disturbed sites, such as forest habitats. At each site, a blue vane trap was placed for a two week period to sample the Bombus community. Each site was sampled twice, once in June and once in August of 2022. All bumblebees found within these traps were cleaned, pinned and identified to species. We found that there was a significant difference between disturbed and undisturbed habitats in species richness, species abundance and Simpson’s diversity. In particular, we found that agricultural and pasture habitats had higher species richness, abundance and diversity in comparison to forest habitats, suggesting that they may provide a more resourceful habitat for the bumblebees. We are currently expanding this survey to include all wild bee species across the Maritime provinces to better understand their distribution and habitat preferences. This study can be helpful for both conservation and management practices, as it can provide land managers with the best techniques to increase the number of wild pollinators on their property.