Bumblebee conservation in agricultural landscapes - the role of landscape structure and the Environmental Land Management Scheme

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This PhD project will examine the role of landscape structure, networks ofhabitats and the competition between managed and wild pollinators on wildbumblebee conservation in agricultural landscapes. This research willexamine the broad research question: "What is the effect of landscapestructure on bumblebee populations?" Answering this question will inform howcurrent Environmental Land Management Schemes and internationalrecommendations for pollinator conservation can be more effective in helpingmaintain and restore bumblebee populations. The research will be set in acollection of nature reserves and a farm level experimental landscape inCambridgeshire, the United Kingdom, where field surveys and experimentsinvolving lab-reared bumblebees and honeybees will take place. Using lab-reared Buff-tailed bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) from wild-caught queens,colony fitness will be investigated alongside bumblebee use of variedlandscape features such as, woodlands, bare soil, and hedgerows.Bumblebee resource use will be tracked by following their movement throughthe landscape, via pollen analysis, and a novel eDNA analysis method. Inaddition, indicators of colony fitness, including foraging success and colonysize, will be measured. Data will be collated to shape networks ofbumblebees, forage plants, and landscape feature interactions to drawconclusions on habitat resilience and robustness. This data will reveal thescale of habitat restoration that is needed in agricultural landscapes. Tocomplement this, competition with other pollinators, such as managedhoneybees, will be examined through replicated field experiments withbumblebees and honeybee hives in varying stocking densities. The outcomesof this research will fill a research gap on wild pollinator landscape use, andthe competition between wild and managed pollinators, and it will be utilisedto produce policy-relevant recommendations for evidence-based landmanagement policies at national and regional scales.