Bumblebee Behaviour during Ecological Twilight

自上个世纪以来，与人类住区和农业及其他活动地区有关的夜间环境中人工照明的广泛使用有所增加，极大地改变了自然的日常和季节性光线模式。越来越多的证据表明，光污染影响许多生态系统，迫切需要更多的研究来了解光污染对动物行为和植物-动物相互作用的影响。这个项目的重点是蜜蜂，最重要和最丰富的传粉者群体。蜜蜂的飞行、导航和觅食行为主要是由视觉引导的，但蜜蜂在决定访问哪朵花时也依赖于其他感官线索。人们对蜜蜂的行为、生理和生态都很了解，而且有先进的方法。考虑到人造光源的空间和时间维度以及每日光照周期的季节性变化，我们将确定不同光照条件下蜜蜂活动模式和蜜蜂与植物相互作用的变化。该研究将有助于预测光污染对蜂群和种群水平的影响，并确定在以对冲为主的农业景观中，在生态系统水平上对授粉服务的潜在风险。这些问题将通过结合生态学、行为学和建模方法来解决。该项目得到了来自不同研究学科的专家监督团队和CASE合作伙伴南德文郡AONB在景观生态学和管理方面的专业知识的支持。观测和实验数据将在实地收集，利用AONB现有的光污染和黑暗天空地图，并得到当地社区的支持。研究结果将为景观和照明管理的当前实践和政策提供信息，并支持由南德文郡AONB领导的南德文郡b线项目的持续工作。

The widespread use of artificial lighting at night in the environment, associated with human settlements and areas of agricultural and other activities, has increased since the last century, massively altering natural daily and seasonal patterns of light. Growing evidence shows that it affects many ecosystems, and more research is urgently needed to understand the impact of light pollution on animal behaviour and plant-animal interactions. The focus of this project is on bees, the most important and abundant group of pollinators. Bee flight, navigation and foraging behaviour is mainly guided by vision, but bees also rely on other sensory cues when deciding which flowers to visit. The behaviour, physiology and ecology of bees are very well understood, and advanced methods are available. We will determine how patterns of activity and bee-plant interactions vary under different lighting conditions, considering spatial and temporal dimensions of light from artificial sources and seasonal variations of daily light cycles. This research will help to predict how light pollution affects bees at colony and population level, and identify potential risks for pollination services at ecosystems level in hedge-dominated agricultural landscapes. The questions will be addressed using a combination of ecological, behavioural and modelling approaches. The project is supported by a team of expert supervisors from different research disciplines and the CASE partner, the South Devon AONB with expertise in landscape ecology and management. Observational and experimental data will be collected in the field, taking advantage of existing mappings of light pollution and dark skies in the AONB and support from local communities. The findings will inform current practices and policies in landscape and lighting management and support ongoing work in the South Devon B-Lines project led by the South-Devon AONB.