Conserving the diversity of bees in farmland

该项目将开展一项实地研究计划，以了解野生蜜蜂群落如何以及为什么对农场和景观管理的变化做出反应，并特别关注地面筑巢独居蜜蜂群落对再生农业的反应。这个项目源于我们小组的初步观察，该观察表明，春季飞行的蜜蜂群落可能更多样化，但在采用再生做法的耕地中出现得更早。学生将设计一个至少两年的观察和实验计划，以证实或反驳这种明显的模式，并探索它对更大规模的功能多样性和授粉服务的意义。他们将设计和测试假设，以解释蜜蜂多样性差异的潜在机制，不同结构的农业景观和不同管理的农场。

This project will conduct a programme of field research to understand how, and why, wild bee communities respond to changes in farm and landscape management, with a particular focus on the response of the ground-nesting solitary bee community to regenerative agriculture. This project stems from preliminary observations in our group suggesting that spring-flying bee communities may be more diverse, but emerge earlier, in arable farms with regenerative practices. The student will design a programme of observations and experiments over at least two years, to confirm or refute this apparent pattern, and to explore what it means for functional diversity and pollination services at larger scales. They will devise and test hypotheses to explain the mechanisms underlying differences in bee diversity, in agricultural landscapes with different structures and farms with different management.