Resource tracking and costs of wing wear in foraging bumble bees

这项研究有两个主题，都是关于大黄蜂的取食行为。首先，它考虑了资源跟踪：相互竞争的蜜蜂如何在可用的花朵上分布自己，这种分布的后果是什么？在精细的尺度上，它考察了蜜蜂如何利用花蜜分布的“快照”来推断哪些植物值得重访。在景观尺度上，它考察了蜜蜂访问的植物的繁殖成功是如何受到采伐引起的资源跟踪的特殊扭曲的影响的。其次，它考虑了大黄蜂翅膀磨损的成本。我们知道，翅膀的佩戴缩短了蜜蜂的寿命但我们不知道翅膀的使用是如何导致翅膀磨损的。我们知道翅膀磨损在简单的栖息地对飞行性能影响很小，但不知道在蜜蜂居住的更复杂的栖息地，翅膀磨损如何影响飞行。最后，关于两个已知的独立影响觅食行为的特征：蜜蜂的身体大小和植物的密度，考察了翅膀磨损对资源跟踪的影响。总体而言，这项研究使用觅食大黄蜂来告诉我们一些事情，在自然界中，消费者如何动态地利用资源，并在这样做的同时耗尽精力。

This research has two themes, both featuring the feeding behaviour of bumble bees. First, it considers resource-tracking: how do competing bees distribute themselves across available flowers, and what are the consequences of this distribution?  At a fine scale, it examines how bees might use "snapshots" of nectar distribution in flowers to infer which plants are worth revisiting.  At a landscape scale, it examines how the reproductive success of plants that bees visit is affected by a particular distortion of resource-tracking caused by logging.  Second, it considers costs of wing wear to bumble bees.  We know that wing wear shortens bee lives, but we don't know how wing use causes wing wear.  We know that wing wear has minor effects on flight performance in simple habitats, but don't know how wing wear affects flight in the more complex ones that bees inhabit.  Finally, the influence of wing wear on resource tracking is examined with regard to two traits known to independently affect foraging behaviour: bee body size and density of plants.  Overall, this research uses foraging bumble bees to tell us something about how, in nature, consumers dynamically exploit resources, and wear out while so doing.