Resource tracking and costs of wing wear in foraging bumble bees

这项研究有两个主题，都以熊蜂的摄食行为为特色。首先，它考虑了资源追踪：竞争的蜜蜂如何在可用的花朵中分配自己，这种分配的后果是什么？ 在一个精细的尺度上，它研究了蜜蜂如何使用花蜜在花朵中分布的“快照”来推断哪些植物值得重新访问。 在景观尺度上，它研究了蜜蜂访问的植物的繁殖成功是如何受到伐木造成的资源跟踪的特殊扭曲的影响。 其次，它考虑了翅膀磨损对大黄蜂的影响。 我们知道翅膀磨损缩短了蜜蜂的寿命，但我们不知道翅膀的使用如何导致翅膀磨损。 我们知道，在简单的栖息地，翅膀磨损对飞行性能的影响很小，但不知道翅膀磨损如何影响蜜蜂栖息地更复杂的飞行。 最后，翅膀磨损对资源跟踪的影响进行了研究，已知独立影响觅食行为的两个特征：蜜蜂的身体大小和密度的植物。 总的来说，这项研究使用觅食的大黄蜂来告诉我们，在自然界中，消费者如何动态地利用资源，并在这样做的同时磨损。

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.