The impacts of urban and suburban landscapes on native bee conservation and crop pollination

访花昆虫，如野生蜜蜂、大黄蜂和蜜蜂，为人类种群提供了一项基本的服务，即授粉。这项服务对农业至关重要，因为全球三分之一以上的粮食供应需要传粉者的造访。据报道，整个欧洲和北美的野生蜜蜂数量都在下降。栖息地的丧失很可能是造成这些下降的几个因素之一。很少有研究考察城市和郊区发展对本地蜜蜂群落的影响，也没有研究探讨野生蜜蜂在城市/郊区和农村交界处的活动情况。这项建议的总体目标是调查城市和郊区景观对野生蜜蜂保护和作物授粉的影响。这项研究计划的具体目标是：1)确定野生蜜蜂的多样性和丰度是否在发展梯度(从城市到自然土地)上发生变化；2)确定支持野蜂的植物种类；3)确定城市景观组成部分，如观赏植物、草坪和非植物，对邻近农田中野蜂的丰度和生物多样性的影响；以及4)确定位于郊区/城乡交界处的花丛是否促进野蜂进入农作物。建议的研究是新颖的，将对城市景观管理、保护规划和土地利用政策产生重要影响。

Flower-visiting insects, such as wild bees, bumblebees and the honeybee, provide an essential service to human populations, pollination. This service is vital to agriculture as more than one third of the global food supply requires the visit of pollinators. Populations of wild bees have been reported to decline across Europe and North America. Habitat loss is likely to be one of several factors to contribute to these declines. Few studies have examined the effects of urban and suburban developments on native bee communities and no studies have explored the movement of wild bees at the interface of urban/suburban and rural areas. The overall objective of this proposal is to investigate the impacts of urban and suburban landscapes on wild bee conservation and crop pollination. The specific objectives of this research program are to 1) determine whether wild bee diversity and abundance change across a gradient of development (from urban to natural lands); 2) identify the plant species that support wild bees; 3) determine the effect of urban landscape components, such as ornamentals, turf grass, and non-plant, on the abundance and biodiversity of wild bees in adjacent agricultural fields; and 4) determine whether floral patches located in sub/urban-rural interfaces enhance the movement of wild bees into crops. The proposed research is novel and will have important implications for urban landscape management, conservation planning, and land-use policies.