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Honeybee numbers and dance skills harmful combination for native species
A Curtin University study has found the introduced European honeybee could lead to native bee population decline or extinction when colonies compete for the same nectar and pollen sources in urban gardens and areas of bush.
Picture: Kit Prendergast
Published in the ‘Biological Journal of the Linnean Society’, the research found competition between the native bees and the introduced European honeybee could be particularly intense in residential gardens dominated by non-native flowers, and occurred when the bees shared the same flower preferences.
Under these conditions, it would appear that European honeybees, being very abundant, and effective foragers, with the ability to exploit a wide range of flowers, can outcompete native bees for nectar and pollen resources.
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Curtin research finds introduced honeybee may pose threat to native bees
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Residential gardens are a poor substitute for native bushland and increasing urbanisation is a growing threat when it comes to bees, Curtin University research has found.
Published in Urban Ecosystems , the research looked at bee visits to flowers, which form pollination networks across different native bushland and home garden habitats.
Lead author, Forrest Foundation Scholar Miss Kit Prendergast, from Curtin s School of Molecular and Life Sciences said the findings highlight the need to prevent destruction of remaining bushland and preserve native vegetation, in order to protect sustainable bee communities and their pollination services. Our study involved spending hundreds of hours at 14 sites on the Swan Coastal Plain at Perth, Western Australia, recording which bees visited which flowers in the two types of habitats - gardens and native bushland, Miss Prendergast said.