Woodlands Facilitate Reproductive Behaviour and Niche Partitioning in Farmland Bumblebee Communities

Allen, Guthrie, Dicks, Lynn v., Taylor, Martin i., Hewitt, Daniel and Davies, Richard g. (2026) Woodlands Facilitate Reproductive Behaviour and Niche Partitioning in Farmland Bumblebee Communities. Ecology and Evolution, 16 (4). ISSN 2045-7758

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Abstract

Open and closed woodland likely dominated Europe's landscapes during the evolution of its contemporary pollinator diversity, contributing distinct floral and non-floral resources and cooler and darker microclimates to otherwise treeless environments. As such, we would expect present-day, generalist pollinator species, such as farmland bumblebees, to exploit woodland resources to differing degrees, and for evolutionary adaptations, such as species' light sensitivity, to accord with relative use of shaded understories. We would also expect exploitation to differ between the pollen-collecting and reproductive castes. However, a lack of temperate woodland sampling has meant these predictions remain largely untested. To address this knowledge gap, we sampled bumblebee activity (activity-density) with blue vane traps in shaded woodland understories and in sun-exposed field margins and woodland canopies from May to July, at 12 sites across agricultural landscapes in Norfolk, England. We then examined relative levels of activity in the understory according to bumblebee species and their light sensitivity, and bumblebee caste. We found that levels of activity in the understory were highly species-specific and greatest for Bombus hortorum L. and B. pratorum L. Across species, activity levels in the two sun-exposed habitats (relative to the understory) were highly positively correlated with each other, and the most light-sensitive species were more active in the understory. Additionally, the reproductive castes were more active in the understory than workers, especially when temperatures reached heatwave thresholds. These results suggest that woodlands (1) support bumblebee reproductive behaviour, (2) have played a key role in facilitating niche differentiation, mediated by the provision of shade and (3) could be important for maintaining bumblebee diversity in agricultural landscapes—and under a warming climate—with attendant benefits for pollination services.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Data Availability Statement: The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in Dryad at https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.jwstqjqqb.
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Science > School of Biological Sciences University of East Anglia Research Groups/Centres > Theme - ClimateUEA
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Science > Research Centres > Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Conservation Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Collaborative Centre for Sustainable Use of the Seas Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Organisms and the Environment
Related URLs:	https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1...
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	23 Apr 2026 11:36
Last Modified:	26 Apr 2026 07:26
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/102822
DOI:	10.1002/ece3.73415

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