Management of artificial nests for the conservation of solitary bees in agroforestry system and in seasonal semi-decidental forest

• Grant number: 21/13971-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: March 01, 2022
• End date: February 28, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Forestry Resources and Forestry Engineering - Nature Conservation
• Principal Investigator: Roberta Cornélio Ferreira Nocelli
• Grantee: Gabrielle Vidal Pinto
• Host Institution: Centro de Ciências Agrárias (CCA). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). Araras , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 17/21097-3 - Bee-agriculture interactions: perspectives to sustainable use, AP.BTA.TEM

Abstract

Representing 85% of the bee species already described, solitary bees suffer from a decline in their populations. The integration of these insects in agroforestry systems (AFS) can increase the chances of their conservation. With that in mind, this project intends to prove the efficiency of artificial nests for attracting different species of solitary bees in a AFS planned as an ecological restoration strategy in a Legal Reserve area, and in a fragment of seasonal semideciduous forest, both areas located at Ufscar, Agricultural Science Center (CCA), Araras campus, SP. It is expected to identify the colonization patterns of solitary bee species in artificial nests and confirm variations in biomass and the origin of the content added by them among the sampled areas. The artificial nests will be organized with cardboard tubes inserted in wooden blocks, which will be installed in four places: AFS borders; interior of the AFS; forest fragment border; interior of the forest fragment. The distances between the border and the interior in each area will be 30 m. Three wooden structures will be installed in each location that will house pairs of artificial nests, 10 m apart. The collection of nested cardboard tubes will be done every fortnight, with birth monitoring in the laboratory every 24 hours. Of the bees that are born, one of each tube will be mounted to identify the species, while the others will be released. To determine the added biomass, each tube will be weighed on the day of collection and at each birth. After the birth of all bees, acetolysis of the inner content of the tubes will be performed to identify the floral origin. Multivariate analyzes will be carried out, in which it is expected to establish relationships between the biomass of artificial nests, pollen diversity, the number of offspring and the origin of the samples.(AU)