| Full text | |
| Author(s): |
Aleixo, Katia Paula
[1]
;
de Faria, Leticia Biral
[1, 2]
;
Groppo, Milton
[1]
;
do Nascimento Castro, Mauricio Meirelles
[1]
;
da Silva, Claudia Ines
[1, 3]
Total Authors: 5
|
| Affiliation: | [1] Univ Sao Paulo, Fac Filosofia Ciencias & Letras Ribeirao Preto, Dept Biol, BR-14040901 Ribeirao Preto, SP - Brazil
[2] Univ Sao Paulo, Inst Biociencias, BR-05508900 Sao Paulo - Brazil
[3] Univ Fed Ceara, Ctr Ciencias Agr, Dept Zootecn, BR-60021970 Fortaleza, CE - Brazil
Total Affiliations: 3
|
| Document type: | Journal article |
| Source: | URBAN FORESTRY & URBAN GREENING; v. 13, n. 4, p. 689-696, 2014. |
| Web of Science Citations: | 9 |
| Abstract | |
Cities provide resources for the animals that live in them or their surroundings. There has been an increase in the number of ecological studies in urban areas, including interactions between plants and bees. Bees are pollinators that provide a vital ecosystem service to crops and wild plants. We assessed plant community structure in the campus of Universidade de Sao Paulo in Ribeirao Preto, Brazil, included in the neotropical Atlantic Forest biome, focusing on floristic composition, pollination syndromes, flowering phenology, and spatiotemporal distribution of floral resources for bees. Currently, the city is surrounded by sugar cane plantations. Once a month, from April 2011 to March 2012, we sampled plant species and individuals in bloom in an area with 500 m radius from the bee-rearing facilities of Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciencias e Letras de Ribeirao Preto (FFCLRP), totaling 78 hectares. We sampled 289 plant species of 73 families; Leguminosae was the richest family. Plants pollinated by bees predominated (67%), followed by plants pollinated by hummingbirds (18%). Melittophilous species flowered throughout the year and, hence, food availability for bees was continuous. The flowering of plant individuals that provided pollen, nectar, and floral oil was seasonal in all vegetation (except for nectar in shrubs), with peaks in resource availability in the transition from the dry to the rainy season, and also in the rainy season. Our results show that the campus is able to maintain bee populations amid a monoculture matrix, acting as a refuge. In addition, it provides a list of several attractive native plants to different pollinator groups, coupled with a phenogram, that can be used in the design and planning of urban areas. (C) 2014 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved. (AU) | |
| FAPESP's process: | 10/10285-4 - Sustainable use and conservation of bees as pollinators in Brazil: the use of pollen as a source of ecological information |
| Grantee: | Carlos Alberto Garofalo |
| Support Opportunities: | Regular Research Grants |