title: Quadrat method for assessing the population abundance of a commercially managed native soil-nesting bee, Nomia melanderi (Hymenoptera: Halictidae), in proximity to alfalfa seed production in the western United States.
abstract: Alkali bees, Nomia melanderi Cockerell, are solitary, gregarious, soil-nesting bees native to the western United States that are commercially managed in the Walla Walla Valley of Washington State to provide pollination service on alfalfa, Medicago sativa L., produced as a seed crop. In 2010 and 2011, we compared two techniques for estimating N. melanderi abundance in commercially managed bee beds. The first technique involved quantifying the abundance of emergence holes in 24 0.5-m2 quadrats on the surface of 13 bee beds during the peak period of N. melanderi foraging activity in July of both years. When we counted emergence holes, we marked a subset of eight quadrats per bee bed with plastic tabs. Subsequently, in late October of the same year, 0.014-m3 soil cores were collected in close proximity to the plastic tabs. The soil cores were teased apart in the laboratory and the absolute abundance of overwintering prepupae was quantified per core. Simple regression was highly significant between the means of emergence holes within the 0.5-m2 soil surface quadrats and the means of the counts from the 0.014-m3 soil cores. Using mean emergence hole counts, mean prepupae counts from the soil cores, and the surface area of the bee beds, we were able to calculate the estimated abundance of N. melanderi in each bee bed. We conclude that the nondestructive quadrat method of sampling N. melanderi abundance in commercially managed beds is robust compared with the destructive, labor-intensive, absolute soil core method.
authors.forename: A C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Vinchesi
authors.forename: D B
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Walsh
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D056630:Beekeeping / Q000379:methods*; D001516:Bees; D000455:Medicago sativa; D011156:Population Density; D014861:Washington