Beekeeping practices and geographic distance, not land use, drive gene flow across tropical bees.
Across the globe, wild bees are threatened by ongoing natural habitat loss, risking the maintenance of plant biodiversity and agricultural production. Despite the ecological and economic importance of wild bees and the fact that several species are now managed for pollination services worldwide, little is known about how land use and beekeeping practices jointly influence gene flow. Using stingless bees as a model system, containing wild and managed species that are presumed to be particularly susceptible to habitat degradation, here we examine the main drivers of tropical bee gene flow. We employ a novel landscape genetic approach to analyse data from 135 populations of 17 stingless bee species distributed across diverse tropical biomes within the Americas. Our work has important methodological implications, as we illustrate how a maximum-likelihood approach can be applied in a meta-analysis framework to account for multiple factors, and weight estimates by sample size. In contrast to previously held beliefs, gene flow was not related to body size or deforestation, and isolation by geographic distance (IBD) was significantly affected by management, with managed species exhibiting a weaker IBD than wild ones. Our study thus reveals the critical importance of beekeeping practices in shaping the patterns of genetic differentiation across bee species. Additionally, our results show that many stingless bee species maintain high gene flow across heterogeneous landscapes. We suggest that future efforts to preserve wild tropical bees should focus on regulating beekeeping practices to maintain natural gene flow and enhancing pollinator-friendly habitats, prioritizing species showing a limited dispersal ability.
Vale Institute of Technology - Sustainable Development, Rua Boaventura da Silva 955, 66055-090, Belém, PA, Brazil. r.jaffe@ib.usp.br.|Department of Ecology, Universidade de São Paulo, Rua do Matão 321, 05508-090, São Paulo, SP, Brazil. r.jaffe@ib.usp.br.
Rodolfo
R
Jaffé
Department of Integrative Biology, University of Texas, 401 Biological Laboratories, Austin, TX, 78712, USA.
Nathaniel
N
Pope
Department of Ecology, Universidade de São Paulo, Rua do Matão 321, 05508-090, São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
André L
AL
Acosta
Department of Entomology and Acarology, Luiz de Queiroz College of Agriculture, Universidade de São Paulo, Av Pádua Dias 11, 13418-900, Piracicaba, SP, Brazil.
Denise A
DA
Alves
Department of Genetics and Evolutionary Biology, Universidade de São Paulo, Rua do Matão 321, 05508-090, São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
Maria C
MC
Arias
Department of Zoology and Physical Anthropology, Facultad de Veterinaria, Universidad de Murcia, 30100, Murcia, Spain.
Pilar
0000-0002-0058-1402
P
De la Rúa
Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
Flávio O
0000-0002-0104-6575
FO
Francisco
Vale Institute of Technology - Sustainable Development, Rua Boaventura da Silva 955, 66055-090, Belém, PA, Brazil.|Department of Ecology, Universidade de São Paulo, Rua do Matão 321, 05508-090, São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
Tereza C
TC
Giannini
Department of Ecology, Universidade de São Paulo, Rua do Matão 321, 05508-090, São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
Adrian
A
González-Chaves
Vale Institute of Technology - Sustainable Development, Rua Boaventura da Silva 955, 66055-090, Belém, PA, Brazil.|Department of Ecology, Universidade de São Paulo, Rua do Matão 321, 05508-090, São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
Vera L
VL
Imperatriz-Fonseca
Department of General Biology, Federal University of Viçosa, Av. P H Rolfs, s/n, 36570-000, Viçosa, MG, Brazil.
Mara G
MG
Tavares
Department of Integrative Biology, University of Texas, 401 Biological Laboratories, Austin, TX, 78712, USA.
Shalene
S
Jha
Department of Ecology, Universidade de Brasília, 70910-900, Brasília, DF, Brazil.|Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes (CE3C), Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, 1749-016, Lisboa, Portugal.
Luísa G
LG
Carvalheiro
D000818:Animals; D056630:Beekeeping; D001516:Bees / Q000235:genetics*; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D017753:Ecosystem; D051456:Gene Flow; D005828:Genetics, Population; D005843:Geography; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D014329:Tropical Climate
beekeeping; dispersal; land use; landscape genetics; pollination; stingless bees