Landscape context alters cost of living in honeybee metabolism and feeding.
Field metabolic rate (FMR) links the energy budget of an animal with the constraints of its ecosystem, but is particularly difficult to measure for small organisms. Landscape degradation exacerbates environmental adversity and reduces resource availability, imposing higher costs of living for many organisms. Here, we report a significant effect of landscape degradation on the FMR of free-flyingApis mellifera, estimated using86Rb radio-isotopic turnover. We validated the relationship between86Rbkband metabolic rate for worker bees in the laboratory using flow-through respirometry. We then released radioisotopically enriched individuals into a natural woodland and a heavily degraded and deforested plantation. FMRs of worker bees in natural woodland vegetation were significantly higher than in a deforested landscape. Nectar consumption, estimated using22Na radio-isotopic turnover, also differed significantly between natural and degraded landscapes. In the deforested landscape, we infer that the costs of foraging exceeded energetic availability, and honeybees instead foraged less and depended more on stored resources in the hive. If this is generally the case with increasing landscape degradation, this will have important implications for the provision of pollination services and the effectiveness and resilience of ecological restoration practice.
School of Animal Biology, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA 6009, Australia sean.tomlinson@bgpa.wa.gov.au.|Kings Park and Botanic Gardens, Perth, WA 6005, Australia.
Sean
0000-0003-0864-5391
S
Tomlinson
Kings Park and Botanic Gardens, Perth, WA 6005, Australia.|Department of Environment and Agriculture, Curtin University, Bentley, WA 6102, Australia.
Kingsley W
KW
Dixon
School of Animal Biology, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA 6009, Australia.|CSIRO Land and Water, Centre for Environment and Life Sciences, Floreat, WA 6014, Australia.
Raphael K
RK
Didham
School of Animal Biology, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA 6009, Australia.
S Donald
SD
Bradshaw
D000818:Animals; D001516:Bees / Q000378:metabolism*; D017753:Ecosystem; D057048:Plant Nectar
D057048:Plant Nectar
22Na kb; 86Rb kb; Apis mellifera; cost of living; field metabolic rate; honeybee