Data from: Floral resource availability from groundcover promotes bee abundance in coffee agroecosystems

Patterns of bee abundance and diversity across different spatial scales
have received thorough research consideration. However, the impact of
short and long term temporal resource availability on biodiversity has
been less explored. This is highly relevant in tropical agricultural
systems for pollinators, as many foraging periods of pollinators extend
beyond flowering of any single crop species. In this study, we sought to
understand how bee communities in tropical agroecosystems changed between
seasons, and if short and long term floral resource availability
influenced their diversity and abundance. We used a threshold analysis
approach in order to explore this relationship at two time scales. This
study took place in a region dominated by coffee agroecosystems in
Southern Mexico. This was an ideal system because the landscape offers a
range of coffee management regimes that maintain heterogeneity in floral
resource availability spatially and temporally. We found that the bee
community varies significantly between seasons. There were higher
abundances of native social, solitary and managed honeybees during the dry
season when coffee flowers. Additionally, we found that floral resources
from groundcover, but not trees, were associated with bee abundance.
Further, the temporal scale of the availability of these resources is
important, whereby short-term floral resource availability appears
particularly important in maintaining high bee abundance at sites with
lower seasonal complementarity. We argue that in additional to spatial
resource heterogeneity, temporal resource heterogeneity is critical in
explaining bee community patterns, and should thus be considered to
promote pollinator conservation.