Differences in bee community composition between restored and remnant prairies are more strongly linked to forb community differences than landscape differences

1. Grassland restoration is an important tool for conserving bee biodiversity within agricultural landscapes. Restorations foster increases in local bee abundance and α-diversity, however, these measures are insufficient for understanding if remnant communities are being conserved. We compared native bee α-diversity, β-diversity, and community composition between restored and remnant prairies in Minnesota, USA. We then investigated two potential drivers of bee community dissimilarity between restored and remnant prairies: proportion of agricultural land surrounding a restoration and differences in floral community between restored and remnant prairies.

2. We selected ten restored prairies that lie along a gradient of increasing agricultural land cover, ranging from 20–85% of surrounding land in agricultural production. We paired each restoration with a nearby prairie remnant and sampled bee and floral communities concurrently in each restoration-remnant pair. We quantified bee and fo...