Data from: Bees use anthropogenic habitats despite strong natural habitat preferences

Aim: Habitat loss and alteration are widely considered one of the main
drivers of current pollinator diversity loss. Yet little is known about
habitat importance and preferences for major groups of pollinators,
although this information is crucial to anticipate and mitigate the
current decline of their populations. We aim to rank and assess the
importance of different habitats for bees, to determine the preference for
and avoidance of particular habitat types by different bees, and to
quantify the diversity of bees within and among habitats. Location:
Northeastern US. Time period: The sampling was done over 15 years
(2001-2015). Major taxa studied: Apoidea Methods: We used an unprecedented
extensive dataset of >15,000 bee specimens, comprising more than
400 species collected across northeast USA. We extracted habitat
information from the points and used network analyses, null models
comparisons and beta-diversity analysis to assess habitat importance,
habitat preference, use and diversity. Results: We found that natural
habitats sustain higher bee diversity and a different set of species than
agricultural and urban areas. Although many bee species can use
human-altered habitats, most species exhibited strong preferences for
forested habitats and only a few preferred altered habitats over more
natural habitats. In contrast to previous studies, landscape composition
only had moderate buffer effects on diversity loss. The loss of
biodiversity in human-altered environments could have been higher had not
been partially compensated by the presence of human commensals and exotic
species. Main conclusions: Although human-altered environments may harbor
a substantial number of species, our work reveals that preserving natural
areas is still essential to guarantee the conservation of bee
biodiversity.