Individual-based body sizes of wild bees along elevational gradients on Mt. Kilimanjaro

This dataset contains body size measurements of wild bees that were captured along elevational gradients on the southern slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro (Tanzania) using standardized sampling methods (pan traps, transect walks). The dataset includes bee species identified at the species level as well as morphospecies. The bees were measured individually, meaning that intraspecific differences in body size are also represented. The intertegular distance (ITD) in millimeters was measured as a surrogate for body size.

The KiLi project (2010-2018) is a German Science Foundation (DFG) funded research unit (DFG research unit FOR1246) that focuses on biodiversity and ecosystem processes along altitudinal and disturbance gradients on Mt. Kilimanjaro (Tanzania, Africa), capitalizing on its world-wide unique range of climatic and vegetation zones. The research unit comprises 2 central projects and 7 subprojects from various disciplines. On a total of 60 study sites in both natural and human-disturbed ecosystems biodiversity (e.g. plants, soil arthropods, ants, bees, frogs, lizards, bats, birds), related ecosystem processes (decomposition, seed dispersal, pollination, herbivory, predation), and biogeochemical processes and properties of ecosystems (climate, soil properties and nutrient status, regulation of water and carbon fluxes, trace gas emissions, primary productivity, functional diversity) are analyzed.