Macronutrients of bumble bee field-collected pollen

This study tests whether the high protein-lipid ratio (P:L) pollen requirements of select bumble bee species found in previous studies applies across species in a community. We examine how species, caste, season, site, and regional factors influence protein and lipid levels of pollen gathered by bumble bees in field settings. Pollen nutrition varied significantly by species, but P:L fell within a narrow range. Bumble bees collected higher protein pollen than the estimated protein from the surrounding flowering plant community but collected similar lipids to what was available, suggesting they are more protein limited. Plant diversity at sites impacted attained pollen P:L. Pollen metabarcoding revealed a large overlap in the plants on which bees foraged for pollen with a large percent of pollen obtained from non-native legumes that dominate the landscape. Sampling period did not affect pollen nutrients, although spring queens collected higher lipids than workers. Broadly, we found differences in nutritional preferences that could impact individual bumble bee species success with declining landscape quality. This repository contains directories and subdirectories that is required to reproduce the results of this project along with the PRJNA1443256 bio project in NCBI.