Data from: The potential of electricity transmission corridors in forested areas as bumble bee habitat

Declines in pollinator abundance and diversity are not only a conservation issue but also a threat to crop pollination. Maintained infrastructure corridors, such as those containing electricity transmission lines, are potentially important wild pollinator habitat. However, there is a lack of evidence comparing the abundance and diversity of wild pollinators in transmission corridors with other important pollinator habitats. We compared the diversity of a key pollinator group, bumble bees (Bombus spp.), between transmission corridors and the surrounding semi-natural and managed habitat types at ten sites across Sweden’s Uppland region. Our results show that transmission corridors have no impact on bumble bee diversity in the surrounding area. However, transmission corridors and other maintained habitats such as roadsides have a level of bumble bee abundance and diversity comparable to semi-natural grasslands and host species that are important for conservation and ecosystem service provision. Under the current management regime, transmission corridors already provide valuable bumble bee habitat, but given that host plant density is the main determinant of bumble bee abundance, these areas could potentially be enhanced by establishing and maintaining key host plants. We show that in northern temperate regions the maintenance of transmission corridors has the potential to contribute to bumble bee conservation and the ecosystem services they provide.传粉昆虫的丰度与多样性下降不仅是一项保护议题，同时也对作物传粉构成威胁。诸如输电线路所在的维护型基础设施廊道，是潜在的重要野生传粉昆虫栖息地。然而目前尚缺乏将输电廊道内野生传粉昆虫的丰度与多样性，与其他重要传粉昆虫生境进行对比的研究证据。我们在瑞典乌普兰地区的10个采样点，对比了核心传粉类群——熊蜂属（Bombus spp.）的多样性在输电廊道与周边半自然、人工管理生境类型间的差异。研究结果显示，输电廊道对周边区域的熊蜂多样性无显著影响。不过，输电廊道与路边等其他维护型生境，其熊蜂丰度与多样性水平可与半天然草原相媲美，且此类生境可容纳对保护工作与生态系统服务供给具有重要意义的熊蜂物种。在现行管理模式下，输电廊道已具备优质熊蜂栖息地的功能；但鉴于寄主植物密度是决定熊蜂丰度的核心因素，通过培育与维护关键寄主植物，可进一步提升这类区域的栖息价值。本研究表明，在北温带地区，对输电廊道的维护工作，有望助力熊蜂保护及其所提供的生态系统服务供给。