Forests do not limit bumble bee foraging movements in a montane meadow complex

Understanding the roles of habitat fragmentation and resource availability in shaping animal movement are integral for promoting species persistence and conservation. For insects like bumble bees, their movement patterns affect the survival and reproductive potential of their colonies as well as the pollen flow of plant species. However, our understanding of their mobility or the impact of putative barriers in natural environments is limited due to the technical difficulties of studying wild populations.
We used genetic mark-recapture to estimate the foraging distance, resource use, and site connectivity of two bumble bee species in a montane meadow complex composed of open meadows within a matrix of forest.
There was no evidence that forests or changes in landcover function as barriers to fine-scale movement for either species. We found substantially greater colony-specific foraging distances for Bombus vosnesenskii (maximum: 1867 m) compared to B. bifarius (maximum: 362 m). De...

阐明生境破碎化（habitat fragmentation）与资源可获得性在调控动物运动模式中的作用，对于提升物种存续能力与保护工作至关重要。对于熊蜂这类昆虫而言，其运动模式不仅关乎蜂群的存活与繁殖潜力，同时也会影响植物种群的花粉流过程。然而，由于野外种群研究存在技术瓶颈，当前学界对熊蜂的移动能力，以及自然环境中潜在阻隔因素的影响认知仍较为有限。
本研究采用遗传标记重捕法（genetic mark-recapture），对森林基质内镶嵌开阔草甸的山地草甸复合体中两种熊蜂的觅食距离、资源利用模式与生境连通性开展了估算。
研究结果显示，并无证据表明森林或土地覆被变化会对两种熊蜂的精细尺度运动构成阻隔。研究发现，弗氏熊蜂（Bombus vosnesenskii）的蜂群专属觅食距离（最大值达1867米）显著高于双斑熊蜂（B. bifarius，最大值362米）。De...