Fragmented landscapes affect honeybee colony strength at diverse spatial scales in agro-ecological landscapes in Kenya

Landscape fragmentation and habitat loss at multiple scales directly affect species abundance, diversity and their productivity. There is a paucity of information about the effect of the landscape structure and diversity on honeybee colony strength in Africa. Here, we present new insights into the relationship between landscape metrics such as patch size, shape, connectivity, composition and configuration and honeybee (Apis mellifera) colony strength characteristics. Remote sensing-based landscape variables were linked to honeybee colony strength variables in a typical highly fragmented small holder agro-ecological region in Kenya. We examined colonies in six sites with varying degrees of land degradation, during the period from 2017 to 2018. Landscape structure was first mapped using medium resolution bi-temporal Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 satellite imagery with an optimized random forest model. The influence of the surrounding landscape matrix was then constrained to two buffer distanc...

多尺度下的景观破碎化与栖息地丧失，会直接影响物种丰度、多样性及其生产力。目前针对非洲地区景观结构与多样性对蜜蜂蜂群群势的影响，相关研究资料仍较为匮乏。本研究针对斑块面积、形状、连通性、组成与格局等景观指数（landscape metrics），与西方蜜蜂（Apis mellifera）蜂群群势特征之间的关联展开分析，提出全新研究见解。本研究在肯尼亚一处典型的高度破碎化小农经营农业生态区内，将基于遥感（remote sensing）的景观变量与蜜蜂蜂群群势变量进行关联分析。研究团队于2017至2018年间，在6个土地退化程度各异的样地中开展了蜂群调查。研究首先借助优化后的随机森林模型（random forest model），利用中分辨率双时相哨兵1号（Sentinel-1）与哨兵2号（Sentinel-2）卫星影像完成景观结构制图。随后将周边景观基质的影响范围限定为两个缓冲距离……