Santa Cruz Island Reserve

08 Aug, 08 AM - 15 Aug, 05 AM

Honey bees may be the single most successful terrestrial, invasive species next to humans. Feral populations of this species occupy every continent except Antarctica and the economic value of this species in North America is undisputed. Nonetheless, the role of honey bees and other invasive bee species in native ecosystems is increasingly debated in the literature. Herein, tests will be proposed for the hypothesis that successful nonnative plants (e.g., yellow star-thistle, Centaurea solstitialis) disrupt native mutualisms by drawing native pollinators from their coevolved host plants while augmenting nonnative mutualists such as honey bees. Two predictions will be tested. First, in the well-studied setting of Santa Cruz Island California, that native pollinators will reduce visitation to a native gumplant (Grindelia camporum) when paired with the nonnative thistle C. solstitialis. Unlike previous studies of these plants conducted by the PI, the study will directly pit the two species against one another in pairwise preference tests. The second prediction, that the invasive eusocial honey bee (Apis mellifera) will show a higher foraging commitment to high nectar-volume flowers than a solitary native species, will be tested in Oklahoma using recently developed cage study techniques. Accordingly, the native carpenter bee species Xylocopa viriginica and the nonnative honey bee will be tested singly and in competition by presenting varying quantities of nectar (sugar solution) at artificial flowers within flight cages. Our predictions conform to the broader hypothesis that honey bees prefer nonnative plants from the Old World and are consistent with efforts to obtain external funding.

Visit #7763 @Santa Cruz Island Reserve

Approved

Under Project # 5657 | Research

Competition and Mutualism in Invasion: Testing Two Predictions through Pollinator Foraging Experiments

faculty - University of Central Oklahoma

Reservation Members(s)

Group of 4 Faculty Aug 8 - 15, 2005 (8 days)
Group of 3 Undergraduate Student Aug 8 - 15, 2005 (8 days)

Reserve Resources(s) | Create Invoice

Dorm 7 Aug 8 - 15, 2005
Jeep 7 Aug 8 - 15, 2005