Environmental Change Effects on Bee Community Structure

Understanding how environmental change affects ecological communities is key given the ongoing biodiversity crisis. Much of Berry’s doctoral and post-doctoral work focused on these themes, focused on how tropical deforestation and land-use affect bee communities. We are currently finalizing work on this theme related to land-use changes surrounding biofuel feedstock cultivation in the southeastern US (see project to the right).

NOTE: our work has largely shifted away from this topic; we are unlikely to take on new students or get involved in new projects in this area unless there is a clear link to ecological networks or functioning.

Key Papers

We have published extensively in this arena; see the full publication list for many more.

Chase JM,… Brosi BJ, … Ziv Y (>35 authors) 2019. FragSAD: A meta-database of diversity and species abundance distributions from habitat fragmentation studies. Ecology, 100 (12)
Guagliardo SA, Lee Y, Pierce A, Wong J, Chu YY, Morrison AC, Astete H, Brosi BJ, Vazquez-Prokopec G, Scott TW, Kitron U, Stoddard ST. 2019. The genetic structure of Aedes aegypti populations is driven by boat traffic 
in the Peruvian Amazon. PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 13(9): e0007552
Miljanic AS, Loy X, Gruenewald DL, Dobbs EK, Gottlieb IGW, Fletcher RJ, Brosi BJ. 2018. Bee Communities and Biofuel Production: Interactive Effects of Local-Level Management and Landscape Context. Landscape Ecology, 34: 1015
Lichtenberg E, Mendenhall C, Brosi BJ. 2017. Foraging traits modulate stingless bee community disassembly under forest loss. Journal of Animal Ecology, 86:1404–1416
Botsch JC, Walter ST, Karubian J, González N, Dobbs E, Brosi BJ. 2017. Impacts of Forest Fragmentation on Species Diversity of Orchid Bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Euglossini) in the Chocó Biodiversity Hotspot of Northwest Ecuador. Journal of Insect Conservation, 21(4): 633–643
Gottlieb IGW, Fletcher RJ, Nuñez-Regueiro MM, Ober H, Smith L, Brosi BJ. 2017. Alternative biomass strategies for bioenergy: implications for bird communities across the southeastern United States. GCB Bioenergy, 9(11): 1606-1617
Briggs, H.M., L.M. Anderson, A.M. Delva, L. Atalla, E.K. Dobbs, B.J. Brosi. 2015. Heterospecific pollen deposition in Delphinium barbeyi: linking stigmatic pollen loads to reproductive output in the field. Annals of Botany, 117(2): 341–347
Miller, A.E., L. Pejchar, B.J. Brosi, K. Magnacca, and G.C. Daily. 2015. Pollen Carried By Native and Nonnative Bees in the Large-scale Reforestation of Pastureland in Hawai‘i: Implications for Pollination. Pacific Science, 69(1): 67-79
Suni SS, Brosi, BJ (2012). Population genetics of orchid bees in a fragmented tropical landscape. Conservation Genetics, 13: 323-332
Suni, S.S., and B.J. Brosi. 2012. Landscape genetics of orchid bees in a fragmented tropical landscape. Conservation Genetics, 13:323-332
Brosi BJ, Daily GC, Chamberlain CP, Mills M (2009). Detecting changes in habitat-scale bee foraging in a tropical fragmented landscape using stable isotopes. Frontiers in Ecology and Management, 258: 1846-1855
Brosi BJ, Daily GC, Ehrlic PR (2007). Bee community shifts with landscape context in a tropical countryside. Ecological Applications, 17: 418-430

Projects

With funding from the US Department of Agriculture and in collaboration with Rob Fletcher, Holly Ober, and Lora Smith, we are exploring how bee communities (and also birds, bats, and herps!) will respond to the massive predicted land-use changes driven by conversion of pine plantations in the southeastern US to management for cellulosic biofuel feedstocks. We have completed data collection on this project and are finishing up several manuscripts related to it, including two currently in review.