| dc.description.abstract | Although extremely important to the functioning of productive ecosystems, wild
bee communities are at risk due habitat loss and agricultural intensification. Wild bee
species surveys provide valuable information on the health of wild bee communities,
especially in agricultural areas where these bee species are vulnerable; however, many
regions are under studied. For example, northwestern Ontario lacks a comprehensive
wild bee survey, and many of the species that inhabit this area are unknown. The aim of
this study was to inventory wild bee species, the flowers they visit, and their periods of
activity in Thunder Bay in northwestern Ontario to fill in gaps in our knowledge of wild
bee species that occur in this region, while also investigating the diversity of wild bee
communities at three representative flower-rich sites in the area. I collected 64 wild bee
species throughout this survey. Twenty-two of these species had not previously been
documented in northwestern Ontario, and one (Nomada alpha) is a newly documented
species to Canada. Additionally, this study found that at an agricultural site wild bee
diversity was the lowest, and wild bee community composition was the most uneven
compared to two other sites, supporting evidence that agricultural land use may
negatively affect wild bee diversity in this region of Canada. | en_US |
