Bumble Bee (Bombus spp.) Abundance in New York Highway Roadsides across Levels of Roadside Mowing and Road Traffic

Alyssa Schoenfeldt¹ and Kaitlin Stack Whitney^1,2,*

¹Environmental Science Program, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester NY 14623. ²Science, Technology, and Society Department, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester NY 14623. *Corresponding author.

Northeastern Naturalist, Volume 29, Issue 1 (2022): 55–72

Abstract
Bombus spp. (Bumble bees) face population declines, in part due to habitat loss. Roadside rights-of-way (ROWs) are potential habitats; however, they are highly disturbed due to roadside mowing and on-road traffic. We investigated whether these factors are associated with variation in abundance of bumble bees in highway roadside ROWs across New York State. We used sweep netting and photography along 30 highways with different mowing pattern (control, reduced) and traffic level (low, medium, high) treatments in 2019 and 2020. Very few bumble bees were observed (98% of n = 916 observations found 0). This result was potentially due to insufficient foraging plants or nesting areas. Further investigation is needed to understand how highway roadside ROWs can be high quality habitat for bumble bees.

Download Full-text pdf (Accessible only to subscribers. To subscribe click here.)