Journal article
Resources or landmarks: which factors drive homing success in Tetragonula carbonaria foraging in natural and disturbed landscapes?
Journal of Comparative Physiology A, Vol.202(9), pp.701-708
2016
Abstract
To date, no study has investigated how landscape structural (visual) alterations affect navigation and thus homing success in stingless bees. We addressed this question in the Australian stingless bee Tetragonula carbonaria by performing marking, release and re-capture experiments in landscapes differing in habitat homogeneity (i.e., the proportion of elongated ground features typically considered prominent visual landmarks). We investigated how landscape affected the proportion of bees and nectar foragers returning to their hives as well as the earliest time bees and foragers returned. Undisturbed landscapes with few landmarks (that are conspicuous to the human eye) and large proportions of vegetation cover (natural forests) were classified visually/structurally homogeneous, and disturbed landscapes with many landmarks and fragmented or no extensive vegetation cover (gardens and plantations) visually/structurally heterogeneous. We found that proportions of successfully returning nectar foragers and earliest times first bees and foragers returned did not differ between landscapes. However, most bees returned in the visually/structurally most (forest) and least (garden) homogeneous landscape, suggesting that they use other than elongated ground features for navigation and that return speed is primarily driven by resource availability in a landscape.
Details
- Title
- Resources or landmarks: which factors drive homing success in Tetragonula carbonaria foraging in natural and disturbed landscapes?
- Authors
- Sara Leonhardt (Author) - University of Wurzburg, GermanyBenjamin F Kaluza (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - Faculty of Science, Health, Education and EngineeringHelen M Wallace (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - Faculty of Science, Health, Education and EngineeringTim A Heard (Author) - CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences
- Publication details
- Journal of Comparative Physiology A, Vol.202(9), pp.701-708
- Publisher
- Springer
- Date published
- 2016
- DOI
- 10.1007/s00359-016-1100-5
- ISSN
- 0340-7594
- Organisation Unit
- School of Science and Engineering - Legacy; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; GeneCology Research Centre - Legacy
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99449416802621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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