Environmental Sciences Commons^™

Parasite Prevalence May Drive The Biotic Impoverishment Of New England (Usa) Bumble Bee Communities, Anne L. Averill, Andrea V. Couto, Jeremy C. Andersen, Joseph S. Elkinton

Environmental Conservation Faculty Publication Series

Numerous studies have reported a diversity of stressors that may explain continental-scale declines in populations of native pollinators, particularly those in the genus Bombus. However, there has been little focus on the identification of the local-scale dynamics that may structure currently impoverished Bombus communities. For example, the historically diverse coastal-zone communities of New England (USA) now comprise only a few species and are primarily dominated by a single species, B. impatiens. To better understand the local-scale factors that might be influencing this change in community structure, we examined differences in the presence of parasites in different species of …