What is it about?
Honey bees (Apis mellifera) are widely used, raising concern as honey bees may compete with wild pollinators for floral resources. In networks of wild pollinator interactions, honey bee abundance didn't affect any metrics calculated. Our results suggest that honey bees did not alter wild pollinator foraging patterns in this system.
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Why is it important?
Given widespread and increasing use of honey bees, it is important to establish whether they affect wild pollinator communities.
Perspectives
We cannot yet remove our concerns about the impacts of honey bees on wild pollinators, but we also cannot deny the importance of honey bees in agriculture and food production. The solution is likely somewhere in the middle.
Sydney Worthy
University of Alberta
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Honey bees (Apis mellifera) modify plant-pollinator network structure, but do not alter wild species’ interactions, PLoS ONE, July 2023, PLOS,
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0287332.
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