1. Global Patterns and Drivers of Bee Distribution.
- Author
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Orr, Michael C., Hughes, Alice C., Chesters, Douglas, Pickering, John, Zhu, Chao-Dong, and Ascher, John S.
- Subjects
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BEES , *SPECIES diversity , *POLLINATION by bees , *PLANT productivity , *SOLAR radiation , *SPECIES distribution - Abstract
Insects are the focus of many recent studies suggesting population declines, but even invaluable pollination service providers such as bees lack a modern distributional synthesis. Here, we combine a uniquely comprehensive checklist of bee species distributions and >5,800,000 public bee occurrence records to describe global patterns of bee biodiversity. Publicly accessible records are sparse, especially from developing countries, and are frequently inaccurate throughout much of the world, consequently suggesting different biodiversity patterns from checklist data. Global analyses reveal hotspots of species richness, together generating a rare bimodal latitudinal richness gradient, and further analyses suggest that xeric areas, solar radiation, and non-forest plant productivity are among the most important global drivers of bee biodiversity. Together, our results provide a new baseline and best practices for studies on bees and other understudied invertebrates. • Bees show a rare bimodal latitudinal gradient with highest richness at mid-latitudes • Xeric and temperate zones host higher richness than tropical areas • Plant productivity and richness are important drivers when forests are excluded • A global bee species richness reconstruction is presented for the first time A modern, quantitative synthesis on bee distribution and its drivers at a global scale. Orr et al. show that bees exhibit a rare bimodal pattern of higher species richness at mid-latitudes, based on their great success in xeric and some temperate areas, further supported by a driver analysis. Bee species richness is also reprojected worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2021
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