Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Bumblebees are decreasing in large areas around the world due to a homogenous and fragmented landscape as a result of intensified agriculture. In this study I will investigate if species rich roadsides can work as a substitute to the habitat-loss for the bumblebees. By investigating bumblebee abundance, species richness and behaviour in relation to traffic intensity in species rich and regular roadsides this study aims to show if and how species rich roadsides will work as a favour for bumblebees.
A total of twelve roadsides in Uppland were investigated, six of them are species rich and six of them are regular. The inventory and determination of the species of bumblebees where made by hand net capture and the identification was made with literature on how to determine the different species of bumblebees.
The results show that the proportion of dead bumblebees increases with increasing traffic intensity, which is shown in a strong correlation for both species rich roadsides and regular roadsides. The results in the behaviour study shows that the amount of dead bumblebees are the same in both species rich and regular roadsides, however the amount of bumblebees with the behaviour flying are much higher in the species rich roadsides compared to the regular roadsides, the same results regarding the behaviour foraging and nesting.