Abstract
Stingless social bees live in perennial colonies whose longevity is influenced by various ecological factors. This study analyzed the influence of habitat anthropization and native forest regeneration stage on the longevity of natural colonies at the landscape scale. Random sampling of 25x25m plots, totaling 30ha per habitat type, located and monitored 118 nests of 14 species in the forest and 105 nests of six species in the anthropic habitat. Significant differences in colony longevity were observed between young and long-lived forests and between long-lived forests and anthropized habitat. Shorter longevities have generally been associated with a set of smaller-bodied species residing in anthropized habitats. The greatest longevities were associated with the three abundant and exclusive forest species, and was similar in the two forest regeneration stages: Melipona scutellaris, Scaptotrigona xanthotricha and Scaptotrigona bipunctata had high annual survival rates ranging from 87% to 93%. Another abundant species in the landscape was Tetragonisca angustula, a small habitat-generalist with short longevity (63%) that varied among habitats. Euclidean distance analysis based on this generalist placed young forest closest to anthropic habitat, and grouped the replicates of long-lived forest. Considering spatial variation in the life history traits, we infer that, among prospective landscape habitats, the Atlantic Forest favors stingless bees with high colonial longevity. On the other hand, generalists, such as T. angustula, with shorter colonial longevity and high reproduction rates are being favored by the expansion of anthropized habitats in place of deforested areas.
Highlights
Life histories arise at the intersection of ecological and evolutionary dynamics (Alonzo & Kindsvater, 2008), attempts to link life history to habitat and ecological contexts remain diffuse and lack a comprehensive theory after decades since the synthesis of Stearns (1997). Stearns (1997)concluded that it would be necessary to avoid approaches to life history as a whole and focus on the impact of habitats on specific attributes, age- and size-specific fecundity and mortality
Stearns (1997) concluded that an approach based on specific attributes and defined lineages relative to habitats will contribute to expose “sets of patterns that could prove useful in future attempts to relate life history evolution to community ecology” (Stearns, 1997)
We explored the argument that the spatial variation in the community of these bees in the landscape are closely related to variation in colonial survival and reproduction rates among species and habitats
Summary
Life histories arise at the intersection of ecological and evolutionary dynamics (Alonzo & Kindsvater, 2008), attempts to link life history to habitat and ecological contexts remain diffuse and lack a comprehensive theory after decades since the synthesis of Stearns (1997). Stearns (1997)concluded that it would be necessary to avoid approaches to life history as a whole (e.g. the r-k continuum) and focus on the impact of habitats on specific attributes, age- and size-specific fecundity and mortality. The compromise between life history and local ecological conditions (Stearns, 1997) must be reflected in spatial variation of key attributes of stingless bee colonies, such as annual survival or longevity, according to habitat heterogeneity or among habitats in a landscape.
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