THE SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF &lt;i&gt;APIS DORSATA&lt;/i&gt; HOST PLANTS USING AN INTEGRATED GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SYSTEM-REMOTE SENSING APPROACH

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doi:10.3844/ajabssp.2012.396.406

Abstract

Apis dorsata is one of the important honeybee species in tropical and subtropical regions that forages on various plants including herbs, grasses, forest trees and plantation trees. However, information on the spatial distribution of various pollen sources of Apis dorsata is still lacking. This study aimed at mapping the spatial distribution of the major honeybee plants that serve as pollen sources to Apis dorsata using an integrated Geographical Information System (GIS)-Remote Sensing (RS) approach. Mapping of pollen sources was based on SPOT-5 satellite imagery within a GIS environment. The SPOT-5 imagery was enhanced, classified and vectorized using ENVI 4.7. Image classification techniques were used to separate the pollen sources into six classes. Ten observation plots, each measuring 10×10 m, were established for each pollen source class using a randomized sampling technique. Results showed that Melaleuca cajuputi covered a total of 2,398.8 ha (5.5%), Acacia sp. 11,377.8 ha (25.9%), Elaeis guineensis 19745.1 ha (44.9%), non-vegetation 4,647.2 ha (10.6%), water bodies 973.5 ha (2.2%) and cloud/haze/shadow 4830.5 ha (10.6%). The overall classification accuracy was 91.5% and the Kappa coefficient was 0.8. The GIS-RS map showed that almost all of the Apis dorsata nesting sites were located in the Elaeis guineensis area. This study clearly demonstrates that Apis dorsata prefers to build its nest in close proximity to the pollen source.

Highlights

IntroductionOnly certain plant species have been shown to be important for honeybee foraging
More often than not, only certain plant species have been shown to be important for honeybee foraging
Ground truthing was carried out to determine reference points for supervised classification. These reference points were used in the mapping of Melaleuca cajuputi (Gelam), Acacia sp. (Acacia) and Elaeis guineensis (Oil palm) distribution

Summary

Introduction

Only certain plant species have been shown to be important for honeybee foraging. Plants that produce nectar but little or no pollen are typically termed as honey plants, while plants that yield pollen but little or no nectar are typically termed as pollen plants. These pollen plants are important especially at the time of colony build-up, when the bees need large amounts of protein for their broodrearing. There are some plant species that are important to Apis dorsata. These species can be found in the wild and as cultivated plants. They include wood trees (Melaleuca cajuputi, Acacia sp.), fruit trees (Mangifera indica, Durio zibethinus), industrial crops (Elaeis guineensis, Hevea brasiliensis, Cocos nucifera) and weeds (Asystsia intrusa, Mimosa pudica)

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