Survey of Native Bees in Rangelands in the Mixedwood Boreal and Central Parkland of Alberta, 2019

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As part of the Species Habitat Assessments and Ranching Partnerships (SHARP) project, the Alberta Conservation Association (ACA) sampled native bees in the Central Mixedwood Boreal, Dry Mixedwood Boreal, and Central Parkland natural subregions of Alberta, Canada. A total of 1177 native bees were collected in blue vane traps deployed twice in June and July, 2019, at sixteen sites.

Blue vane traps were installed at 16 sites in northcentral Alberta, Canada. Eight sites were located in the Central Parkland Natural Subregion and eight in the Dry/Central Mixedwood Boreal Forest Natural Subregions. Each trap was deployed for approximately one week in June and another week in July. Traps were situated in a variety of habitat types (deciduous forest, coniferous forest, shrubland, native grassland, and tame pasture) within grazed and ungrazed rangeland.

Traps were open for a total of 14 days at the eight Central Parkland sites, and 16 days at the eight Mixedwood sites. The mean number of native bees collected at each Parkland site was 101.6 (range: 34-213) individuals, and 45.5 (range: 12-85) at each Mixedwood Boreal site. A total of 813 individuals of 61 species (10 Bombus, 51 solitary species) were collected at the Parkland sites, and 364 individuals of 35 species (11 Bombus, 24 solitary species) at the Mixedwood sites. Bees collected during the study (except one specimen of each species for a display case housed at ACA) are housed at the Royal Alberta Museum in Edmonton, Alberta.

ACA thanks the landowners for permission to access their rangelands for this research, and Dave Prescott (Alberta Environment and Parks) and Lincoln Best (independent consultant) for their assistance with identifying bees. Funding was provided by the Government of Canada and the Government of Alberta through the Canadian Agricultural Partnership and the Alberta Conservation Association.

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