Meeting Abstract
As an emerging field, urban ecology holds promise for advancing knowledge of bee foraging dynamics and advocating bee conservation efforts. A wide array of green spaces in urban areas constitute important reservoirs of both food and nesting sources for a diverse bee fauna. Such areas include undisturbed lots, recreational parks, botanical and zoological gardens, and open areas in university campuses, among others. The goals of this study were i) to assess the diversity and abundance of bees among three types of unmanaged urban habitats (woody areas, abandoned lots, and open areas) at the Uludağ University campus in Bursa, Turkey, ii) determine if changes in the diversity and abundance of bees are related to the diversity and abundance of plant species, and iii) assess changes in bee body size and guild composition (ground-nesting vs cavity-nesting) among habitats. We collected roughly one hundred species belonging to 28 genera of six families. Preliminary results suggest a negative correlation between bee species richness and increasing land cover as well as an increase in the abundance of cavity-nesting species.
