Variation of Pollen Mass Across Species, Habitat Types, and Time

Abstract

Bumble bees are crucial pollinators in both agricultural and wild ecosystems, and as pollinators they rely almost exclusively on floral resources as a source of food. However, in many natural and agricultural areas there has been a decrease in floral diversity and abundance, which in turn has caused nutritional stress for wild pollinators. As a result, many wild bumble bee populations are declining. Therefore, scientists are beginning to research the nutritional requirements of wild bumble bees and the nutrients available in the pollen and nectar they collect. However, there has yet to be any research attempting to quantify the mass of pollen available at the landscape-scale. We addressed this knowledge gap by looking into the variation of pollen mass per flower across species, habitat types, and time. The study was done by collecting flower anthers that have not undergone dehiscence and weighing them out wet and dry to get an estimation of pollen mass. We found that there was significant variation in the pollen mass between species and across the different flowering seasons, but not between habitats. We also found a significant difference in weight between wet and dry anthers, indicating that a majority of anthers consist of mostly water. This research provides a critical but understudied component of pollinator nutritional ecology by quantifying anther mass as an estimate for pollen quantity in the landscape. This research will be used along with pollen macronutrient analyses in the future to build a nutrient landscape available to foraging bees.

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