Pollen metabarcoding reveals broad and
species-specific resource use by urban bees
Caitlin Potter1,2, Natasha de Vere1,3, Laura E. Jones3,4, Col R. Ford3,
Matthew J. Hegarty1, Kathy H. Hodder2, Anita Diaz2 and
Elizabeth L. Franklin2,5
1
IBERS, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, UK
2
Department of Life and Environmental Sciences, Bournemouth University, Poole, UK
3
National Botanic Garden of Wales, Llanarthne, Carmarthenshire, UK
4
Molecular Ecology and Fisheries Genetics Laboratory, Bangor University, Bangor, Gwynedd, UK
5
School of Environmental Sciences, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada
ABSTRACT
Bee populations are currently undergoing severe global declines driven by the
interactive effects of a number of factors. Ongoing urbanisation has the potential to
exacerbate bee declines, unless steps are taken to ensure appropriate floral resources
are available. Sown wildflower strips are one way in which floral resources can
be provided to urban bees. However, the use of these strips by pollinators in urban
environments remains little studied. Here, we employ pollen metabarcoding of
the rbcL gene to compare the foraging patterns of different bee species observed using
urban sown wildflower strips in July 2016, with a goal of identifying which
plant species are most important for bees. We also demonstrate the use of a
non-destructive method of pollen collection. Bees were found to forage on a wide
variety of plant genera and families, including a diverse range of plants from outside
the wildflower plots, suggesting that foragers visiting sown wildflower strips also
utilize other urban habitats. Particular plants within the wildflower strips dominated
metabarcoding data, particularly Papaver rhoeas and Phacelia tanacetifolia.
Overall, we demonstrate that pollinators observed in sown wildflower strips use
certain sown foodplants as part of a larger urban matrix.
Submitted 3 August 2018
Accepted 25 October 2018 Subjects Conservation Biology, Ecology, Entomology, Genetics
Published 19 February 2019 Keywords Metabarcoding, Plant–pollinator interactions, DNA barcoding, rbcL, Conservation,
Corresponding author Second-generation sequencing, Bumblebees, Halictidae, eDNA, Sown wildflower strips
Caitlin Potter, cap34@aber.ac.uk
Academic editor INTRODUCTION
Stephen Livesley
Over the last century, wild bee populations have suffered widespread declines in the form
Additional Information and of substantial range contractions (Kerr et al., 2015) alongside local decreases in the
Declarations can be found on
page 15 abundance and species richness of hoverfly and bee communities (Biesmeijer et al., 2006;
DOI 10.7717/peerj.5999 Potts et al., 2010; Bommarco et al., 2011; Cameron et al., 2011; Dupont, Damgaard &
Copyright
Simonsen, 2011; Bartomeus et al., 2013). Wild bee declines likely result from the interactive
2019 Potter et al. effects of multiple factors (Goulson et al., 2015), including habitat loss and fragmentation
Distributed under (e.g. due to urbanisation; Garibaldi et al., 2011; Gerard et al., 2010; Hendrickx et al., 2007;
Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 NEA, 2011), climate change (Kerr et al., 2015) and parasite and pathogen spread
(Otterstatter & Thomson, 2008). Bee declines are of economic concern due to the value of
How to cite this article Potter C, de Vere N, Jones LE, Ford CR, Hegarty MJ, Hodder KH, Diaz A, Franklin EL. 2019. Pollen metabarcoding
reveals broad and species-specific resource use by urban bees. PeerJ 7:e5999 DOI 10.7717/peerj.5999
