Waggle Dance Distances as Integrative Indicators of Seasonal Foraging Challenges

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dc.contributor.authorCouvillon, Margaret J.en
dc.contributor.authorSchürch, Rogeren
dc.contributor.authorRatnieks, Francis L. W.en
dc.contributor.departmentEntomologyen
dc.date.accessioned2018-01-11T14:08:27Zen
dc.date.available2018-01-11T14:08:27Zen
dc.date.issued2014-04-02en
dc.description.abstractEven as demand for their services increases, honey bees (Apis mellifera) and other pollinating insects continue to decline in Europe and North America. Honey bees face many challenges, including an issue generally affecting wildlife: landscape changes have reduced flower-rich areas. One way to help is therefore to supplement with flowers, but when would this be most beneficial? We use the waggle dance, a unique behaviour in which a successful forager communicates to nestmates the location of visited flowers, to make a 2-year survey of food availability. We ‘‘eavesdropped’’ on 5097 dances to track seasonal changes in foraging, as indicated by the distance to which the bees as economic foragers will recruit, over a representative rural-urban landscape. In year 3, we determined nectar sugar concentration. We found that mean foraging distance/area significantly increase from springs (493 m, 0.8 km2) to summers (2156 m, 15.2 km2), even though nectar is not better quality, before decreasing in autumns (1275 m, 5.1 km2). As bees will not forage at long distances unnecessarily, this suggests summer is the most challenging season, with bees utilizing an area 22 and 6 times greater than spring or autumn. Our study demonstrates that dancing bees as indicators can provide information relevant to helping them, and, in particular, can show the months when additional forage would be most valuable.en
dc.description.versionPublished versionen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0093495en
dc.identifier.issn1932-6203en
dc.identifier.issue4en
dc.identifier.orcidCouvillon, MJ [0000-0002-0458-298X]en
dc.identifier.orcidSchuerch, R [0000-0001-9075-8912]en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/81706en
dc.identifier.volume9en
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherPLOSen
dc.relation.urihttp://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000334103000082&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=930d57c9ac61a043676db62af60056c1en
dc.rightsCreative Commons Attribution 4.0 Internationalen
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/en
dc.subjectpollination servicesen
dc.subjecthoneybee coloniesen
dc.subjectland-useen
dc.subjectbeesen
dc.subjectavailabilityen
dc.subjectdeclinesen
dc.subjectbumblebeesen
dc.subjectlandscapesen
dc.subjectforagersen
dc.subjectdurationen
dc.titleWaggle Dance Distances as Integrative Indicators of Seasonal Foraging Challengesen
dc.title.serialPLOS ONEen
dc.typeArticle - Refereeden
dc.type.dcmitypeTexten
pubs.organisational-group/Virginia Techen
pubs.organisational-group/Virginia Tech/Agriculture & Life Sciencesen
pubs.organisational-group/Virginia Tech/Agriculture & Life Sciences/CALS T&R Facultyen
pubs.organisational-group/Virginia Tech/Agriculture & Life Sciences/Entomologyen
pubs.organisational-group/Virginia Tech/All T&R Facultyen

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