Collaborative Research Centre 990: Ecological and Socioeconomic Functions of Tropical Lowland Rainforest Transformation Systems (Sumatra, Indonesia) (Phase 3: 2020 – 2023)


Composition of pollen collected by stingless bee Tetragonula laeviceps in different land-use systems

Pollination represents a crucial ecosystem function, supporting biodiversity in natural and anthropogenic systems and significantly influencing crop yield in global agriculture (Ollerton 2017). Furthermore, plant-pollinator interactions influence vegetation composition e.g. through pollination facilitation (Braun and Lortie 2019). Bees are an important group of pollinators in tropical regions and among them, stingless bees (Meliponini) represent a particularly prominent taxon (Grüter 2020).The indopacific stingless bee Tetragonula laeviceps is widely distributed across Sumatra (Sakagami et al. 1990). Currently, it is one of the most popular species in Indonesian meliponiculture (Buchori et al. 2022). Still, knowledge about the diet and flower visiting behavior of T. laeviceps is lacking, especially regarding its developmental plasticity in rainforest transformation systems (Carneiro de Melo Moura et al. 2022). Thus, in 2022, 240 colonies of T. laeviceps were installed on 80 plots of the Landscape Assessment project, to monitoring colony development. This included monthly counting of worker bees, estimating the colony size over time, and taking pollen samples. Additionally, microclimatic data and inventories of surrounding flowering plants were obtained.
My Master thesis will focus on the pollen collected by individual T. laeviceps workers. Using palynological methods, I will analyse pollen composition, abundance and diversity and compare pollen spectra between different land-use systems. I aim to identify factors influencing pollen diversity by integrating measures of landscape heterogeneity, such as the amount of surrounding forest cover. Furthermore, I aim to examine the role of T. laeviceps as a proxy for landscape connectivity by comparing stingless bee body pollen data with pot-pollen data from core plots (Carneiro de Melo Moura et al. 2022) and, potentially, vegetation data. Pollen samples will be prepared with standard acetolysis and identified under the light microscope. Statistical analysis will include descriptive techniques and hypothesis testing. My work will contribute to one of the foci of subgroup A01 by investigating plant-pollinator interactions in rainforest transformation systems, as well as to the research focus of B09 “Aboveground biodiversity patterns and processes across rainforest transformation landscapes”.

References

  • Braun, J.; Lortie, C. J. (2019): Finding the bees knees: A conceptual framework and systematic review of the mechanisms of pollinator-mediated facilitation. In Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics 36, pp. 33–40. DOI: 10.1016/j.ppees.2018.12.003.
  • Buchori, D.; Rizali, A.; Priawandiputra, W.; Raffiudin, R.; Sartiami, D.; Pujiastuti, Y. et al. (2022): Beekeeping and Managed Bee Diversity in Indonesia: Perspective and Preference of Beekeepers. In Diversity 14 (1), p. 52. DOI: 10.3390/d14010052.
  • Carneiro de Melo Moura, C.; Setyaningsih, C. A.; Li, K.; Merk, M. S.; Schulze, S.; Raffiudin, R. et al. (2022): Biomonitoring via DNA metabarcoding and light microscopy of bee pollen in rainforest transformation landscapes of Sumatra. In BMC ecology and evolution 22 (1), p. 51. DOI: 10.1186/s12862-022-02004-x.
  • Grüter, C. (2020): Stingless Bees. Cham: Springer International Publishing.
  • Ollerton, J. (2017): Pollinator Diversity: Distribution, Ecological Function, and Conservation. In Annu. Rev. Ecol. Evol. Syst. 48 (1), pp. 353–376. DOI: 10.1146/annurev-ecolsys-110316-022919.
  • Sakagami, S. F.; Inoue, T.; Salmah, S. (1990): Stingless bees of central Sumatra. In Stingless bees of central Sumatra, pp. 125–137.