Resources or landmarks: which factors drive homing success in Tetragonula carbonaria foraging in natural and disturbed landscapes?
File version
Author(s)
Kaluza, Benjamin F
Wallace, Helen
Heard, Tim A
Griffith University Author(s)
Primary Supervisor
Other Supervisors
Editor(s)
Date
Size
File type(s)
Location
License
Abstract
To date, no study has investigated how landscape structural (visual) alterations affect navigation and thus homing success in stingless bees. We addressed this question in the Australian stingless bee Tetragonula carbonaria by performing marking, release and re-capture experiments in landscapes differing in habitat homogeneity (i.e., the proportion of elongated ground features typically considered prominent visual landmarks). We investigated how landscape affected the proportion of bees and nectar foragers returning to their hives as well as the earliest time bees and foragers returned. Undisturbed landscapes with few landmarks (that are conspicuous to the human eye) and large proportions of vegetation cover (natural forests) were classified visually/structurally homogeneous, and disturbed landscapes with many landmarks and fragmented or no extensive vegetation cover (gardens and plantations) visually/structurally heterogeneous. We found that proportions of successfully returning nectar foragers and earliest times first bees and foragers returned did not differ between landscapes. However, most bees returned in the visually/structurally most (forest) and least (garden) homogeneous landscape, suggesting that they use other than elongated ground features for navigation and that return speed is primarily driven by resource availability in a landscape.
Journal Title
Journal of Comparative Physiology A Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology
Conference Title
Book Title
Edition
Volume
202
Issue
Thesis Type
Degree Program
School
Publisher link
Patent number
Funder(s)
Grant identifier(s)
Rights Statement
Rights Statement
Item Access Status
Note
Access the data
Related item(s)
Subject
Biological sciences
Biomedical and clinical sciences
Health sciences
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Behavioral Sciences
Neurosciences
Physiology
Persistent link to this record
Citation
Leonhardt, SD; Kaluza, BF; Wallace, H; Heard, TA, Resources or landmarks: which factors drive homing success in Tetragonula carbonaria foraging in natural and disturbed landscapes?, Journal of Comparative Physiology A Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology, 2016, 202 (9-10), pp. 701-708