Vegetation-free areas encourage ground-nesting wild bees

Creation of vegetation-free plots (1m²) on a calcareous grassland near Göttingen. Photo: Hanna Gardein New methods for conservation management of wild bees on calcareous grasslands investigated . Relatively little is known about the nesting requirements of ground-nesting wild bees, although nesting sites are of central importance for the support of most wild bee species. Of the nearly 600 wild bee species in Germany, 75 percent nest in the soil, but studies to date have mainly focused on wild bee species nesting above ground in cavities. A research team from the University of Göttingen has now shown in a study on calcareous grasslands that the small-scale removal of vegetation led to a significant increase in ground nests, especially when there was an adjacent, high abundance of flowers. The results have been published in the journal Global Ecology and Conservation . Experimental setup: vegetation-free plot (1m², left) with adjacent control plot ( right ) Photo: Hanna Gardein - For the study, the scientists selected eight calcareous grasslands around Göttingen.