PDF《Review article》

Apidologie

40 (2009) 367C387 Available online at: c INRA/DIB-AGIB/EDP Sciences,

2009 www.

apidologie.org DOI: 10.1051/apido/2009025 Review article Bumblebee vulnerability and conservation world-wide* Paul H. Williams1 , Juliet L. Osborne2

1 Department of Entomology, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK

2 Department of Plant and Invertebrate Ecology, Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, Hertfordshire AL5 2JQ, UK Received

6 October

2008 C Revised

13 January

2009 C Accepted

15 January

2009 Abstract C We review evidence from around the world for bumblebee declines and review management to mitigate threats. We ?nd that there is evidence that some bumblebee species are declining in Europe, North America, and Asia. People believe that land-use changes may be having a negative e?ect through reductions in food plants in many parts of the world, but that other factors such as pathogens may be having a stronger e?ect for a few species in some regions (especially for Bombus s. str. in North America). Evidence so far is that greater susceptibility to land-use change is associated world-wide with small climatic ranges, range edges, and late-starting colony-development cycles. More evidence is needed on the roles of pollen specialization, nest sites, hibernation sites, and pesticides. It is still too early to assess the success of schemes aimed at improving forage in agricultural and conservation areas. However, schemes aimed at raising public awareness have been very successful. Until proven safe, we recommend that live bumblebees should not be moved across continents or oceans for commercial pollination. bumblebee / Bombus / threat / vulnerability / decline / conservation 1. INTRODUCTION Conservation means di?erent things to dif- ferent people, because it depends ultimately on people'

s personal values. The largest quan- ti?ed value of bumblebees comes from their pollination services to agriculture, which are worth billions of dollars annually (e.g. Dias et al., 1999;

Goulson, 2003;

Winter et al., 2006). Bumblebees are also immensely popu- lar with great cultural value in north temperate regions (e.g. Milne, 1926). However, both of these values could arguably be satis?ed largely by the very few commercially reared species, so conservation policies based on these values alone could in principle permit most bumble- bee species to go extinct. In contrast, the value of bumblebee pollination services to natural ecosystems, as well as their biodiversity val- Corresponding author: P.H. Williams, [email protected] * Manuscript editor: Tomas Murray ues, require the persistence of many or all of the

250 or so bumblebee species world-wide. People are also likely to see di?erent goals for conservation in di?erent contexts. For ex- ample, we might see as high priorities the species most at risk of global extinction (e.g. IUCN, 2001), such as Bombus franklini (Fri- son) (Thorp, 2005). Alternatively, we might be more concerned about the loss of species from a particular country like Britain (e.g. Anonymous, 1994), even though the latter species might remain widespread elsewhere in the world (e.g. B. subterraneus (Linnaeus), which has many recent records from Sweden to Iran and Mongolia). Although these prior- ities could con?ict, both are valid in their re- spective contexts. There have been many reviews of bum- blebee declines and the need for their con- servation (e.g. Williams P.H., 1986;

Rasmont and Mersch, 1988;

Benton, 2000;

Kearns and Thomson, 2001;

Goulson, 2003;

Edwards and Williams P.H., 2004;