Project Population Genetics of Wild Bees in Switzerland

Institute Participants

Asia Piovesan, Alexis Beaurepaire, Verena Strobl, Peter Neumann

Summary

Human activities cause a strong reduction of natural areas and an increase of habitat fragmentation that cause a progressive lack of suitable foraging and nesting sites for wild bee species, compromising their survival.

The aim of this project is to study how the genetic structure of populations of different wild bees species (including bumble bees Bombus spp. and mason bees Osmia spp.) is affected and varies according to their life history traits and the type of landscape they live in (i.e., rural, urban and semi-natural).