Disturbance has been shown to affect diversity, and interactions among species of insects, however the species rich semi/arid environments have not been studied with enough detail to understand the consequences of different degrees of disturbance. We studied the bee-plant interaction networks in five sites with different degrees of disturbance in the southern Chihuahuan desert. One year quarterly survey site visits were conducted to measure chronic disturbance in the area and census direct collection of bees associated with flowering species. In addition, we placed 150 yellow traps in the dry and wet seasons as an indirect method to assess complementarity. Renyi diversity profiles and PCA were used to determine the influence of the disturbance on bee assemblages, diversity and interaction networks. Global scheme bee species shared between sites was also obtained. Seasonality in the semi-environments had marked influence on bee assemblages, diversity and interaction.
Results/Conclusions
Bee assemblages and diversity differed between sites, however some generalist species (the exotic Apis mellifera, and the natives genera Agapostemon and Perdita) were found in all sites albeit with different dominance. Disturbance was very high at one site which also corresponded to low bee diversity and a very simplified interaction network. We believe that knowing the variation of interaction networks bee-plant sites with different degrees of disturbance in the southern Chihuahuan provides elements to promote a conservation that draws on the functional diversity and not only isolated species.