Food Niche Analyses of Bumblebees: A Comparison of Three Data Collecting Methods

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Abstract
Methods (3) for field data collecting were compared in the niche analyses of 9 subarctic bumblebee species. The basic information consisted of (a) direct observations of flower visits, (b) analyses of pollen contents in pollen loads and (c) in nectar loads of bumblebees. The number of flower species utilized by each bumblebee species was the same by all 3 methods. The methods agreed with the obtained niche width results (after square root transformation for the data on (6) and (c)). Method (c) scored the lowest niche evenness figures. Niche overlap values were obtained by method (a). Reasons for the differences are discussed. Method (a) is the easiest to conduct, but (b) and (c) are required for certain types of studies (e.g., flower constancy). In studies where the interest is focused on the number of flower species in the diet of bumblebee species, the result is independent of the method used; the outcome of frequency dependent niche analyses is affected by the chosen method.