Supplementing floral resources does not mitigate the negative effects of urbanisation on cavity-nesting bees and wasps

Cavity-nesting bees and wasps provide essential ecosystem services such as pollination and pest control. Within urban environments, it is likely that cavity-nesting insects are using greenspaces to forage for food and nesting resources, and thus may benefit from urban greenspace management interventions, such as the addition of flower patches and “bee hotels” (trap nests).

In contrast to the relatively large body of work demonstrating the effects of wildflower provisioning on bees in an agricultural context, there have been few studies testing the benefits of floral provisioning, or the relative importance of nest site and food constraints on urban cavity-nesting bees and wasps. Consequently, we lack an empirical evidence base for optimising and informing conservation interventions for these taxa.

To understand how the addition of floral resources influences cavity-nesting insect communities, we conducted a 2-year study in urban greenspaces used for horticulture (allotments). We manipulated floral and nesting resources by adding nectar-rich flower patches and artificial trap nests, and compared nest colonisation by cavity-nesting bees and wasps in sites with floral additions and where no additions were made. Our sites were configured along an urbanisation gradient, allowing us to examine how surrounding urbanisation influenced these patterns.

Contrary to our predictions, we found no significant difference in trap nest uptake in sites where floral resources were added, compared to control sites. However, cavity-nesting insect abundance showed a 6-fold decrease over our urbanisation gradient. The addition of floral resources did not mitigate the negative effects of urbanisation on cavity-nesting insects.