Wild bees occupy temporally stable pollen nutritional niches

As bees’ primary source of protein and lipids, pollen is a nutritional resource key to the persistence of wild populations. Because bee taxa may differ in their pollen macronutrient requirements, and pollen is a limited resource that varies chemically across plants, nutritional niches may shape bees’ ecological interactions. To explore whether members of bee communities occupy pollen nutritional niches, we analysed the protein and lipid content of pollen collected by abundant bee subgenera (Nomadopsis, Melanosmia, Eumelissodes, Pyrobombus) and observed their pollen-collecting visitation to plant species at a single Sierra Nevada meadow across three years. We compared pollen nutrition and host plant visitation among subgenera, and at the species level within Pyrobombus. Subgenera exhibited clear and temporally consistent separation of pollen load macronutrition, achieved by either host-plant fidelity or flexibility when foraging. Pyrobombus species shared a nutritional niche, potentially creating competition for pollen macronutrients among species relieved by their taxonomic flexibility. These results offer some of the first evidence of temporal stability of nutritional niches among wild bee taxa and demonstrate how different taxa may forage to achieve nutritional consistency. Relevant to bee conservation, our findings emphasize that a nutritionally diverse array of plants may be required to support wild bee communities.