DOI: 10.5061/dryad.132g8
title: Data from: Nesting sites of giant honey bees modulated by landscape patterns

description: 1. The composition of agro-ecological landscapes is thought to have
 important implications for the production of major crops through its
 effects on pollinator abundance and behaviour. 2. We explored the roles of
 land cover and land cover heterogeneity on bee nest distribution for Apis
 dorsata, a key species for coffee pollination, in a complex agroforest
 landscape. We emphasized scaling and non-uniform effects by combining two
 different approaches of spatial analysis, the point-pattern analysis and
 surface-pattern analysis. 3. We found non-exclusive, positive effects of
 agroforests, forest fragments and land cover heterogeneity on the presence
 and number of nests. The distribution of nests responded to habitat
 heterogeneity at small scale (&lt;100m), forest fragments at medium
 scale (&lt;300 m) and to agroforest at larger scales (500 m to 2 km).
 Our multi approach highlights that the landscape effects were neither
 linear nor uniform within the study zone. Nests were consistently located
 in areas of medium agroforest density or medium to high forest density,
 but were absent where forest fragments are the most concentrated. 4. The
 agroforest matrix was particularly important in shaping the size of nest
 aggregates. Nests tended to be few when there is low tree cover at broad
 scale, while nests were numerous when agroforest patches are abundant
 within the bees’ foraging range. 5. Synthesis and applications. Our study
 revealed that structurally complex landscapes appear to support bee
 populations. The spatial arrangement of different land covers affected
 honeybee nest distributions by providing nesting and foraging resources
 across multiple scales. The results suggest that continued intensification
 of small forest fragments and expansion of large monospecies plantations
 will be deleterious to Apis dorsata populations. Fragmentation of the
 agroforestry matrix at small scales (100s meters) does not, however,
 appear detrimental for Apis dorsata as long as sufficient diversified
 resources are available at the landscape scale (kms).22-Sep-2017
description: Nesting sites for Apis
 dorsataPosition of nesting
 sites of the species Apis dorsata in a 68 km2 study zone. First column is
 a site identifier, second and third columns are the latitude and longitude
 of the nesting site, fourth column is number of nests in each site, fifth
 column is the village name, sixth column is the land-use type (coffee
 agroforestry plantation or forest fragment), and last column is the census
 year. The data have been collected in February-March
 2014.SiteDorsata.csvIndividual nests of Apis dorsataExact position of each individual nest of the species Apis dorsata in a 68 km2 study zone. First column is a nest identifier, second and third columns are the latitude and longitude of the nest, fourth column is the site identifier, fifth column is the village name, sixth column is the land-use type (coffee agroforestry plantation or forest fragment), seventh and eighth column is species name and girth (in cm) of the tree carrying the nest, and last column is the census year. The data have been collected in February-March 2014.NestDorsata.csvLand cover, nest density and land cover density mapsThese files contain maps of land-cover, nest density for Apis dorsata, agroforest density, forest fragment density and heterogeneity index in our study zone (Kodagu district, South India) in ASCII format.Maps_studyzone.zip