DOI: 10.5061/dryad.00000007b
title: Geographic drivers more important than landscape composition in predicting bee beta diversity and community structure

description: The importance of microhabitat traits such as floral availability is well
 known; however, forest bee spatial dynamics have been variably studied
 across local to broad geographic scales. Past literature suggests that
 landscape factors from proximate to distal are important in determining
 forest bee community metrics, including richness, abundance, and taxonomic
 composition. Leveraging the interest and assistance of citizen science
 volunteers, we employed standard bee bowl trap transects across Maryland,
 Delaware, northern Virginia, and the District of Columbia and identified
 correlations between bee community composition, local and regional
 landcover, and broader geospatial patterns. We also identified the partial
 contributions of both specific species and sampling sites to total beta
 diversity. Various landcover metrics were significantly related to bee
 community structure, with bee abundance positively and negatively
 correlated with forest and wetland cover, respectively. In general, land
 cover metrics within a 1,000-m buffer exhibited stronger correlations with
 bee communities; however, broader geographic variation, using Cartesian
 coordinates north and east as indices, was most significantly correlated
 with the bee community. Specifically, bee communities were less rich to
 the east and south of the study area. We also identified similar
 correlations with the bee community as categorized both by trophic and
 nesting behaviors, with both geographic northing and easting proving to be
 most strongly correlated with the forest bee community. Results of beta
 diversity and cluster analyses showed that the most species-depauperate
 sites exhibited the highest contributions to beta diversity and that
 species-poor sites consisted of a reduced subset of the greater community.
 Our results show that successful bee conservation must consider, beyond
 local-scale resource availability, broad geospatial considerations and
 forest habitat connectivity across political and administrative
 boundaries.
description: Data were collected by citizen science volunteers using bee bowl
 transects across 99 forest sites in Maryland, Delaware, Washington, D.C.,
 and northern Virginia, USA, in 2014. Characteristics of the forest bee
 community, including nesting and trophic groups, were correlated with
 landcover at varying spatial scales (200- and 1000-m buffer from transect
 origin) and broader biogeographic parameters.
description: # Geographic drivers more important than landscape composition in
 predicting bee beta diversity and community structure Ecosphere Data were
 collected by citizen science volunteers using bee bowl transects across 99
 forest sites in Maryland, Delaware, Washington, D.C., and northern
 Virginia, USA, in 2014. Characteristics of the forest bee community,
 including nesting and trophic groups, were correlated with landcover at
 varying spatial scales (200- and 1000-m buffer from transect origin) and
 broader biogeographic parameters. ## Site\_Data Data table
 includes site name (Site), geographic coordinates in decimal degrees
 (Latitude, Longitude), the sampled State (State) and county (County), and
 geographic coordinates in meters north (Northing) and east (Easting) of
 UTM Zone 18 origin. Remaining variables include proportion of land cover
 types (open water, developed, forest, agriculture and early successional,
 wetlands) identified within 200- or 1000-m buffer of sampling transect
 origin. ## Community\_Data Data table includes site name (Site) and
 community matrix with abundance counts of species collected at individual
 sites during the study period.