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Presentation
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| Details of the presentation |
| Presentation |
Oral presentation |
| Title |
The bee diversity of Kakamega Forest: Influence of habitat fragmentation and succession
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| PDF Download |
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| Short title |
The bee diversity of Kakamega Forest
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| Author(s) |
Gikungu, M.(1); Hagen, M.(2); Hasenbein, N.(2); Kraemer, M.(2)
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| Presenting author |
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| Institution(s) |
(1) National Museum of Kenya, Nairobi; (2) Biological Collection, University of Bielefeld
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| Keywords |
Bee diversity, Pollination, habitat fragmentation
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| Abstract |
Although Kakamega Forest is a well known spot of high insect diversity, the bee fauna, being so important for the regeneration process, was virtually not known before Biota started. 24 species of bees had been formerly recorded from the area. We were able to identify more than 240 species. The bee species richness was found to be high with about 243 species in 36 genera, with no significant variation in the number of bee species sampled in different seasons. The generic composition of the bee fauna documented in Kakamega Forest represents 28 % of bee genera found in sub-Saharan Africa and 64% of bee genera found in Kenya. Over 40 % of the flowering plant species were found to provide floral resources to the bee fauna in Kakamega Forest, with the five most important plant families (Acanthaceae, Asteraceae, Lamiaceae, Fabaceae, Solanaceae) showing a visitation index of more than 60%. Kakamega Forest suffers from ongoing fragmentation, leading to habitat loss for primary forest species and new interactions between farmland, forest edge and forest species. Also, ecosystem processes like plant-pollinator networks are affected due to changes in population sizes, microclimate and species ranges. Results show, that the forest depending shrub Acanthus eminens (Acanthaceae) indeed suffers due to forest fragmentation, showing pollinator limitation as well as inbreeding depression.
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| Congress Topic |
Land use, impact and value
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| Topic No. |
3.4 |
| Notes |
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| Ref. No. |
556 |
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