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The nickname for the state of Utah is "The Beehive State", and the nickname could not be more appropriate, according to scientists at the University of Utah. Utah State. In the United States, one in four bee species is found. In Utah, the arid western state is home to more species of bees than most states in the United States. About half of these species live within the original boundaries of the recently eroded Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.
"The monument is a hotspot for bee diversity," says USU-Tooele entomologist Joseph Wilson, an associate professor in the USU Department of Biology, who, along with the scientist and alum of the USU Olivia Messinger Carril, USDA entomologist Terry Griswold and Emeritus Professor of USU James Haefner 660 species now identified in the Protected Area in the November 7, 2018 issue peerj.
Carril is the lead author of the paper, which describes a four-year study, funded by the US Bureau of Land Management and the USDA, in the GSENM, in southern Utah. "We have identified almost as many species as we know throughout the eastern United States," said Carril, a bee scientist based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. "We have discovered 49 previously unknown species, as well as 150" morphospecific "species, that is, unique species that do not correspond to known species."
Located in south-central Utah, about 250 km south of Salt Lake City and 200 km northeast of Las Vegas, Grand Staircase is located on the arid and sandstone plateau of Kaiparowits and adjacent canyons.
"Many are surprised to learn that 87% of Utah's flowering plant species live within the boundaries of the monuments," Carril said. "Which probably contributes to the rich diversity of pollinators."
Bees found within the original boundaries of the monument, she says, include nesting on the ground, nesting in cavities and twigs, cleptoparasites, narrow specialists, generalists, solitary and social species. During the team's study, bee fauna reached maximum diversity each spring, but also experienced a second peak of diversity at the end of the summer, as a result monsoon rains. "It's an amazing natural pollinator lab, of which we do not know much," Wilson said. "The significant reduction of these protected areas could have consequences for future biodiversity."
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Material provided by University of Utah State. Note: Content can be changed for style and length.
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