Diversity of Bees Across Different Urban Lawn Types in Lubbock, Texas

Bees are an important aspect of landscapes. Without them the pollination of many vital food crops would not occur, leading to food shortages. As urbanization has increased around the world, bee populations have decreased as their natural habitats have been destroyed. Within urbanized areas there are urban gardens, that can be used to sustain bee life and even allow it to thrive abundantly. For the southern high plains, water has been an important dilemma. Due to the water shortage problem, many residents have shifted to more water efficient yards and gardens, in order to conserve water. This study is focused on finding what yard types and characteristics within an urban setting on the southern high plains attract the greatest diversity of bees. Gardens around Lubbock Texas were selected based on the maintenance level: low (xeriscaped and unmanaged), medium (turf dominant) and high (flowering dominant). Low maintenance refers to drought tolerant plants or minimal yard upkeep and high maintenance meaning heavily irrigated and difficult upkeep. Yard sizes were determined and garden zones were created based on similar plant material within the landscape. Each of the plants in the landscape were then identified and tree DBH was measured. After this assessment bees were then collected using yellow bee bowls and sweep netting. The bees have been identified to the family level and number of different morphospecies within each family have been accounted for. Landscapes with higher maintenance levels and a greater number of flowering plants had the most abundance and diversity of bees collected. As for bee families, Halictidae bees were most abundant across all landscape types.