Understanding honey bee forage requirements and the impacts of urban hives on wild bees

There is limited knowledge of the impacts of honey bee hives on wild bees and the amount of floral resources honey bees require, which are both needed for addressing whether landscapes have enough resources for all bees. I developed a model to calculate the number of flowers and area a honey bee hive requires using information compiled from published literature (Chapter 1), and I performed a field study to assess the impacts of urban beehives on wild bees (Chapter 2). My models output is highly variable due to the limited amount of available peer-reviewed literature on needed parameters, but it serves as a starting point to assess how much floral resources honey bee hives require. My field studys main findings were that increasing honey bee abundance was associated with decreases in the abundance and body size of certain bee species, as well as reduced species richness and functional diversity.