My research focus is how anthropogenic activities on different spatial scales affect wild bee diversity, abundance and community composition, as well as their foraging resources and nesting habitats. Studies are carried out in agro-ecosystems and investigate different agricultural management intensities like soil management, mulching frequencies or organic vs. conventional farming practices. Landscape analysis about the quality, quantity and spatial arrangement of landscape structures are included to assess the habitat quality and -connectivity for wild bees. Additionally, I investigate how different land-use types shape plant – pollinator networks and related ecological traits of bees and flowers (trait matching). Sampling sites are chosen in the field and wild bees are usually sampled by a standardized transect method. Thereby the collection of plant-pollinator interaction data is efficiently possible without increasing the workload too much. To quantify the foraging resources of bees in more detail, pollen samples may be taken from the specimen in the lab and analysed with a light microscope. Depending on the research question, landscape data are either obtained from existing data bases or mapped in the field.
Since 2023, I have been working on meadow orchard in Austria with my colleagues at BOKU Eva Schöll (IWJ), Markus Immitzer and Franz Suppan (Geomatics), colleagues from HBLA Wein und Obst in Klosterneuburg and the engineer’s office Christian Holler. As part of the DivMoSt project (2024-2025), meadow orchard throughout Austria were surveyed. The aim was to record the biodiversity of indicator animal groups (wild bees, butterflies, grasshoppers, birds and bats) in orchard meadows and developing a geodata-based method that enables nationwide automated detection and monitoring of meadow orchard. This required not only existing geodata but also specialist meadow orchard surveys in all federal states.
Another research focus is about the relationship (e.g. overlapping use of food resources) between wild bees and honeybees – in other words, how beekeeping and wild bee conservation can be reconciled. I am currently working with my colleague Julia Lanner on a follow-up project (BeEcoVIE 2) to the initial study on bee-ecological spatial planning in Vienna (see BeEcoVIE results here [final report in German] and here [publication]). The follow-up project surveys wild bees in Vienna, specifically in areas where data gaps are known from the results of BeEcoVIE. Another focus is the modelling of available food resources for bees in Vienna.
Together with my colleagues Lukas Landler and Julia Lanner we now focus on spatial ecology and habitat use of selected wild bee species (bumble bees and carpenter bees) in the national parc Neusiedlersee-Seewinkel (Burgenland, AT) using radio telemetry. Individuals of large bee species (e.g. carpenter bees) are equipped with small active radio tags (Plecotus Solutions GmbH). Receiver stations in the research area continuously log the movement patterns of the specimen, allowing detailed insight in the habitat use of the species and further improve conservation measures. Watch our bee tracking video here. The associated publication about tracking large bees can be downloaded here.
With my colleague Alexander Bruckner I am investigating relevant nesting site parameters for ground nesting bee species, for example of Lasioglossum marginatum. We compared soil parameters (water content, pH, SOM, profile depth, texture..), site parameters (vegetation cover, exposition, slope, floral resource availability) and landscape parameters (different land use types and floral resources) to identify which parameters predominantly affect nest size.
