Mapping wild bee diversity and flower use for an effective conservation of the Donana biodiversity hotspot

Abstract

Despite the high bee species richness found in the Iberian Peninsula, the lack of distributional data often hampers effective conservation. This gap is particularly critical within protected areas such as the Donana Natural Area, where biodiversity is expected to be increasingly vulnerable to environmental pressures. Here, we present the first checklist of the wild bees of Donana. A total of 385 species belonging to 47 genera were recorded, including recently described species and a newly recorded species for continental Europe, Andrena purpurascens. The exceptional diversity of the areas bee fauna accounts for approximately one-third of the known Iberian apifauna. We provide information on habitat and floral use, offering key ecological insights for conservation planning. This knowledge is essential to support habitat management decisions, particularly in the face of intensifying climate change and water scarcity across the protected area. In addition, to evaluate long-term ecological changes, we compared recent field data (2020-2021) with historical surveys conducted at the same site between 1984 and 1985. While a similar number of species were recorded in both periods (49 vs 43 species), only 15 species were shared between the two periods. This large-scale species turnover indicates the dynamic nature of a region undergoing significant environmental shifts. These findings underscore the importance of baseline biodiversity assessments and long-term monitoring for understanding and mitigating pollinator loss in protected ecosystems, which are increasingly shaped by climate instability and anthropogenic pressures.