Abstract Pollination, especially by bees, has high importance for man and nature. Ongoing global declines in bee populations make their present and future conservation crucial. We investigated how management of natural areas affects plants and pollinators, in the context of fire prevention measures in Mediterranean forests. The standard forestry practice to reduce fire hazard includes construction of vegetation-thinned buffer zones near roads and human settlements. Such buffer zones are commonly maintained by livestock grazing or mechanical trimming to prevent forest regrowth. We conducted a controlled and replicated field experiment to assess the effects of these maintenance practices on flowering plants and bees. Vegetation was thinned in 32 experimental plots at the Mt. Carmel Nature Reserve, Israel, to simulate construction of fire buffer zones. Sixteen plots were either grazed by sheep or trimmed during the following year, while the remaining plots received no maintenance treatment. We surveyed the flowers (identified to species) and bees (identified to genus) in the plots over three years: before, during and after the maintenance interventions. Maintenance management (regardless whether by grazing or by trimming) affected the floral community composition, as did monitoring date and the plots' fire history (burnt either four or >20 years earlier). However, the abundance and diversity of flowers and bees, and the bees' community composition, did not differ between plots that received maintenance treatments and their paired non-maintenance controls. We conclude that many aspects of flower and bee assemblages in the reserve are little affected, in the short term, by the maintenance practices of fire buffer zones. As our experiment was limited to a one-year grazing/trimming intervention, future studies should assess the longer-term effects of these management activities on pollination interactions.

中文翻译：

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森林火灾缓冲区的管理：对开花植物和蜜蜂的影响

摘要 授粉，尤其是蜜蜂授粉，对人与自然都具有重要意义。全球蜜蜂种群的持续下降使得它们现在和未来的保护变得至关重要。在地中海森林防火措施的背景下，我们调查了自然区域的管理如何影响植物和传粉媒介。减少火灾危险的标准林业实践包括在道路和人类住区附近建造植被稀疏的缓冲区。这种缓冲区通常通过牲畜放牧或机械修剪来维持，以防止森林再生。我们进行了一项受控和重复的田间试验，以评估这些维护措施对开花植物和蜜蜂的影响。在 Mt. 的 32 个实验地中，植被被减薄。卡梅尔自然保护区，以色列，模拟消防缓冲区的建设。16 块地块在次年被绵羊放牧或修剪，其余地块没有进行维护处理。我们在三年内调查了地块中的花（已确定为物种）和蜜蜂（已确定为属）：在维护干预之前、期间和之后。维护管理（无论是通过放牧还是修剪）影响了花卉群落组成，监测日期和地块的火灾历史（4 年或 20 年之前被烧毁）也是如此。然而，花和蜜蜂的丰富度和多样性以及蜜蜂的群落组成在接受维护处理的地块与其配对的非维护控制之间没有差异。我们得出的结论是，保护区内花卉和蜜蜂组合的许多方面在短期内几乎不受火灾缓冲区维护做法的影响。由于我们的实验仅限于一年的放牧/修剪干预，未来的研究应该评估这些管理活动对授粉相互作用的长期影响。