Pollinator Plant Network Interactions of Bees (Hymenoptera: Anthophila) in a California Urban Garden

Amongst ever increasing habitat loss and compounding environmental stressors, urban pollinator gardens can provide refugia and support native bees. However, gardens are rarely assessed for their effectiveness in providing adequate habitat. This study focuses on a recently established local campus pollinator garden in California. Using diversity observations from the early 2000s garden and non-lethal sampling techniques, we characterized visitation frequencies between flowers and urban bees. We generated a bipartite interaction network and found that despite the gardens relatively small size, the network showed greater specialization and modularity, as well as lower nestedness than expected b