Comment on Dominance of honey bees is negatively associated with wild bee diversity in commercial apple orchards regardless of management practices [Agric. Ecosyst. Environ. 323 (2022) 107697]

There is an ongoing debate if and to what extend honey bees (Apis mellifera) might present competition against other pollinators, particularly other species of bees. In our comment we reanalyze data from Weekers et al. (2022) on bee pollinators of apple, collected in an impressive large-scale study in Western Europe. We challenge one of their findings related to competition as we disagree with correlating [bee] species richness (# species in a sample) and honey bee dominance (the percentage of honey bees in the same sample). We show that according to this way of data transformation even computed datasets without any correlations inevitably result in a negative relationship. As honey bee dominance increases towards 100%, the species richness will approach one. Only one species will be present, that is the honey bee, because the values for wild bee and honey bee values are not independent. This explains why they report a negative relationship, though we found no correlation reanalysing their raw data. We hope this comment facilitates our understanding of this important topic and advances future research, as well as supports informed decisions for policy makers.

Automated summary

This comment reanalyzes data from a previous study on bee pollinators, specifically focusing on the competition between honey bees and other pollinators. The authors challenge the findings of the previous study and argue against correlating species richness and honey bee dominance. Through reanalysis of the data, they found no correlation and provide an explanation for why negative relationships were reported. The comment aims to advance understanding and inform future research and policymaking.