Publication Date
Fall 2025
Abstract
Wildfire is an ecological process that is important to ecosystems around the world. Fire is naturally occurring and is also used as a forest management technique to promote biodiversity. While previous studies have analyzed how wildfires affect insects, none of the studies have been based in Portugal about native bees or insects. Additionally, previous studies have addressed the impact wildfire has on land and forests; however, the gap in knowledge is how wildfire directly influences native bee species’ populations. This study assesses how wildfires in Portugal impact the native bee populations and how the lack of pollen and nectar post-fire, due to flowering plants being burned, affects the bees. Scientific journals and websites were consulted for information pertaining to the topic of this project, along with talking with one expert wildfire researcher and two additional interviews. This paper also includes a literature review of relative previous studies that have been done. Finally, this paper concludes with the evidence that wildfires do have an impact on the native populations of bees in Portugal due to vegetation rapidly burning. Although uncontrolled and unmanaged wildfires can be harmful to biodiversity, prescribed burns and naturally occurring wildfires are important for the survival of forest ecosystems.
Disciplines
Life Sciences | Social and Behavioral Sciences
Recommended Citation
Creswell, Lacy, "Save the Bees and the Land: A framework to connect the wildfires in Portugal to the change in bee populations" (2025). Portugal: Sustainability and Environmental Justice. 14.
https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/por/14