As the global agricultural footprint expands, it is increasingly important to address the link between the resource pulses characteristic of monoculture farming and wildlife epidemiology. To understand how mass-flowering crops impact host communities and subsequently amplify or dilute parasitism, we surveyed wild and managed bees in a monoculture landscape with varying degrees of floral diversification. We screened 1509 bees from 16 genera in sunflower fields and in non-crop flowering habitat across 200 km2 of the California Central Valley. We found that mass-flowering crops increase bee abundance. Wild bee abundance was subsequently associated with higher parasite presence, but only in sites with a low abundance of non-crop flowers. Bee traits related to higher dispersal ability (body size) and diet breadth (pollen lecty) were also positively related to parasite presence. Our results highlight the importance of non-crop flowering habitat for supporting bee communities. We suggest monoculture alone cannot support healthy bees.
Keywords: Apis mellifera; agriculture; hedgerow; mass-flowering crop; parasitism; wild bees.