Bees are a keystone group for proper ecosystem functioning so understanding how bee communities change over time and space is essential baseline information. Using standardized sampling, we found that bee communities vary tremendously across spatial scales from 0.5 km apart to over 1000 km apart, and among samples made at the same site one week apart or over years (Minckley et al., 1999; Cane, Kervin & Minckley 2013). High species turnover at all spatial and temporal scales is consistent with bee studies worldwide (Williams, Minckley & Silveira 2001), and has interesting implications for topics ranging from the coevolution of plant-pollinator interactions to the conservation of bees.
