Finding the way back: assessing Melipona quadrifasciata’s return ability in human-modified landscape

The increasing fragmentation of habitats threatens the resilience of pollinators essential for ecosystem maintenance and food security. Here, we use RFID technology to investigate how release distance, seasonality, meteorological factors, and landscape structure influence the return capacity of Melipona quadrifasciata in human-modified environments. We monitored 240 bees released at distances ranging from 500 to 2,500 m across four seasons and demonstrated that return success declines significantly with distance, with a critical threshold at 2,000 m. Seasonality affects navigation, with the highest return rates in summer and the lowest in autumn. Higher temperatures and moderate wind speeds facilitated movement, while agricultural and pasture areas increased return time. The presence of non-random spatial patterns reinforces the impact of landscape configuration on the functional connectivity of pollinators. These findings highlight the vulnerability of native bees in environment impacted by human activities and underscore the need to integrate conservation strategies based on ecological connectivity and sustainable landscape management.