Bees and almond production: pollination in a California almond orchard

Question

Greetings all!

I am a new member and I'm hoping some of you will have some insights into how to do a spatial analysis of blue orchard bee nesting and almond production in an almond orchard in California.  I have almond production data collected on a systematic sample of trees from within the rectangular array of trees; bee nest boxes were located systematically within the orchard and do not pair with sampled trees. I also have the number of completed blue orchard bee nests.  The layout of sampled trees and nest box locations for the high density treatment is illustrated on page 2 of "Blue Orchard Bee Nest Box Locations Artz.pdf". "High density" refers to the number of nests within the box; the high density treatment is more sparsely distributed in the orchard than is the low density (fewer nests within a box, more dense within the orchard; same total number of nests in both treatments). I have the GPS coordinates for all of the nest boxes in the orchard and all of the trees we sampled nuts from as well.  Theoretically, the closer the trees are to the nest boxes where the blue orchard bees nest, the more almonds they will produce due to increased pollination by the activity of the blue orchard bees.

I wants to assess the effect of physical proximity of nest boxes on almond production. This could be thought of as a "circle of influence" of a nest box, where there could be overlapping circles for any particular almond tree; or as quantifying almond production as a function of distance(s) from nest box(es).

Again, thanks for any insights into how to do a spatial analysis for these data!

Derek

2011 Blue Orchard Bee Nest Box Locations_Artz.pdf

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gpnobbir · Answer

Very interesting study 🙂I want to assess the effect of physical proximity of nest boxes on almond production. This could be thought of as a "circle of influence" of a nest box, where there could be overlapping circles for any particular almond tree; or as quantifying almond production as a function of distance(s) from nest box(es).

Please clarify:
In which area you need help with - which tools to use or how to forumlate methods?
How do you want to assess the effect? Have you already decided the 'how' part and need help with the GIS techniques to get a result?