DETERMINING TEMPORAL AND SPATIAL AVAILABILITY OF BEE FORAGEs, BASED ON GROUND INVENTORY, SUPPORTED WITH GIS APPLICATION AND REMOTE SENSED SATELLITE IMAGE PROCESSING

In arid zones, the seasonal shortage of bee forage is critical, compelling beekeepers to move their colonies in search of better forage to maintain their colonies and to produce honey. In Saudi Arabia, on average, beekeepers commonly move their bees five times/year. Careful determination of the spatial and temporal availability of bee forage plants would guide beekeepers to move and manage their bees in synchrony with the availability of pollen and nectar sources. To identify, and map the spatial and temporal distribution of the bee forage of the areas, ground inventory work supported with GIS application were used. Moreover, remote sensed satellite image processing techniques were employed to extrapolate the distribution and seasonal pattern of the bee forage of the area. The blooming periods were monitored and a flowering calendar was produced. For some major honey sources, the nectar secretion dynamics and amount were estimated per flower & per tree. Some 159 bee forage species belonging to 49 plant families were identified and their flowering calendars were recorded. From these, Ziziphus spina-christi, A. tortilis, A. ehernbergiana, A. asak, A. origina, Lavendula species & Blepharis ciliaris were identified as major sources of pollen and nectar. The nectar source plants like Z. spina-christi, A. ehrenbergiana & A. tortilis, were estimated to secrete 5.21, 0.8 and 0.34 kg of nectar sugar/tree respectively. Based on the eco-climatological factors and their flowering period variations, these major bee forage species were found to be distributed temporally and spatially in eight distinct categories. The remotely sensed satellite image analysis results, confirmed the spatial distribution of the bee forage resources as determined by the ground inventory work and were found to be useful to extrapolate to large areas. An integrated approach, combining the ground inventory work with geographical information system and satellite image processing techniques could become an important tool for characterizing and mapping the available bee forage resources leading to their efficient and sustainable