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ViewAttendees 7

Member Symposium

Using Statewide Surveys to Assess the Conservation Status of US Pollinators

Bee monitoring in Pennsylvania by community scientists: Comparing a collections-based program with iNaturalist

Tuesday, November 7, 2023
1:59 PM - 2:11 PM ET
Location: Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, Potomac 5-6
In-Person
There is growing interest in monitoring bee biodiversity but also an ongoing debate about the pros and cons of different monitoring methods. Monitoring efforts can range from professional scientists collecting bees using standardized methods to the general public posting photos on iNaturalist. Collection-based methods presumably produce more reliable data with fewer biases against certain taxa, but community science approaches are broader in scope, which could provide unique insight. In Pennsylvania we established a community science monitoring program which falls between these two extremes. We enlisted the help of 20 Master Gardeners from across the state who we trained in bee collection methods using nets, blue vane traps, and bee bowls. Their collections were identified to species and stored in museum collections. We compared the results from these collections done in 2021 and 2022 to research-grade observations from iNaturalist during the same time period. Overall we found that collections done by 20 well-trained volunteers documented vastly more biodiversity and novel baseline natural history data (e.g. state and county records) than data collection done by 100 times more people on iNaturalist. Bee collections immediately increase our knowledge of biodiversity, species distributions and phenology, and can contribute to many other possible research projects in the future. Despite its limitations, iNaturalist data may be of particular value in documenting the ranges of large-bodied and non-native species. We hope that our approach of working with well-trained community scientists can serve as a model for other bee monitoring programs.