Partnering with community scientists across the Mid-Atlantic US to study mason bee diversity and disease spillover

Pollination is valued at $170 billion per year globally, and both managed and wild bees contribute substantially to crop pollination. Introduced, managed bees confer significant pollination benefits to agricultural systems, but introducing non-native species into new ecosystems poses a risk of introducing pathogens along with them. Pathogen spillover to wild, native bees may then drive native bee species declines. This talk will discuss a) disease spillover to native mason bees (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae, genus Osmia) from non-native mason bee species; and b) enemy release of non-native mason bee species in their introduced range. From an analysis of over fifteen years of community science monitoring data from hundreds of sites across the Mid-Atlantic US, we found significant declines of six native mason bee species in North America with a surge in abundance of the non-native mason bee Osmia taurus over the same period of time. Subsequent studies with over 200 community scientists in Virginia, Maryland, D.C., and West Virginia have identified several factors that may be causing these patterns, including differences in mason bee species climatic tolerances, loss of natural predators for the non-native Osmia species, and the co-introduction of fungal pathogen Ascosphaera spp. (Onygenales: Ascosphaeraceae) to native Osmia from the non-native Osmia species. This talk will conclude by discussing the benefits and opportunities for developing community science programming to better understand emerging risks for solitary bee health and diversity.