Characterizing bumble bee (Bombus) communities in the United States and assessing a conservation monitoring method

Occurrence Specimen
Latest version published by USDA-ARS Pollinating Insect-Biology, Management, Systematics Research on Nov 21, 2019 USDA-ARS Pollinating Insect-Biology, Management, Systematics Research
Publication date:
21 November 2019
License:
CC-BY-NC 4.0

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Description

Occurrence records used in the Publication, "Characterizing bumble bee (Bombus) communities in the United States and assessing a conservation monitoring method"

Data Records

The data in this occurrence resource has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A), which is a standardized format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table contains 3,251 records.

This IPT archives the data and thus serves as the data repository. The data and resource metadata are available for download in the downloads section. The versions table lists other versions of the resource that have been made publicly available and allows tracking changes made to the resource over time.

Versions

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How to cite

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

Strange J, Tripodi A (2018): Characterizing bumble bee (Bombus) communities in the United States and assessing a conservation monitoring method. v1.2. USDA-ARS Bee Biology and Systematics Laboratory. Dataset/Occurrence. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.4783

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Researchers should respect the following rights statement:

The publisher and rights holder of this work is USDA-ARS Pollinating Insect-Biology, Management, Systematics Research. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC 4.0) License.

GBIF Registration

This resource has been registered with GBIF, and assigned the following GBIF UUID: 2d2f6ae8-e640-4c56-b45f-5f69583b81ad.  USDA-ARS Pollinating Insect-Biology, Management, Systematics Research publishes this resource, and is itself registered in GBIF as a data publisher endorsed by GBIF-US.

Keywords

Occurrence; bumble bees; community structure; conservation monitoring; national survey; pollinator diversity; sampling method; species richness; Specimen; Occurrence

Contacts

James Strange
  • Point Of Contact
  • Research Entomologist
USDA-ARS
  • 5310 Old Main Hill
843225310 Logan
UT
US
  • 4357970530
Amber Tripodi
  • Author
  • Research Entomologist
USDA-ARS Pollinating Insect-biology, Management, Systematics Research
  • 5310 Old Main Hill
84322 Logan
Utah
US
Harold Ikerd
  • Metadata Provider
  • Data Manager
USDA-ARS Pollinating Insect-biology, Management, Systematics Research
  • 5310 Old Main Hill, BNR 244
843225310 Logan
UT
US
  • 4352275711
James Strange
  • Point Of Contact
USDA-ARS
  • 5310 Old Main Hill
843225310 Logan
UT
US
  • 4357970530
Amber Tripodi
  • Author
USDA-ARS
  • 5310 Old Main Hill
843225310 Logan
Utah
US
  • 4357970530

Geographic Coverage

Systematic surveys of bumble bees from 31 sites in 15 states within the contiguous United States.

Bounding Coordinates South West [23.886, -170.859], North East [71.525, -64.775]

Taxonomic Coverage

The most common of the 30 species encountered was B. impatiens, the common eastern bumble bee, which comprised 36.04% (n = 1172) of the bees encountered nationwide. Several species were represented by only one (B. vandykei) or two (B. flavidus, B. insularis, and B. melanopygus) individuals in the surveys.

Genus Bombus (Bumbule bee)

Temporal Coverage

Start Date / End Date 2015-06-26 / 2015-08-10

Project Data

Bumble bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Bombus) are economically and ecologically important pollinators in agroecosystems and wildland habitats. In the Nearctic region, there are approximately 41 species, of which the IUCN lists twelve species as vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered. We conducted a standardized faunal survey to inform ongoing conservation efforts including petitions under review for the Endangered Species Act. Furthermore, we test the appropriateness of a methodology for accurately sampling bumble bee communities.

Title Records from Characterizing bumble bee (Bombus) communities in the United States and assessing a conservation monitoring method
Study Area Description The distribution of bumble bee species across the landscape of North America is complex, and various geographic and biological constraints tend to define species distributions (J. B. Koch, Looney, Sheppard, & Strange, 2017; Lozier, Strange, Stewart, & Cameron, 2011; P. H. Williams et al., 2014). In the contiguous 48 states there exists a strong regional signature in the composition of bumble bee communities. For example, a distinct assemblage of bumble bee species occurs along the Pacific Coast (J. B. Koch et al., 2017), and while some of the species also occur east of the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Mountain ranges, six species are mainly restricted to the Pacific coast region (J. Koch, Strange, & Williams, 2012; P. H. Williams et al., 2014). Another group of bumble bees is less geographically restricted, but is more constrained to habitat, occurring only in high mountain, alpine areas in the southwest and reappearing in lower elevations in northern states (Jackson et al., 2018; Lozier, Strange, & Koch, 2013), Canada (Hatten, Strange, & Maxwell, 2015) and Alaska (J. B. Koch & Strange, 2012; P. Williams, 2013).
Design Description At each site, a collection of approximately 100 foraging bees was taken in a single day between 10:00 and 18:00 local time. We only collected in good weather conditions defined as: temperature 15-35°C, no precipitation, <50% cloud cover, and wind speed <15km/hr. We conducted surveys using two or three collectors using aerial insect nests to capture bumble bees as they foraged on flowering plants for pollen or nectar. Collectors captured foraging bees until a total of 100 worker or male bees were taken at a site, where possible. In most cases, sites were defined as an agricultural field and the field margin directly surrounding the field. However, non-agricultural sites were defined as a patch of flowers not to exceed 5 hectares. Collectors conducted a random walk through the patch or field margins, collecting a bee, stopping to process the bee, then continuing to the next bee they encountered. Netted bees were placed in individual vials and chilled and then given a preliminary field species determination before being killed by freezing on dry ice, except for five sites where time constrains prohibited field identification. Frozen bees were transported back to the USDA-ARS- Pollinating Insect- Biology, Management and Systematics Research Unit in Logan, UT where field species identifications were verified or corrected using available taxonomic keys (J. Koch et al., 2012; Mitchell, 1962; P. H. Williams et al., 2014). Specific determinations, sex determination and site metadata were recorded in a database for further analyses.

The personnel involved in the project:

James Strange
  • Author
Amber Tripodi
  • Author

Sampling Methods

At each site, a collection of approximately 100 foraging bees was taken in a single day between 10:00 and 18:00 local time. We only collected in good weather conditions defined as: temperature 15-35°C, no precipitation, <50% cloud cover, and wind speed <15km/hr. We conducted surveys using two or three collectors using aerial insect nests to capture bumble bees as they foraged on flowering plants for pollen or nectar. Collectors captured foraging bees until a total of 100 worker or male bees were taken at a site, where possible. In most cases, sites were defined as an agricultural field and the field margin directly surrounding the field. However, non-agricultural sites were defined as a patch of flowers not to exceed 5 hectares. Collectors conducted a random walk through the patch or field margins, collecting a bee, stopping to process the bee, then continuing to the next bee they encountered. Netted bees were placed in individual vials and chilled and then given a preliminary field species determination before being killed by freezing on dry ice, except for five sites where time constrains prohibited field identification. Frozen bees were transported back to the USDA-ARS- Pollinating Insect- Biology, Management and Systematics Research Unit in Logan, UT where field species identifications were verified or corrected using available taxonomic keys (J. Koch et al., 2012; Mitchell, 1962; P. H. Williams et al., 2014).

Study Extent In 2015 (26-Jun to 10-Aug), we conducted systematic surveys of bumble bees from 31 sites in 15 states (Fig 1). Survey efforts were focused on areas where bumble bees are important for agricultural production and over half of our collections occurred in agricultural landscapes with the majority of other collections being in suburban landscapes adjacent to agricultural areas.

Method step description:

  1. Skip

Collection Data

Collection Name USDA/ARS, Pollinating Insects, Biology, Management and Systematics Research
Collection Identifier urn:lsid:biocol.org:col:33039
Parent Collection Identifier Not applicable
Specimen preservation methods Pinned,  Deep frozen

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Additional Metadata

Alternative Identifiers 2d2f6ae8-e640-4c56-b45f-5f69583b81ad
https://bison.usgs.gov/ipt/resource?r=usda-bombus-communities