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

James Strange1, Amber Tripodi2, Harold Ikerd3, Amber Tripodi4

1 USDA-ARS, 5310 Old Main Hill, 843225310, Logan, United States; 2 USDA-ARS Pollinating Insect-biology, Management, Systematics Research, 5310 Old Main Hill, 84322, Logan, United States; 3 USDA-ARS Pollinating Insect-biology, Management, Systematics Research, 5310 Old Main Hill, BNR 244, 843225310, Logan, United States; 4 USDA-ARS, 5310 Old Main Hill, 843225310, Logan, United States

Corresponding author(s): James Strange (James.Strange@ars.usda.gov)Amber Tripodi (amberdtripodi@gmail.com), Harold Ikerd (harold.ikerd@ars.usda.gov)

Received {date}; Revised {date}; Accepted {date}; Published {date}

Citation: Combination of authors, year of data paper publication (in parentheses), Title, Journal Name, Volume, Issue number (in parentheses), and doi of the data paper.

Resource Citation

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 https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.4783

Abstract

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

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

Project details

Project title: Records from Characterizing bumble bee (Bombus) communities in the United States and assessing a conservation monitoring method
Personnel: James Strange, Amber Tripodi
Study area descriptions/descriptor: 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.

Data published through GBIF: https://bison.usgs.gov/ipt/resource?r=usda-bombus-communities

Taxonomic coverage

General taxonomic coverage description: 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.
Taxonomic ranks
Genus: Bombus
Common names: Bumbule bee

Spatial coverage

General spatial coverage: Systematic surveys of bumble bees from 31 sites in 15 states within the contiguous United States.
Coordinates: 23°53'9.6''N and 71°31'30''N Latitude; 170°51'32.4''W and 64°46'30''W Longitude 

Temporal coverage: June 26, 2015 - August 10, 2015

Natural collections description

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

Methods

Method step description: Skip
Study extent description: 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.
Sampling 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).

Datasets

Dataset description
Object name: Darwin Core Archive Characterizing bumble bee (Bombus) communities in the United States and assessing a conservation monitoring method
Character encoding: UTF-8
Format name: Darwin Core Archive format
Format version: 1.0
Distribution: https://bison.usgs.gov/ipt/archive.do?r=usda-bombus-communities
Publication date of data: 2019-11-21
Language: English
Licences of use: Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) 4.0 License

Metadata language: English
Date of metadata creation: 2018-11-16
Hierarchy level: Dataset

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