Xerces Society - Bumble Bee Watch

Richard Hatfield1, Elizabeth Sellers2, Rich Hatfield1, Shiela Colla3, Jeremy Kerr4, Maxim Larrivée5

1 The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, 628 NE Broadway, Suite 200, 97232, Portland, United States; 2 United States Geological Survey (USGS), 12201 Sunrise Valley Drive Mail Stop 302, 20192, Reston, United States; 3 York University, Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University, 4700 Keele Street, M3J1P3, Toronto, Canada; 4 University of Ottawa, Gendron Hall, Room 160, 30 Marie Curie, K1N 6N5, Ottawa, Canada; 5 Montreal Insectarium, 4581, rue Sherbrooke E., H1X 2B2, Montreal, Canada

Corresponding author(s): Richard Hatfield (rich@xerces.org), Elizabeth Sellers (esellers@usgs.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

The Xerces Society, Wildlife Preservation Canada, York University, University of Ottawa, The Montreal Insectarium, The London Natural History Museum, BeeSpotter. 2017. Bumble Bee Watch, a collaborative website to track and conserve North America’s bumble bees. Available from http://www.bumblebeewatch.org/app/#/bees/lists. (Accessed through Biodiversity Information Serving Our Nation (BISON), http://bison.usgs.gov, YYYY-MM-DD). http://bison.usgs.gov

Abstract

Bumble Bee Watch is a collaborative effort to track and conserve North America’s bumble bees. Bumble Bee Watch is a citizen science project through the partnership of The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, the University of Ottawa, Wildlife Preservation Canada, BeeSpotter, The Natural History Museum, London, and the Montreal Insectarium. Bumble bee species occurrence data included in this dataset is derived from photo-based observations of bumble bees collected and submitted by citizen scientists in the United States and Canada. These data will help researchers determine the status and conservation needs of bumble bees; Help locate rare or endangered populations of bumble bees; and Learn about bumble bees, their ecology, and ongoing conservation efforts.

Keywords: Metadata, Keywords to go here once thesaurus is available again., Observation

General description

Purpose: Bumble Bee Watch is a collaborative effort to track and conserve North America’s bumble bees. Bumble bees are easily recognizable and iconic pollinators. They are also essential pollinators in agriculture, wildlands, and urban areas but evidence shows that many species are suffering alarming population declines. We need more information about the distribution and trends of bumble bee populations. Once we know the distribution of these animals we can more effectively target conservation efforts. Data from this project will be used to gather baseline data about the distribution and abundance of North America’s bumble bees. When appropriate, based on historical data this information will be used to target conservation efforts for at-risk species. Information from this project will also help answer questions about how environmental changes are affecting bumble bee populations throughout North America.
Additional information: License: Creative Commons CCZero.  

IP Rights: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons CCZero 1.0 License http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode.  While we provide these data to USGS BISON under the above license, we respectfully ask that data users consider the Bumble Bee Watch Privacy and Data Use Policy https://www.bumblebeewatch.org/privacy-policy/

Project details

Project title: Xerces Socieyt - Bumble Bee Watch
Personnel: Scott Hoffman Black
Funding: Funding for the Bumble Bee Watch project is provided by the following:
Ceres Trust; CS Fund; Disney Conservation Fund; The Dudley Foundation; Endangered Species Chocolate, LLC; Regina Bauer Frankenberg Foundation; The Edward Gorey Charitable Trust; Hind Foundation; Horne Family Foundation; J.Crew; Maki Foundation; Charlotte Y. Martin Foundation; Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada; The New-Land Foundation, Inc.; The Schad Foundation; Turner Foundation, Inc.; Alice C. Tyler Trust; W. Garfield Weston Foundation; The White Pine Fund; Whole Foods Market and its vendors; Whole Systems Foundation; Wildlife Preservation Canada donors; and Xerces Society members.

Data published through GBIF: https://bison.usgs.gov/ipt/resource?r=xerces-bumblebeewatch

Taxonomic coverage

General taxonomic coverage description: Bumble bee species in the genus Bombus Latreille, 1802 and subgenus Psithyrus Lepeletier, 1833 observed in the United States and Canada.
Taxonomic ranks
Genus: Bombus
Subgenus: Psithyrus
Common names: Bumblebees, bumble bees, Cuckoo bumble bees, cuckoo bumblebees

Spatial coverage

General spatial coverage: The United States and Canada.
Coordinates: 24°1'12''N and 71°22'12''N Latitude; 167°30'0''W and 61°1'12''W Longitude 

Methods

Method step description: See Sampling Description.
Study extent description: Locations within the United States and Canada.
Sampling description: Citizen scientists submit digital photographs of bumble bees and/or bumble bee nest locations in the United States and Canada.
Quality control description: Individuals with significant expertise in the identification of bumble bees verify the identities of bumble bees in submitted photos. Contributing bumble bee experts include: 

Andre Payette of the Montréal Insectarium; Carol Kearns of the University of Colorado at Boulder; Cory Sheffield of the Royal Saskatchewan Museum; Doug Golick of the University of Nebraska – Lincoln; Elaine Evans of the University of Minnesota; Ethan Woodis of the Xerces Society; Hayley Tompkins of Wildlife Preservation Canada; Jay Watson of the Wisconsin DNR; Jason Gibbs of the University of Manitoba; Jeff Lozier of the University of Alabama; Jessica Beckham of the University of North Texas; Joe Engler formerly of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; Jon Koch of Utah State University; Laura Burkle of Montana State University; Leif Richardson of Dartmouth College; Liz Day, formerly of the University of Illinois; Michael Otterstatter of the BC Centre for Disease Control; Michael Warriner of Texas Parks and Wildlife; Michele Blackburn of the Xerces Society; Mike Arduser of the Missouri Department of Conservation; Paul Williams of the Natural History Museum, London UK; Ralph Cartar of the University of Calgary; Rich Hatfield of the Xerces Society; Robbin Thorp of the University of California, Davis; Robin Owen of Mount Royal University; Sam Droege of the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center; Sarah Johnson of Wildlife Preservation Canada; Sarina Jepsen of the Xerces Society; Shalene Jha of the University of Texas at Austin; Sheila Colla of Wildlife Preservation CanadaYork University; Shelby Gibson of York University; Susan Carpenter of the UW Madison Arboretum; Syd Cannings of Environment Canada; Terry Griswold of the USDA Pollinating Insects Research Unit; Terry Harrison of the University of Illinois; and Victoria MacPhail of York University.

Datasets

Dataset description
Object name: Darwin Core Archive Xerces Society - Bumble Bee Watch
Character encoding: UTF-8
Format name: Darwin Core Archive format
Format version: 1.0
Distribution: https://bison.usgs.gov/ipt/archive.do?r=xerces-bumblebeewatch
Publication date of data: 2020-01-06
Language: English
Licences of use: Public Domain (CC0 1.0)

Metadata language: English
Date of metadata creation: 2016-06-08
Hierarchy level: Dataset

References
The Xerces Society, Wildlife Preservation Canada, York University, University of Ottawa, The Montreal Insectarium, The London Natural History Museum, BeeSpotter. 2017. Data accessed from Bumble Bee Watch, a collaborative website to track and conserve North America’s bumble bees. Available from http://www.bumblebeewatch.org/app/#/bees/lists (accessed *download date*). http://www.bumblebeewatch.org/app/#/bees/lists