Courtesy of Alexandr Pakhnyushchyy, via iStockPhoto.com
BeeSpotter
Concern about pollinator declines has increased in recent years, and, where pollinator status has been monitored over time, scientists are seeing some dramatic reductions in numbers. For most pollinators, however, there are simply no baseline data available to allow for an evaluation of changes in abundance. Beespotter is a Web-based partnership between the professional science community and citizen scientists—starting in Illinois exclusively but with the goal of spreading nationwide—to meet a critical need for data collection and to provide opportunities for the public to learn more about these ecologically essential organisms.
Species in the family Apidae—honey bees and bumble bees—are ideal subjects for citizen-scientist contributions to experimentation and data collection. Because of their striking coloration and readily recognizable shape and behavior, as well as their relatively large size (at least as far as insects are concerned), honey bees and bumble bees are far more easily "spotted," photographed, and identified based on color pattern than most of the other 3,500+ species of bees in North America.
There is currently no systematic nationwide effort to document pollinator status in North America beyond the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) annual survey of honey bees used for honey production. The goals of Beespotter are to engage citizen scientists in data collection to establish a baseline for monitoring population declines, to increase public awareness of pollinator diversity, and enhance public appreciation of pollination as an ecosystem service. The use of photography for identification, instead of the net, pin, and spreading board of traditional entomology, is consistent with the goal of preserving bee diversity and enhancing pollinator appreciation.
Project Details
- PRINCIPAL SCIENTIST: May Berenbaum, Professor and Department Head
- SCIENTIST AFFILIATION: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Entomology Department
- DATES: Ongoing
- LOCATION: Illinois - Project coordinators hope to expand BeeSpotter nationwide
- PROJECT TYPE: Fieldwork
- COST: Free
- GRADE LEVEL: All Ages
- TIME COMMITMENT: Variable
- HOW TO JOIN:
Project organizers have been receiving a number of queries from people wondering how they can get involved in this initiative. The best way to get involved is to get out there with your camera and capture some good pictures of bees. BeeSpotter's coordinators want to get a better idea of bee demographics in the state of Illinois. In order to get your bee pictures on our website, just create an account and then add your bee spotting.
For more information, contact May Berenbaum, maybe@uiuc.edu
See what we're tweeting about
4 Comments
Add CommentAll you have to do is look at the changes to the biosphere to understand why the sixth extinction is progressing so fast. The bees are one of the species loosing out to the changed biosphere. It is the activities of the intelligent species Homo sapien that has destroyed feedback mechanisms in the biosphere that maintained a stable life sustaining environment for everything that lived on this planet.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPollution is one of the reasons, but an exploding human population now exceeding 6.9G is the driving force. As Carl Sagan informed us in his interview with Psychology Today in 1996: Quote "Without agricultural technology, for example, the earth could support only tens of millions of people instead of billions".
The biosphere can take just so much of our thoughtless tinkering before it fails - crash bang were gone. We have developed technology to fight and control all other species but never our own. The educated control their reproduction, but the illiterate and the poorest breed at rates that evolved to cope with about a 75% loss of offspring before maturity. Now the "ethical carers" amongst us ensure that most of these reach reproductive age and breed unhindered in poverty and ignorance. This is the greatest threat to the biosphere and is now driving the sixth extinction.
Nothing anyone can do, unless we change our ethics and accept we are just another species and need the majority of the other species to maintain a stable environment to sustains life. Our numbers can not exceed approximately 2G with our current technology.
Are you trying to impress someone a girlfriend perhaps . Well if she is a third grader you have a shot, other wise . What? What are you saying do you even know ?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBeing smart is understanding however understanding something so well that you can explain to someone who knows nothing . You fail Carl Sagan. Really ?
WATER, Birth Control, for God's sake.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisClearly some of the previous comments have been removed. At any rate, I would like to see this bee monitoring expanded nation wide. It should also eventually include other pollinators such as butterflies and moths.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this