Assessing and Supporting Wild Bee Diversity

Using Ecosystem Indicators to Map and Guide Wild Bee Monitoring and Protection

The U.S. has roughly 3,600 species of wild bees that pollinate thousands of plants, including many common foods like apples and almonds. Wild bees, along with many pollinators, are declining around the world due to land cover changes, human activities, pesticide use, and other threats. Despite growing concern about population declines, there are limited data about wild bee abundance. Fortunately, we can use surrogate measures, sometimes called ‘ecological indicators’, to guide conservation and outreach efforts until more bee data are available.

(Wild bee photos were provided by Bryan Danforth’s lab.)

2022 Abundance Map for the Chipping Sparrow

How Can Birds Help Bees?

We hypothesized that combining data about birds and land cover would provide useful information about the resources, habitats, and landscapes that are associated with diverse bee communities. We used data from eBird, a global participatory science project housed at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, to which volunteer eBirders submit bird observations and checklists. Those submissions are reviewed and analyzed to ensure data quality and produce estimates of relative abundance and population trends of birds.

Colletes inaequalis - wild ground nesting bee - photo by Alberto Lopez

What Do We Know About Wild Bees?

The population status of most wild bees is unknown. In the U.S., only one in five species has been rigorously assessed, and fewer than half have sufficient data to delineate their geographic range. In general, only species with very small ranges and known threats in those areas are confirmed to be imperiled.

Wild Bee on apple blossom (Photo by Chris Kitchen)

About the Research

In cases where there are insufficient species data to guide conservation, scientists can develop indicators to fill information gaps. These indicators act as surrogates that provide a “best guess” in the absence of data on the species or group of interest. Indicators use environmental or species information that can be easily accessed and is available over large geographic areas.

Cornell Atkinson Girl Holding Question Mark Sign

What Can You Do?

How can we act now to help wild bees? There are resources to support all efforts to preserve and protect wild bees and their habitats. Whether you are a researcher, practitioner, farmer, conservationist, elected official, or citizen scientist your efforts can help protect wild bees.