Advancing bee conservation in the US: gaps and opportunities in data collection and reporting

Abstract

Bee conservation in the U.S. is currently hindered by challenges associated with assessing the status and trends of a diverse group of >3000 species, many of which are rare, endemic to small areas, and/or exhibit high inter-annual variation in population size. Fundamental information about the distribution of most species across space and time, thus, is lacking yet urgently needed to assess population status, guide conservation plans, and prioritize actions among species and geographies. Using wild bee data from two public data repositories representing the contiguous U.S., we evaluated the availability and sufficiency of data for use in species assessments of wild bees. We also examined the number of bee species recorded in each U.S. state and the proportion of species with recent records (2012-2021). Although efforts to monitor bees continue to grow, there remains a massive paucity of data. Exceedingly few records (0.04%) reported both sampling protocol and effort, greatly limiting the usefulness of the data. Few species or locations have adequate publicly available data to support analyses of population status or trends, and fewer than half of species have sufficient data to delineate geographic range. Despite an exponential increase in data submissions since the 2000s, only 47% of species were reported within the last decade, which may be driven by how data are collected, reported, and shared, or may reflect troubling patterns of local or large-scale declines and extirpations. Based on our analysis, we provide recommendations to improve the quality and quantity of data that can be used to detect, understand, and respond to changes in wild bee populations.

Indicators of a data-deficient taxa: combining bird and environmental data enhances predictive accuracy of wild bee richness

“…Importantly, we recognize that species richness does not necessarily indicate conservation value. High species richness could result from communities comprised mainly of generalists and common species, whereas areas of low richness may be home to specialized and rare species might warrant more conservation attention (Bogusch et al, 2020; Raiol et al, 2021; Rousseau et al, 2023; Winfree, 2010). For these reasons, establishing conservation priorities is best done in consultation with experts or, ideally, after ground-truthing with field surveys.…”

“…There is an urgent need to protect populations of wild bees, as concerns grow about their decline and the risk of losing the ecological roles and ecosystem services they provide (Bartomeus et al, 2013; Cameron and Sadd, 2020; Grixti et al, 2009; IPBES, 2016; Zattara and Aizen, 2021). Unfortunately, conservation action continues to be stymied by the paucity of rigorous information on bee populations and communities (Rousseau et al, 2023; Winfree, 2010). Despite several initiatives to fill data gaps (e.g., Droege et al, 2016; Woodard et al, 2020) and increased numbers of observations submitted to participatory science projects like iNaturalist, wild bees are likely to remain data deficient in the near term.…”