Beecology

I have become very fond of pollinators in my garden,  I am even learning more about native bees!

Parts of an interview copied from  A Way to Garden   - a great blog by Margaret Roach:

BIOLOGIST ROBERT GEGEAR wants our help. He wants us to become Beecologists, as in, citizen scientists who help with the study of the ecology of bees. Our native bumblebees, specifically. He wants us to get to know them by taking photos, and contribute to scientific research by sharing those sightings, and in the process, learn to make gardens and landscapes that support them.

In our chat, I was surprised to learn that a bumblebee species may prefer a different plant for nectar than it does as a source of pollen, and also what role pollen serves for the bees (not just for the plants they pollinate). And that though there are a lot of lists out there of “bee plants,” many of them aren’t based on research—but rather on less-formal observations of bees being seen on certain flowers. It’s time for that to change, and each of us can help.

Rob: So I started to do field work looking into some of these causes, and found some really interesting findings, looking more at the species ecology. And it was just myself and one grad student, and I needed to scale up the project. And so I thought, there’s no better way to expand out than to include citizen scientists in the project, and so I created the Beecology Project, which is my way to rapidly collect data from a large area. And these data are on the ecological preferences of different threatened pollinator species, and also trying to get information on plants and pollinator interaction.

And so I was giving a talk, and this was the first Beecology talk, or first or second Beecology talk, I said, “I’m looking for this bee, it should be in this area, it’s at higher elevations,” and at the end of the talk, someone showed me a picture of the bee.

Margaret: [Laughter.]

Rob: So since that, many people have shown me pictures and submitted pictures of this bee, and I now have a range map for the species that I was told was no longer in the state. It’s alive and well in the state, and I am currently studying it, to try to figure out what its ecological needs are, where does it like to nest, what does it like for nectar and pollen source, where does it overwinter, so that I can figure out why it’s no longer in certain areas where it was historically, and hope to bring, expand the population back into those areas.

So people sending in… There’s another species that’s rapidly declining, and I was just earlier today was meeting with a Beecologist, and saw the species in their garden, and they were telling me what they’ve seen it on, and they’re going to do some observation for me to figure out what the ecological needs of that species.

Now, you have a particular interest, you know, we hear about a lot of headlines the last couple of years, especially about honeybees. Colony collapse disorder, and this and that. And I’m interested in that, but you’re really focusing on bumblebees, our native bees in the genus Bombus, yes? And so it’s a little bit different from the honeybee thing.

we’re starting with the bumblebee, and I’m focused on the bumblebee, and I’ve been studying it for over 20 years, but really the techniques we’re developing and some of the information that we’re gathering can be applied to all types of pollinators, not just bumblebees.

The bumblebees are easily accessible, are easily identifiable by citizen scientists, which is why we’re starting with the bumblebees.

Margaret: O.K. And when you say the bumblebees, there are… I’ve read in different places in the United States that there are 46 species, or 49. I don’t know how many, but who, what’s the number?

Rob: [Laughter.] The number that I give is “approximately 50,” so there were some parasitic bumblebees that were in a different genus, that were changed from Psithyrus to Bombus, and now are included in that bumblebee number, so the number went up when those species were included. There are roughly, so roughly 50—25 east, 25 west—and as you go farther north, you start to get new species… or diversity increases generally as you start to move farther north, and to higher elevation.

Margaret: So you said that you were just talking about the importance of honeybees, especially in the agricultural setting as pollinators. I sort of think of them as like a farm animal, in a way, do you know what I mean? We’ve put them, humans have put them into service to do this work, and in fact we imported them when we came to settle this country since they’re not native to here. But the bumblebees, as native bees, are I think what’s called a keystone species. Can you explain that?

Rob: Yes, so again, in the ecological context, what our native pollinators do, including bumblebees and the other things that I mentioned, it’s not just… What I want to point out before I go into the keystone species idea, because it’s not just the animals. We talk about pollinator decline, and it’s really focused on the animal, so we’re concerned with saving the bees. But really, what’s important here, the term “pollinator” itself is a plant-based term, and an animal can only be called a pollinator if it’s performing a particular service to the plant, helping it to reproduce.

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