Detecting Insect Pollinator Declines on Regional and Global Scales |
| |
| Authors: | Gretchen Lebuhn Sam Droege Edward F Connor Barbara Gemmill‐Herren Simon G Potts Robert L Minckley Terry Griswold Robert Jean Emanuel Kula David W Roubik Jim Cane Karen W Wright Gordon Frankie Frank Parker |
| |
| Institution: | 1. Department of Biology, San Francisco State University, , San Francisco, CA, 94132 U.S.A.;2. USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, , Laurel, MD, 20708 U.S.A.;3. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, , Rome,, 00100 Italy;4. Centre for Agri‐Environmental Research (CAER), School of Agriculture, Policy and Development, University of Reading, , Reading, RG6 6AR United Kingdom;5. Department of Biology, University of Rochester, , Rochester, NY, 14627 U.S.A.;6. USDA‐ARS Bee Biology and Systematics Lab, Utah State University, , Logan, UT, 84322 U.S.A.;7. Department of Biology, Indiana State University, , Terre Haute IN 47809, U.S.A.;8. Mendel University of Agriculture and Forestry, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology, , CZ‐61300 Brno, Czech Republic, 420 545 134 127;9. Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, , Box 0843‐03092 Balboa, Ancon, Republic of Panama;10. Sevilleta LTER, Department of Biology, , Albuquerque, NM, 87131 U.S.A.;11. Department of Environmental Science, Policy, & Management, University of California, , Berkeley, CA, 94720 U.S.A. |
| |
| Abstract: | Recently there has been considerable concern about declines in bee communities in agricultural and natural habitats. The value of pollination to agriculture, provided primarily by bees, is >$200 billion/year worldwide, and in natural ecosystems it is thought to be even greater. However, no monitoring program exists to accurately detect declines in abundance of insect pollinators; thus, it is difficult to quantify the status of bee communities or estimate the extent of declines. We used data from 11 multiyear studies of bee communities to devise a program to monitor pollinators at regional, national, or international scales. In these studies, 7 different methods for sampling bees were used and bees were sampled on 3 different continents. We estimated that a monitoring program with 200–250 sampling locations each sampled twice over 5 years would provide sufficient power to detect small (2–5%) annual declines in the number of species and in total abundance and would cost U.S.$2,000,000. To detect declines as small as 1% annually over the same period would require >300 sampling locations. Given the role of pollinators in food security and ecosystem function, we recommend establishment of integrated regional and international monitoring programs to detect changes in pollinator communities. Detección de Declinaciones de Insectos Polinizadores a Escalas Regional y Global |
| |
| Keywords: | Apiformes Apoidea bees monitoring power analysis Abejas aná lisis de poder Apiformes Apoidea monitoreo |
|
|
