Determining the plant-pollinator network in a culturally significant food and medicine garden in the Great Lakes region.

Understanding the interactions between plants and pollinators within a system can provide information about pollination requirements and the degree to which species contribute to floral reproductive success. Past research has focused largely on interactions within monocultured agricultural systems and only somewhat on wild pollination networks. This study focuses on the culturally significant Three Sisters Garden, which has been grown and tended by many Indigenous peoples for generations in the Great Lakes Region. Here, the plant-pollinator network of the traditional Three Sisters Garden with the inclusion of some additional culturally significant plants was mapped. Important visitors in this system included the common eastern bumble bee, Bombus impatiens Cresson (Hymenoptera: Apidae), and the hoary squash bee, Xenoglossa pruinosa (Say) (Hymenoptera: Apidae), as determined by their abundances and pollinator service index (PSI) values. Understanding the key pollinators in the Three Sisters Garden links biological diversity to cultural diversity through the pollination of culturally significant plants. Further, this information could be of use in supporting Indigenous food sovereignty by providing knowledge about which wild pollinators could be supported to increase fruit and seed set within the Three Sisters Garden. Our findings can also lead to more effective conservation of important wild pollinator species.

Insect visitation and pollination of a culturally significant plant, Hopi tobacco (Nicotiana rustica).

Nicotiana rustica is a monecious member of the Solanaceae family, distributed across North America where it is grown for ceremonial purposes. Flowers of N. rustica open in the morning and are receptive to pollen until the following day. This study investigates the role of diurnal and nocturnal pollinators in reproductive success (seed weight, seed set, seediness) and insect visitation rate in N. rustica in eastern North America using floral bagging techniques. Results show that N. rustica benefits most from open (open day and night) and day open (closed at night) pollination. Fruit weight was higher with the presence of diurnal pollinators; fruit set and seediness were unaffected. Video recordings show that the most abundant floral visitors are small bees. These results provide information that will be useful in making management decisions surrounding the continued growth of this culturally significant plant species.

Using Bumble Bee Watch to investigate the accuracy and perception of bumble bee (Bombus spp.) identification by community scientists.

Community science programs provide an opportunity to gather scientific data to inform conservation policy and management. This study examines the accuracy of community science identifications submitted to the North American Bumble Bee Watch program on a per species level and as compared to each species' conservation status, as well as users (members of the public) and experts (those with expertise in the field of bumble bee biology) perceived ease of species identification. Photos of bumble bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Bombus) are submitted to the program by users and verified (species name corrected or assigned as necessary) by an expert. Over 22,000 records from over 4,900 users were used in the analyses. Accuracy was measured in two ways: percent agreement (percent of all records submitted correctly by users) and veracity (percent of all verified records submitted correctly by the users). Users generally perceived it harder to identify species than experts. User perceptions were not significantly different from the observed percent agreement or veracity, while expert perceptions were significantly different (overly optimistic) from the observed percent agreement but not the veracity. We compared user submitted names to final expert verified names and found that, for all species combined, the average percent agreement was 53.20% while the average veracity was 55.86%. There was a wide range in percent agreement values per species, although sample size and the role of chance did affect some species agreements. As the conservation status of species increased to higher levels of extinction risk, species were increasingly more likely to have a lower percent agreement but higher levels of veracity than species of least concern. For each species name submitted, the number of different species verified by experts varied from 1 to 32. Future research may investigate which factors relate to success in user identification through community science. These findings could play a role in informing the design of community science programs in the future, including for use in long-term and national-level monitoring of wild pollinators.

Community science participants gain environmental awareness and contribute high quality data but improvements are needed: insights from Bumble Bee Watch.

Bumble Bee Watch is a community science program where participants submit photos of bumble bees from across Canada and the United States for expert verification. The data can be used to help better understand bumble bee biology and aid in their conservation. Yet for community science programs like this to be successful and sustainable, it is important to understand the participant demographics, what motivates them, and the outcomes of their participation, as well as areas that are working well or could be improved. It is also important to understand who verifies the submissions, who uses the data and their views on the program. Of the surveyed users, most participate to contribute to scientific data collection (88%), because of a worry about bees and a desire to help save them (80%), to learn more about species in their property (63%) or region (56%), and because of a personal interest (59%). About 77% report increased awareness of species diversity, while 84% report improvement in their identification skills. We found that 81% had at least one college or university degree. There were more respondents from suburban and rural areas than urban areas, but area did not affect numbers of submissions. While half were between 45 and 64 years of age, age did not influence motivation or number of submissions. Respondents were happy with the program, particularly the website resources, the contribution to knowledge and conservation efforts, the educational values, and the ability to get identifications. Areas for improvement included app and website functionality, faster and more detailed feedback, localized resources, and more communication. Most respondents participate rarely and have submitted fewer than ten records, although about five percent are super users who participate often and submit more than fifty records. Suggested improvements to the program may increase this participation rate. Indeed, increased recruitment and retention of users in general is important, and advertising should promote the outcomes of participation. Fifteen experts responded to a separate survey and were favorable of the program although there were suggestions on how to improve the verification process and the quality of the submitted data. Suggested research questions that could be asked or answered from the data included filling knowledge gaps (species diversity, ranges, habitat, phenology, floral associations, etc.), supporting species status assessments, effecting policy and legislation, encouraging habitat restoration and management efforts, and guiding further research. However, only about half have used data from the project to date. Further promotion of Bumble Bee Watch and community science programs in general should occur amongst academia, conservationists, policy makers, and the general public. This would help to increase the number and scope of submissions, knowledge of these species, interest in conserving them, and the overall program impact.

Conservation Conundrum: At-risk Bumble Bees (Bombus spp.) Show Preference for Invasive Tufted Vetch (Vicia cracca) While Foraging in Protected Areas.

In recent decades, some bumble bee species have declined, including in North America. Declines have been reported in species of bumble bees historically present in Ontario, including: yellow bumble bee (Bombus fervidus) (Fabricus, 1798), American bumble bee (Bombus pensylvanicus) (DeGeer, 1773), and yellow-banded bumble bee (Bombus terricola) (Kirby, 1837). Threats contributing to bumble bee population declines include: land-use changes, habitat loss, climate change, pathogen spillover, and pesticide use. A response to the need for action on pollinator preservation in North America has been to encourage 'bee-friendly' plantings. Previous studies show differences in common and at-risk bumble bee foraging; however, similar data are unavailable for Ontario. Our research question is whether there is a difference in co-occurring at-risk and common bumble bee (Bombus spp.) floral use (including nectar and pollen collection) in protected areas in southern Ontario. We hypothesize that common and at-risk species forage differently, predicting that at-risk species forage on a limited selection of host plants. We conducted a field survey of sites in southern Ontario, using observational methods to determine bumble bee foraging by species. The results of a redundancy analysis show a difference in foraging between common and at-risk bumblebee species. At-risk bumble bee species show a preference for foraging on invasive, naturalized Vicia cracca (tufted vetch). This finding raises the question of how to preserve or provide forage for at-risk bumble bees, when they show an association with an invasive species often subject to control in protected areas.