Addressing bumblebee faunistic and ecology using Citizen Science – reviewing a two years’ experience
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1
Österreichischer Naturschutzbund, Austria
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2
Institute for Integrative Nature Conservation Research, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Austria
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3
Bundesgymnasium Feldkirch Rebberggasse, Austria
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4
Department of Entomology, Cornell University, United States
Introduction
The majority of historical entomological records is derived from the collecting activities of non-professionals, often non-biologists. Some of these “Citizen Scientists” have achieved an excellent knowledge of taxonomy, distribution and ecology of species (Hopkins & Freckleton 2002, Pohl 2009). Modern Citizen Science in entomology uses the opportunities of the internet to facilitate the identification, transfer records and photographs, and communication between lay observers and specialists. However, only a few insect groups can be reliably identified by observation or photographs, without the necessity of killing and subsequent preparation for identification purposes. Bumblebees (Bombus, Apidae, Hymenoptera) are such a group, providing a great opportunity to conduct entomological Citizen Science projects. Bumblebees are common, can usually be identified by colour morphs, and identification can be verified using photographs. Last but not least, they evoke positive emotions – a prerequisite to motivate citizen scientists. In contrast to mass partitioning, i.e., Citizen Science projects with very simple observation tasks (e.g., Roy et al. 2016, Rüdisser et al. 2015), this projects aims to generate high quality data from Citizen Scientists and to convey know-how in bumblebee identification and biology for participants in an interactive way.
Material and Methods
Since 2007, distributional data on all kinds of animals and plants has been reported on the Austrian Citizen Science platform www.naturbeobachtung.at, with a particular focus on bumblebees beginning in 2014. A precondition for this approach is the availability of information for interested participants. We provide guidance from the participants’ first steps to becoming expert knowledge. To facilitate the outreach efforts, a set of supportive materials was developed:
• Free leaflets with basic insights in the recognition of the most common bumblebee species were designed and distributed. The leaflets further include basic but essential information on the ecology and biology of the 6 most common species in Austria.
• A more profound resource is provided by a convenient field identification key (Gokcezade et al. 2010, 2015). It is primarily based on colour patterns and hence allows an intuitive but scientifically accurate identification of the bumblebees of Austria, Germany and Switzerland.
• To provide hands-on experiences, 14 one-day workshops on bumblebee identification, biology and ecology were conducted in Austria over the past two years. The free of charge courses were led by the authors and accompanied carefully designed presentation materials, which were fully accessible to the participants.
However, the most important educational resource is provided by the online platform www.naturbeobachtung.at. Besides accessible learning materials, this platform hosts a frequently used online forum which aims at bumblebee identification via photographs. As it is maintained by recognized bee biologists, reliable identification and accurate scientific data collection is ensured. Besides the emphasis on data acquisition, we further addressed the question if faunistic data achieved by Citizen Scientists can be used to meet applied ecological questions. Bumblebee data was collected under standardised conditions in 32 private gardens in 2015 and 2016 using the available facilities and guidance of the platform. The first results of 2015 are shown in Fig. 2.
Results and discussion
Since the start of the project, an increasing number of participants and records was achieved (Tab. 1). Moreover, the percentage of evaluable data with attached photograph that allows verification and geographical coordinates increased significantly. A total of 29 out of 42 bumblebee species occurring in Austria could be successfully recorded using Citizen Science. Among these were rare species such as the arctic-alpine Bombus alpinus or B. haematurus (see Fig. 1). The first species is very rare and considered highly threatened by changing climatic conditions (Rasmont et al. 2015), whereas the latter species is rapidly spreading in the last decades (Bossert and Schneller 2014). In total, 23.6% of all records were not identified correctly or not validated for lack of photographic support. In a few cases, an exact identification was possible, although only a species group had been recorded. Methods for facilitating recording in the database after asking for identification should be taken into account.
Presently, the bumblebee records of Citizen Scientists contribute about 1/3 of the annually recorded bumblebee data of Austria. Accordingly, Citizen Science delivers a notable amount of data, allowing the detection of ongoing trends in species composition among bumblebee communities. Moreover, ecological information about phenology and flower visits could be extracted from photographic documentation. By the end of the past season, a total of 142 visited plant species could be recorded, mostly with additional information about the flower visiting behaviour such as nectar and pollen foraging. Nonetheless, the maintenance of the online platform requires a considerable amount of working time. Validating observations required 30-50h annually and the guidance of ongoing Citizen Scientists required another 80h.
The recorded datasets of the bumblebees in private gardens show that the conducted method is well suited to answer applied ecological questions. Thereby it was shown that B. hortorum is the most frequent bumblebee species in private gardens. Rubus idaeus and Fabaceae like Red Clover are the most frequently visited plant taxa and attracted a number of different bumblebee species (Fig. 2). Flower richness and bumblebee friendly plants turned out to be of great importance in private gardens.
Conclusion
The presented applied model of Citizen Science has the advantage that people get training that allows them to act as lay experts. The constant feedback provided by the experts via naturbeobachtung.at represents a main pillar for the motivation of long-term citizen scientists. Additional possibilities exist to expand monitoring of bumblebees to include qualitative and quantitative observational data about bumblebees. Such data about quality of various biotope types for wild bees and long term trends in pollinator availability and species composition would provide important insights into local and global change.
Acknowledgements
The project is accompanied by public relations in several media and co-financed by the “Hofer Bienenschutzfonds”.
References
Bossert, S., Schneller, B. (2014) First records of Bombus haematurus Kriechbaumer, 1870 and Nomada moeschleri Alfken, 1913 (Hymenoptera: Apidae) for the state of Vienna (Austria). Beiträge zur Entomofaunistik 15, 95-100.
Gokcezade, J.F., Gereben-Krenn, B.-A., Neumayer, J., and Krenn, H.W. (2010) Feldbestimmungsschlüssel der Hummeln Deutschlands, Österreichs und der Schweiz. Linzer biol. Beitr. 42/1: 5-42; (2. edition: Linzer biologische Beiträge 47/1 (2015): 5-42).
Hopkins, G.W. and Freckleton, R.P. (2002) Declines in the numbers of amateur and professional taxonomists: implications for conservation. Animal Conservation 5/3: 245-249.
Pohl, G.R. (2009) Why we kill bugs – the case for collecting insects. Newsletter of the Biological Survey of Canada (Terrestrial Arthropods)
Volume 28, No. 1, pp. 10–17.
Rasmont, P., et al. (2015) Climatic Risk and Distribution Atlas of European Bumblebees. Biorisk 10 (Special Issue), 1-236.
Rüdisser, J., Tasser, E., Kapelari, S.; Huemer, P., and Tappeiner, U. (2015): Viel‐Falter: Can schools contribute to biodiversity monitoring? Verhandlungen der Gesellschaft für Ökologie 45: 319-320.
Roy, H.E., Baxter, E., Saunders, A., and Pocock, M.J.O. (2016) Focal Plant Observations as a Standardised Method for Pollinator Monitoring: Opportunities and Limitations for Mass Participation Citizen Science. PLoS ONE 11(3): e0150794.
Keywords:
bombus,
Bumblebees,
citizen science,
Pollination,
Monitoring,
nature conservation
Conference:
Austrian Citizen Science Conference 2016, Lunz am See, Austria, 18 Feb - 19 Feb, 2016.
Presentation Type:
Oral Presentation
Topic:
Citizen Science - Quo vadis?
Citation:
Neumayer
J,
Pachinger
B,
Schneller
B and
Bossert
S
(2016). Addressing bumblebee faunistic and ecology using Citizen Science – reviewing a two years’ experience.
Front. Environ. Sci.
Conference Abstract:
Austrian Citizen Science Conference 2016.
doi: 10.3389/conf.FENVS.2016.01.00003
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Received:
04 Jul 2016;
Published Online:
06 Sep 2016.
*
Correspondence:
Mr. Johann Neumayer, Österreichischer Naturschutzbund, Salzburg, Austria, johann.neumayer@naturschutzbund.at