Show me the bees! Engaging growers with citizen science to improve management of crop pollinators
Many Wisconsin fruit and vegetable crops are dependent on bee pollination to achieve marketable yields. Over the last 15 years, however, honey bees, the most important managed bee, have experienced drastic declines. Wild bees are also important crop pollinators and our research has found that in some cases, wild bees alone are able to provide full pollination. This has led growers to ask us: “Can I rely on wild bees to meet my pollination needs?” Despite our general findings, we are, as of yet, unable to provide farm-level recommendations of whether wild bees alone are sufficient. Our proposed solution is to develop a citizen science data-gathering platform that engages with growers to collect data on wild bee abundance on their farms.
Outcomes
The tangible outcomes from this project will include (1) a web/mobile data collection application for assessing wild bee communities on individual farms, and (2) educational materials and instruction needed for growers to fully engage with the web application and better understand wild bees in their agroecosystems. This project builds upon relationships we have developed with cranberry, apple, and vegetable crop growers, and will further the data needed for making recommendations to growers regarding the health of the wild bee communities on their farms and whether they are at sufficient levels to meet crop pollination requirements.
Focus Areas
Project Leader
Hannah Gaines Day
Assistant Scientist
- Department/Unit
- Department of Entomology
- School or College
- College of Agricultural and Life Sciences