Pollinator Monitoring for Citizen Scientists: A Handbook

By David Wallace Barr IV

Pollinating insects are in crisis. Honey bees and native pollinator species are disappearing. The efforts of citizen scientists will be required to complement the work of professional biologists if we are to find solutions. This handbook provides an illustrated guide that citizen scientists can use to monitor the activities of pollinating insects and gather data of use to pollination biologists.

• Language: English
• Publisher: David Wallace Barr IV
• Release date: Mar 2, 2011
• ISBN: 9780986747519

David Wallace Barr IV

David Wallace Barr IV is a writer/photographer and educator with a background in the natural sciences and museum management. He has written extensively on nature and the environment. He recently started to record the abundant dog life in the city. As a kid, Dave and his sister cared for 2 dogs, several cats, hamsters, pigeons, budgies, goldfish, goats and a pony. Dave has always loved dogs, and he and his wife Norma are currently looking for a rescue dog they can cook for.

Book preview

Pollinator Monitoring

for Citizen Scientists

A Handbook

by

Dave Barr

Copyright (c) Dave Barr 2011

Smashwords Edition

ISBN Number: 978-0-9867475-1-9

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Forward

I became interested in pollinators through my experiences with beekeeping. Although trained as an entomologist (an insect biologist), I had never spent much time working with bees and my only direct involvement with similar insects was some research on the classification of army ants, co-authored with William H. Gotwald, Jr.

I quickly became impressed, like every beekeeper, with the tremendous energy displayed by domestic honey bees in gathering nectar and pollen. I observed wildflowers in the vicinity of some hives I was helping to manage and found them swarming with honey bees as well as other native pollinators. In areas with no beehives, of course, only native pollinator species appeared.

Like all beekeepers, I believed that introducing honey bees as pollinators was unquestionably a good thing for the environment.

Once you have had some exposure to the elements of ecology, however, you are always thinking about the resources available to living species. Apparently the resources needed by domestic honey bees were exactly the same as those required by native pollinators - namely, nectar and pollen.

Could it be that by flooding an environment with non-native honey bees we were doing a disservice to native pollinators and the natural environment? Could competition between the introduced and native species be causing more harm than good? Could any of the diseases and parasites suffered by honey bees be transmitted to native pollinators?

I am indebted to my colleague and fellow beekeeper, Maria Kasstan for lighting my way out of this dilemma. Maria does a tremendous amount of volunteer work for two related organizations, Seeds of Diversity and Pollination Canada. Pollination Canada had already published some guidelines for pollinator monitoring. Let’s use these tools we already have, urged Maria, to answer these question for ourselves.

And thus was born, in an instant, my fascination with pollinating insects and with the citizen science of pollinator