Detecting insect pollinator declines on regional and global scales.

LeBuhn , G., Droege , S., Connor , E. F., Gemmill-Herren , B., Potts, S. G. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2045-980X, Minckley , R. L., Griswold , T., Jean , R., Kula , E., Roubik , D. W., Cane , J., Wright, K. W., Frankie , G. and Parker , F. (2013) Detecting insect pollinator declines on regional and global scales. Conservation Biology, 27 (1). pp. 113-120. ISSN 1523-1739 doi: 10.1111/j.1523-1739.2012.01962.x

Abstract/Summary

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.