Where have all the pollinators gone? An analysis of the shifts in climate and phenology that have altered pollinator abundance in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem

Background/Question/Methods

Climate change is accelerating worldwide biodiversity loss across all taxa. Biodiversity loss and climate change impacts critical ecosystem services such as pollination. Almost 20% of the most common insect pollinator functional groups -- bees and butterflies -- face extinction threats within the next generation; however, the patterns and causes of decline are still in question. Species living in sub-alpine ecosystems face even greater pressures as seasonal patterns of temperature and precipitation shift, thereby altering current environments. Long-term data on pollinator emergence patterns is critical for determining species shifts, yet such data for small organisms is often missing for protected areas. Scientists recognize the benefit that sub-alpine ecosystems have towards megafauna species, but what benefits do these ecosystems provide for pollinators? Because of the ever-changing capabilities of technology, this research can be studied using a mixture of observations, citizen science records, and phenology data. This research builds upon previous work completed in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks from 2017-present. Using established sites where historic records do exist, students measured pollinator species emergence to better understand the baseline status of species and to make projections about species status in the age of climate change.

Results/Conclusions

Data using citizen science and technology field methods was completed by student teams over the past five field seasons, leading to over 20,000 pollinator observations and over 400 species identified. Results from the two datasets will be integrated into a spatial and temporal model understanding pollinator species shifts in relation to climate data within the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Besides students collecting and identifying pollinators, curators within iNaturalist have also followed this project, thereby improving the accuracy of these records for future use. Field collection for this project will continue in summer 2022 so that species diversity within the parks can be verified over time. This presentation will highlight how students were able to successfully implement citizen science and technology into field research so that long-term, protected areas such as National Parks have a better idea about the scope of diversity present within these changing ecosystems. This presentation will also highlight the next steps of pollinator health within the National Parks, including recent Service-wide initiatives to inventory pollinators across 100 units over the next five years that apply previous research methods to a much broader effort.