Mid-Atlantic woodland bee diversity: A citizen science survey

Wild pollinators provide an essential ecosystem service, but despite their value to the health of nativeplants, crops and ornamental gardens, we still know surprisingly little about the community structure of native and introduced bees. Forest ecosystems in particular have been markedly overlooked as habitat for bees, although they support diverse communities and can potentially serve as reservoirs to export bees into agricultural fields and gardens. In a community effort relying on citizen scientists, we surveyed bees in more than 100 forest fragments throughout Maryland and Delaware. Collection sites represent a variety of forest types with regard to area, woody plant composition, successional stage and surrounding land use. By correlating bee diversity, abundance and species composition with forest traits and geography we will reveal patterns in bee distribution across a range of forest types and a regional landscape.