Species We Study: Pollinators Active
Ecosystems—whether agricultural, urban, or natural—depend on pollinators, great and small. Pollinators in the form of bees, birds, butterflies, bats, and even moths provide vital, but often invisible services, from contributing to biodiverse terrestrial wildlife and plant communities to supporting healthy watersheds. Pollinator declines worldwide have been noted as land-use and climate changes occur on the landscape. USGS is laying the groundwork for better scientific understanding of wildlife population level impacts from a variety of potential threats to species from big game to birds, to bats, to pollinators.
Pollinator Conservation and Climate Science
Pollinator species in the United States are in crisis based on broad-scale changes in land-use and climate. The USGS is working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and others to develop conservation plans, for pollinators, including quantification of the effects of climate change.
Pollinator Research
Using Pollinator Environmental DNA to Assess the Ecological Resilience of America’s Grasslands
Conservation Genetics of the Hawaiian Hoary Bat
Using Artificial Flowers to Survey for Pollinators
Determining the dietary preferences and population genetics of an endangered bumble bee, Bombus affinis, by maximizing the use of museum specimens
Western Bumble Bee and Native Pollinator Research
Managing for Grassland Health at Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge
Evaluation of conservation grazing versus prescribed fire to manage tallgrass prairie remnants for plant and pollinator species diversity
Quantifying the effects of land-use change and bioenergy crop production on ecosystem services in the Northern Great Plains
Developing a sampling and modeling framework to support Dakota skipper management decisions
The pollinator library: a decision-support tool for improving national pollinator conservation efforts
To control or not to control: response of pollinator communities to invasive plant management
Long-term changes in pollinator resources (alfalfa, sweetclover, milkweed) and monarch butterfly populations in CRP grasslands
Explore our science using the data below.
Species Distribution Models for Native Species in the Mojave Desert
Concentrations of pesticides in multiple matrices to measure exposure of wild bees visiting pollinator hedgerows in northern California
Insect community responses to climate and weather across elevation gradients in the Sagebrush Steppe, eastern Oregon 2012 and 2013
Western Gulf Coastal Plain Louisiana Land Use and Land Cover ground truth observations from 2016 to 2017
Pesticides in pollinator tissue collected from margins near agricultural fields in Conservation Areas of Missouri
High forb diversity prairie reconstruction at Neal Smith NWR 2005-2015
Dataset: Plant and bee transects in the Northern Great Plains 2015-2018
Bee populations and habitat survey in southwest Louisiana grasslands
Uptake and toxicity of clothianidin to monarch butterflies from milkweed consumption (ver. 2.0, January 2020)
Variation in pollen transport, Badlands NP, 2018
Radio telemetry data on nighttime movements of two species of migratory nectar-feeding bats (Leptonycteris) in Hidalgo County, New Mexico, late-summer 2004 and 2005
Soil, geomorphology and pre-European settlement vegetation associations of Southwest Louisiana
Recent publications (2020-2022) related to USGS pollinator research are listed below. A complete listing of USGS pollinator publications is available from the button below.
Assessing population genomic structure and polyploidy: A crucial step for native plant restoration
Warming temperatures affect meadow-wide nectar resources, with implications for plant-pollinator communities
Seed menus: An integrated decision-support framework for native plant restoration in the Mojave Desert
Pesticide exposure of wild bees and honey bees foraging from field border flowers in intensively managed agriculture areas
The importance of forests in bumble bee biology and conservation
Patch utilization and flower visitations by wild bees in a honey bee-dominated, grassland landscape
Farmland in U.S. Conservation Reserve Program has unique floral composition that promotes bee summer foraging
Honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies benefit from grassland/ pasture while bumble bee (Bombus impatiens) colonies in the same landscapes benefit from non-corn/soybean cropland
Pollinator communities vary with vegetation structure and time since management within regenerating timber harvests of the Central Appalachian Mountains
Spatiotemporal dynamics of insect pollinator communities in sagebrush steppe associated with weather and vegetation
Floral resource selection by wild bees and honey bees in the Midwest United States: Implications for designing pollinator habitat
Land conversion and pesticide use degrade forage areas for honey bees in America’s beekeeping epicenter
Ecosystems—whether agricultural, urban, or natural—depend on pollinators, great and small. Pollinators in the form of bees, birds, butterflies, bats, and even moths provide vital, but often invisible services, from contributing to biodiverse terrestrial wildlife and plant communities to supporting healthy watersheds. Pollinator declines worldwide have been noted as land-use and climate changes occur on the landscape. USGS is laying the groundwork for better scientific understanding of wildlife population level impacts from a variety of potential threats to species from big game to birds, to bats, to pollinators.
Pollinator Conservation and Climate Science
Pollinator species in the United States are in crisis based on broad-scale changes in land-use and climate. The USGS is working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and others to develop conservation plans, for pollinators, including quantification of the effects of climate change.
Pollinator Research
Using Pollinator Environmental DNA to Assess the Ecological Resilience of America’s Grasslands
Conservation Genetics of the Hawaiian Hoary Bat
Using Artificial Flowers to Survey for Pollinators
Determining the dietary preferences and population genetics of an endangered bumble bee, Bombus affinis, by maximizing the use of museum specimens
Western Bumble Bee and Native Pollinator Research
Managing for Grassland Health at Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge
Evaluation of conservation grazing versus prescribed fire to manage tallgrass prairie remnants for plant and pollinator species diversity
Quantifying the effects of land-use change and bioenergy crop production on ecosystem services in the Northern Great Plains
Developing a sampling and modeling framework to support Dakota skipper management decisions
The pollinator library: a decision-support tool for improving national pollinator conservation efforts
To control or not to control: response of pollinator communities to invasive plant management
Long-term changes in pollinator resources (alfalfa, sweetclover, milkweed) and monarch butterfly populations in CRP grasslands
Explore our science using the data below.
Species Distribution Models for Native Species in the Mojave Desert
Concentrations of pesticides in multiple matrices to measure exposure of wild bees visiting pollinator hedgerows in northern California
Insect community responses to climate and weather across elevation gradients in the Sagebrush Steppe, eastern Oregon 2012 and 2013
Western Gulf Coastal Plain Louisiana Land Use and Land Cover ground truth observations from 2016 to 2017
Pesticides in pollinator tissue collected from margins near agricultural fields in Conservation Areas of Missouri
High forb diversity prairie reconstruction at Neal Smith NWR 2005-2015
Dataset: Plant and bee transects in the Northern Great Plains 2015-2018
Bee populations and habitat survey in southwest Louisiana grasslands
Uptake and toxicity of clothianidin to monarch butterflies from milkweed consumption (ver. 2.0, January 2020)
Variation in pollen transport, Badlands NP, 2018
Radio telemetry data on nighttime movements of two species of migratory nectar-feeding bats (Leptonycteris) in Hidalgo County, New Mexico, late-summer 2004 and 2005
Soil, geomorphology and pre-European settlement vegetation associations of Southwest Louisiana
Recent publications (2020-2022) related to USGS pollinator research are listed below. A complete listing of USGS pollinator publications is available from the button below.