Sam Droege
Biography
Sam Droege has been spent most of his career at the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center. He has coordinated the North American Breeding Bird Survey Program, developed the North American Amphibian Monitoring Program, the BioBlitz, Cricket Crawl, and FrogwatchUSA programs and worked on the design and evaluation of monitoring programs. Currently he is developing an inventory and monitoring program for native bees, online identification guides for North American bees at www.discoverlife.org, and with Jessica Zelt reviving the North American Bird Phenology Program. His group maintains high resolution photographs of insects an other macro natural history objects at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/usgsbiml/
Education
- B.S. from University of Maryland
- M.S. from State University of New York – Syracus
Science and Products
Bees of the Northeastern U.S.
Declines of pollinators have engendered worldwide concern, but trends in the faunas of most insect pollinators, including bees, remain uncertain. We are studying the bee fauna of southern Rhode Island to provide baseline information about the current fauna, and information about bee-flower interactions.
Pollinators
Our research on pollinators is focused on how to identify, count, and assess populations of bees and butterflies. We are currently developing extensive tools for identifying and monitoring native bees, and for how to estimate numbers of local populations that inhabit fragile ecosystems.
Climate Change
The impacts of a changing climate on wildlife and associated ecosystems have yet to be fully determined but changes are clearly underway as are a variety of investigations to assess how we can best preserve key resources while effectively managing others. Using a variety of tools and a combination of studies including adaptive management, long-term monitoring, mathematical modeling, and...
Quick Background on the Mid Atlantic region's native bees
Bees are tiny, one bush or one clump of perennials is often all it takes to foster native bees in your yard. Within a mile of your yard (urban or rural) there are at least over 100 species of bees looking for the right plants. Attracting and tending these native bees on your property is all about planting the right flowers and flowering bushes.
Introduced and Alien Bee Species of North America (North of Mexico)
Surveys by the USGS Native Bee Laboratory have uncovered several new alien bee species in the United States. The data we and our collaborators are collecting tracks the spread of these species, at least in a coarse way. We hope to expand surveys in collaboration with our federal and state land management partners as we detect more invading species. Information on distributions and status of...
Native Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab
The USGS Native Bee Inventory and Monitoring Program designs and develops large and small scale surveys for native bees. As part of that program we also develop identification tools and keys for native bee species. One aspect of creating those tools is creating accurate and detailed pictures of native bees and the plants and insects they interact with.
DNA Barcoding for Identifying Native Bee Species
The Challenge: Traditionally, bee identification has relied on taxonomic methods centered on descriptions of morphological differences between species. However, for many species, separate keys are required for identifying adult males and females and immature life stages. These keys are commonly unavailable. The lack of distinguishing morphological characters useful for separating closely...
North American Bird Phenology Program
The Challenge: The North American Bird Phenology Program (BPP) houses a data set of 6 million historical observations of over 800 bird species, documenting occurrences and migration times from the 1880s through the 1970s -- the longest and most comprehensive legacy data set on bird migration in existence. In an effort to rescue this invaluable data set, the BPP has scanned and are in the...
Native Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab (BIML)
Species occurrence records for native and non-native bees, wasps and other insects collected using mainly pan, malaise, and vane trapping; and insect netting methods in Canada, Mexico, the non-contiguous United States, U.S. Territories (specifically U.S. Virgin Islands), U.S. Minor Outlying Islands and other global locations.
Patuxent Scientist interviewed by Daily Emerald
A hive of knowledge
How the Bees You Know are Killing the Bees You Don’t
Patuxent Scientist Sam Droege interviewed for "Inside Science" about how commercially managed bumblebees and honey bees may be contributing to wild pollinator decline.
Pollinators Get a National Strategy to Restore Their Health
Small bees that don’t bother or sting us can remain unstudied despite their abundance.