Recent ccber_postprints items

Leveraging local species data, a global database, and an occupancy model to explore bee-plant interactions

Thu, 14 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Global declines in bee populations are threatening the ecosystem services they provide, including pollination. Many bee–plant interactions are understudied, producing an incomplete understanding of resulting ecosystem-level vulnerabilities. The last decade has generated a wealth of opportunistic data originating from natural history collection records, published ecological datasets, and citizen/community science initiatives in online databases such as Global Biotic Interactions (GloBI). Here, we explore hypotheses related to bee–plant interactions and detection processes using the GloBI database, curated checklists of bee and flowering plant species, and an occupancy model. We hypothesized that larger, social bees would visit a larger number of plant species, while smaller, solitary bees would visit fewer. We also predicted that flowers with open, bowl-like shapes would attract a greater diversity of bee visitors compared to closed shapes. Further, we hypothesized that both floral...

Realistic 3D morphology reshapes insect heat budgets

Thu, 14 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Modeling insect heat exchange and predicting thermal responses depends on accurate representationof body size and shape. Still, most biophysical models approximate these complex forms usingsimplified geometric solids, whose relationships to real body forms have not been rigorously tested.Advances in surface modeling of small objects allow us to interrogate these assumptions by capturingthe real 3D complexity of insect body forms. We used photogrammetry to construct 3D models ofhoney bee specimens and empirically measured body volume and surface area. Compared to empiricalmeasurements, we found that traditional, geometric size estimation methods systematicallyunderestimate body surface area and volume. We incorporated these error estimates into publishedheat budget data and found that these errors propagated non-linearly through the model, shiftingthe relative dominance of convective and radiative heat loss as temperature increases. These resultssuggest that body size and surface...

Concentrated vulnerabilities in bees: Diet specialists have smaller geographic ranges

Wed, 13 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Wild bees are widely believed to be in decline, yet most species remain unassessed for IUCN extinction risk. Geographic range size is used in risk assessments under the assumption that species with smaller ranges are more vulnerable to anthropogenic impacts. Narrow diet breadth can also increase vulnerability but is not currently incorporated into assessments.Niche breadth theory predicts a positive association between range size and diet breadth, which could concentrate risk among dietary specialists, but this relationship is not well established for bees and may differ among taxa.Here, we combined pollen-use data from natural history collections with global occurrence records to test the relationship between diet breadth and range size across bees and among bee families. We assigned diet breadth using three metrics (categorical, numerical and phylogenetic) and estimated range size as the extent of occurrence for 633 species from six families.Across bees, range size increased...

Humidity induces structural colour change and contributes to biogeographic colour variation in sweat bees

Mon, 27 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Dynamic coloration is one of the most striking visual displays in the animal kingdom. While reversible colour changes are well characterized in animal communication, more passive effects of climate on baseline coloration remain poorly understood. Here, we present a novel experimental demonstration of reversible, humidity-induced colour change in bees. In controlled lab experiments, we show that relative humidity affects cuticle colour of the sweat bee Agapostemon subtilior, changing dramatically within 24 h from a deep blue-green at low humidity to a pale, coppery green at high humidity. Older specimens experienced greater magnitude colour shifts, suggesting that cuticular degradation may increase water permeability and amplify moisture effects. To understand whether these effects shape colour variation in the wild, we extracted colour data from a large dataset of crowd-sourced field images. We found that ambient humidity weakly predicts colour variation across A....

A curated and integrated dataset for exploring global bee-plant interactions

Mon, 9 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000
Bees are one of the most important pollinators in terrestrial ecosystems, supporting biodiversity and food production. However, global knowledge of their interactions with host plants remains limited. To address this, we describe and refine a subset of the Global Biotic Interactions (GloBI) database focused on bee-plant interactions. We updated taxonomy using current checklists and enhanced the dataset with metadata on geography, endemism, and human uses of plants. The resulting dataset includes 981,982 unique interaction records between 5,537 bee species and 12,699 plant taxa. Despite its scale, the dataset is affected by strong taxonomic and geographic biases. It covers only 26% of described bee species and 4% of flowering plant taxa—primarily those used by humans—and is heavily skewed toward North America and Western Europe. Nevertheless, GloBI represents a valuable resource for incorporating bee-plant interactions into biodiversity and conservation-oriented research and represents...

Subspecies differentiation in an enigmatic chaparral shrub species

Wed, 17 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000
Delimiting biodiversity units is challenging when hybridization, plasticity, and other factors blur visible boundaries, and it is especially difficult for subspecies, which remain poorly defined in the genomics era. Eastwood manzanita (Arctostaphylos glandulosa) is a widespread, morphologically complex shrub with 10 recognized subspecies that often overlap geographically and show frequent intermediates; delimitation matters because two subspecies are rare. We combined public environmental geospatial data with reduced-representation genome sequencing to test genetic and environmental differentiation and to evaluate whether subspecies can be separated by environmentally associated genetic variation. We found little to no genetic differentiation among most subspecies, except for one of the rare subspecies, and environmental analyses showed no clear ecological separation (with important analytical limitations). Overall, genetic structure aligns more with geography than current...

Hedgerow Gardens Provide Floral Resources for Diverse Insect Visitors to Avocado Fowers in Southern California

Wed, 26 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000
In 2010, we initiated research on pollinator habitat gardens (hedgerows) in 8 stone fruitorchards in Brentwood, in northern California. One goal was to install native and non-native plant speciesin linear gardens to attract native bee species, which we used successfully statewide (Frankie et al., 2005,2009, 2014). Our 2010-2018 Brentwood research demonstrated that planned hedgerows attracted diversenative bee taxa (144 species), and that many species (23) also visited a variety of crop flowers (Frankieet al., 2018). In our current study, we applied these past experiences to avocado orchards in southernCalifornia to examine avocado flower visitors in installed habitat gardens, or hedgerows. Gardens wereinstalled in 3 avocado orchards in Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties to evaluate native bee diversityand abundance between hedgerows (treatment sites) and surrounding orchards and wildlands (controlsites). Native bees and Western honey bees (Apis mellifera) were monitored at each...

Improving the standardization of wild bee occurrence data: Towards a formal wild bee data standard

Tue, 7 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000
Conservation and management of wild bees is hindered by the variety of ways wild bee occurrence data are recorded, managed, and shared. Here, we present solutions to address this issue and introduce The Wild Bee Data Standard, a standardized means of recording and reporting data associated with wild bee occurrences, including physical specimens and photo observations. This standard aligns with contemporary data management practices widely adopted by the broader biodiversity data community. We propose a set of terms for the standard that describe various features of bee occurrences, including collection method and location, taxonomic verification, and final record storage. We emphasize the importance of providing sampling protocol and effort information with wild bee occurrence data and offer guidance to make this a more common practice. We describe how to translate data not currently aligned with the standard to meet its conditions, and how to upload those data to...

Taxonomic clarifications, a new combination, and three new species of Neotropical Rinorea (Violaceae)

Thu, 2 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000
Based on findings of revisionary studies of Neotropical Rinorea , we propose several taxonomic novelties and clarifications in this study, including the description of three new species, a new combination, the placement of three species in synonymy, and updated descriptions of two poorly known species from South America. One of the new species, Rinorea idarragae , is described from Mesoamerica and belongs to R. sect. Rinorea . The two other new species are from South America and are placed in R. sect. Pubiflorae : Rinorea cardenasii occurs in the region of the western edge of the Guiana Shield in Colombia, and Rinorea pabongonzaleziorum is from the Amazon Basin in...

Plant Communities in the Americas Are Highly Bee Dependent Regardless of Biome or Local Bee Diversity

Mon, 4 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

All bees depend on angiosperms for survival, while many angiosperms depend on bees for reproduction. However, bee and flowering plant species richness do not peak in the same geographical regions of the world, suggesting that the flora in regions where bees are not as diverse, such as the tropics, may be relatively less bee-dependent. We test this assumption by analysing whether local relative bee diversity can predict the proportion of angiosperm species that attract bees (i.e., “bee flowers”).

Leveraging Community Science to Measure Bee Body Size From Museum Specimens

Wed, 23 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000
Community or volunteer participation in research has the potential to significantly help mobilize the wealth of biodiversity and functional ecological data housed in natural history collections. Many such projects recruit community scientists to transcribe specimen label data from images; a next step is to task community scientists with conducting straightforward morphological measurements (e.g., body size) from specimen images. We investigated whether community science could be an effective approach to generating significant body size datasets from specimen images generated by museum digitization initiatives. Using the community science platform Notes from Nature, we engaged community scientists in a specimen measurement task to estimate body size (i.e., intertegular distance) from images of bee specimens. Community scientists showed high engagement and completion of this task, with each user measuring 43.6 specimens on average and self-reporting successful measurement of 98.0%...

Defining the decline: a glossary relevant to insect decline

Thu, 22 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000
Insects are declining in abundance and species richness, globally. This has broad implications for the ecology of our planet, many of which we are only beginning to understand. Comprehensive, large-scale efforts are urgently needed to quantify and mitigate insect biodiversity loss. Because there is broad interest in this topic from a range of scientists, policymakers, and the general public, we posit that such endeavors will be most effective with precise and standardized terms. The Entomological Society of America is the world’s largest association of professional entomologists and is ideally positioned to lead the way on this front. We provide here a glossary of definitions for biodiversity loss terminology. This can be used to enhance and clarify communication among entomologists and others with an interest in addressing the multiple overlapping research, policy, and outreach challenges surrounding this urgent issue.

Climate explains global functional trait variation in bees

Mon, 12 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000
Climate is a fundamental driver of macroecological patterns in functional trait variation. However, many of the traits that have outsized effects on thermal performance are complex, multi-dimensional, and challenging to quantify at scale. To overcome this challenge, we leveraged techniques in deep learning and computer vision to quantify hair coverage and lightness of bees, using images of a diverse and widely distributed sample of museum specimens. We demonstrate that climate shapes variation in these traits at a global scale, with bee lightness increasing with maximum environmental temperatures (thermal melanism hypothesis) and decreasing with annual precipitation (Gloger's Rule). We found that deserts are hotspots for bees covered in light-coloured hairs, adaptations that may mitigate heat stress and represent convergent evolution with other desert organisms. These results support major ecogeographical rules in functional trait variation and emphasize the role of climate in...

How does climate change impact social bees and bee sociality?

Thu, 10 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000
Climatic factors are known to shape the expression of social behaviours. Likewise, variation in social behaviour can dictate climate responses. Understanding interactions between climate and sociality is crucial for forecasting vulnerability and resilience to climate change across animal taxa. These interactions are particularly relevant for taxa like bees that exhibit a broad diversity of social states. An emerging body of literature aims to quantify bee responses to environmental change with respect to variation in key functional traits, including sociality. Additionally, decades of research on environmental drivers of social evolution may prove fruitful for predicting shifts in the costs and benefits of social strategies under climate change. In this review, we explore these findings to ask two interconnected questions: (a) how does sociality mediate vulnerability to climate change, and (b) how might climate change impact social organisation in bees? We highlight traits that...

Estimating body size in the large carpenter bees (Xylocopa)

Thu, 10 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000
Body size is a salient functional trait in bees, with implications for reproductive fitness, pollination ecology, and responses to environmental change. Methods for quantifying bee body size commonly rely on indirect estimates and vary widely across studies, particularly in studies of the large carpenter bees (Xylocopa Latreille) (Apidae: Xylocopinini). We evaluate the robustness of three common body size parameters (intertegular distance, head width, and costal vein length) as predictors of dry body mass within and among 11 species of Xylocopa (and 5 subspecies). We found that all three size measurements provide robust body size estimates, accounting for 92–93% of intraspecific variation in body mass. Within species, however, these measurements were considerably less predictive of body mass, explaining on average only 36.8% (intertegular distance), 57.4% (head width), and 38.8% (costal vein length) of the variation in body mass. We also highlight a novel application of photogrammetry...

Indexing Biotic Interactions in GBIF data

Thu, 10 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000
The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF 2022a) has indexed more than 2 billion occurrence records from 70,147 datasets. These datasets often include "hidden" biotic interaction data because biodiversity communities use the Darwin Core standard (DwC, Wieczorek et al. 2012) in different ways to document biotic interactions. In this study, we extracted biotic interactions from GBIF data using an approach similar to that employed in the Global Biotic Interactions (GloBI; Poelen et al. 2014) and summarized the results. Here we aim to present an estimation of the interaction data available in GBIF, showing that biotic interaction claims can be automatically found and extracted from GBIF. Our results suggest that much can be gained by an increased focus on development of tools that help to index and curate biotic interaction data in existing datasets. Combined with data standardization and best practices for sharing biotic interactions, such as the initiative on plant-pollinators...

Making Parasite-Host Associations Visible using Global Biotic Interactions

Thu, 10 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000
A wealth of information about how parasites interact with their hosts already exists in collections, scientific publications, specialized databases, and grey literature. The US National Science Foundation-funded Terrestrial Parasite Tracker Thematic Collection Network (TPT) project began in 2019 to help build a comprehensive picture of arthropod ectoparasites including the evolution of these parasite-host biotic associations, distributions, and the ecological interactions of disease vectors. TPT is a network of biodiversity collections whose data can assist scientists, educators, land managers, and policymakers to better understand the complex relationship between hosts and parasites including emergent properties that may explain the causes and frequency of human and wildlife pathogens. TPT member collections make their association information easier to access via Global Biotic Interactions (GloBI, Poelen et al. 2014), which is periodically archived through Zenodo to track progress...

Implementation Experience Report for Controlled Vocabularies Used with the Audubon Core Terms subjectPart and subjectOrientation

Thu, 10 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000
The Audubon Core vocabulary terms subjectPart and subjectOrientation are used to describe the depicted part of an organism and its orientation in an image. We describe the criteria and process for developing controlled vocabularies for these two terms. The vocabularies take the form of Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS) concept schemes and their terms are categorized using SKOS collections to allow users to select from particular sets of values appropriate for particular organism groups and their parts. We also report the results of implementation testing used to determine the usability of the proposed terms with actual images of living organisms and preserved specimens.

GENOME SKIMMING OF HERBARIUM SPECIMENS REVEALS PHYLOGEOGRAPHIC TRENDS AMONG POPULATIONS OF AN ESTUARINE SEABLITE (CHENOPODIACEAE: SUAEDA ESTEROA)

Thu, 10 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000
GENOME SKIMMING OF HERBARIUM SPECIMENS REVEALS PHYLOGEOGRAPHIC TRENDS AMONG POPULATIONS OF AN ESTUARINE SEABLITE (CHENOPODIACEAE: SUAEDA ESTEROA)

Invertebrate-biased diet of burrowing owls in a newly-restored coastal grassland

Thu, 10 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000
Recovering biodiversity across trophic levels is a major challenge in restoration ecology. Specifically, predator population recovery depends on the timely re-establishment of their preferred prey species in restored habitats. Here, we evaluate potential dietary factors contributing to the loss of western burrowing owls (Athene cunicularia hypugaea (Bonaparte, 1825)) from a newly-restored coastal grassland. We examined owl pellets and found that burrowing owl diets were relatively low in vertebrate prey during their brief occupation of the restoration site (2.6% of prey items; found in 61.8% of sampled pellets). We suggest that preferred food limitation may have been one contributor to the loss of owls from the restoration site. These findings suggest the need to prioritise re-establishment of prey communities for effective long-term recovery of burrowing owls in restored landscapes.

THE CALIFORNIA PHENOLOGY COLLECTIONS NETWORK: USING DIGITAL IMAGES TO INVESTIGATE PHENOLOGICAL CHANGE IN A BIODIVERSITY HOTSPOT

Thu, 10 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000
The California Phenology Thematic Collections Network (CAP TCN) is a collaborative project that seeks to maximize the value of herbarium specimens and their data, especially for understanding changes in plant phenology due to anthropogenic climate change. The project unites personnel in herbaria at California universities, research stations, natural history museums, and botanic gardens with the goal of capturing images, transcribing label data, and producing georeferenced coordinates of nearly one million preserved plant specimens collected over the past 150+ years. Each digitized specimen will also be scored for its phenological statusthe stage of growth and reproduction of the specimen such as flowering or fruiting. The CAP TCN is developing efficient workflows and data standards necessary to collect, store, and analyze trait data from specimens to ensure their utility for research and other applications. These novel resources and data will enable powerful research in phenology...

A semantically enriched taxonomic revision of Gryonoides Dodd, 1920 (Hymenoptera, Scelionidae), with a review of the hosts of Teleasinae

Thu, 10 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000
Teleasinae are commonly collected scelionids that are the only known egg parasitoids of carabid beetles and therefore play a crucial role in shaping carabid populations in natural and agricultural ecosystems. We review the available host information of Teleasinae, report a new host record, and revise Gryonoides Dodd, 1920, a morphologically distinct teleasine genus. We review the generic concept of Gryonoides and provide diagnoses and descriptions of thirteen Gryonoides species and two varieties: G. glabriceps Dodd, 1920, G. pulchellus Dodd, 1920 (= G. doddi Ogloblin, 1967, syn. nov. and G. pulchricornis Ogloblin, 1967, syn. nov.), G. brasiliensis Masner & Mikó, sp. nov., G. flaviclavus Masner & Mikó, sp. nov., G. fuscoclavatus Masner & Mikó, sp. nov., G. garciai Masner & Mikó, sp. nov., G. mexicali Masner & Mikó, sp. nov., G. mirabilicornis Masner & Mikó, sp. nov., G. obtusus Masner & Mikó, sp. nov., G. paraguayensis Masner & Mikó, sp. nov., G....

Building a community-based taxonomic resource for digitization of parasites and their hosts

Thu, 10 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000
Abstract: Classification of the biological diversity on Earth is foundational to all areas of research within the natural sciences. Reliable biological nomenclatural and taxonomic systems facilitate efficient access to information about organisms and their names over time. However, broadly sharing, accessing, delivering, and updating these resources remains a persistent problem. This barrier has been acknowledged by the biodiversity data sharing community, yet concrete efforts to standardize and continually update taxonomic names in a sustainable way remain limited. High diversity groups such as arthropods are especially challenging as available specimen data per number of species is substantially lower than vertebrate or plant groups. The Terrestrial Parasite Tracker Thematic Collections Network project developed a workflow for gathering expert-verified taxonomic names across all available sources, aligning those sources, and publishing a single resource that...

Hedgerow Gardens Provide Floral Resources for Diverse Insect Visitors to Avocado Fowers in Southern California

Thu, 10 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000
Hedgerow Gardens Provide Floral Resources for Diverse Insect Visitors to Avocado Fowers in Southern California

Bark beetle mycobiome: collaboratively defined research priorities on a widespread insect-fungus symbiosis

Thu, 10 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000
One of the main threats to forests in the Anthropocene are novel or altered interactions among trees, insects and fungi. To critically assess the contemporary research on bark beetles, their associated fungi, and their relationships with trees, the international Bark Beetle Mycobiome research coordination network has been formed. The network comprises 22 researchers from 17 institutions. This forward-looking review summarizes the group’s assessment of the current status of the bark beetle mycobiome research field and priorities for its advancement. Priorities include data mobility and standards, the adoption of new technologies for the study of these symbioses, reconciliation of conflicting paradigms, and practices for robust inference of symbiosis and tree epidemiology. The Net work proposes contemporary communication strategies to interact with the global community of researchers studying symbioses and natural resource managers. We conclude with a call to the broader scientific...

Soil biome variation of Lupinus nipomensis in wet-cool vs. dry-warm microhabitats and greenhouse

Wed, 9 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Premise
Environmental DNA (eDNA) can be used to determine the composition of the soil biome community, revealing beneficial and antagonistic microbes and invertebrates associated with plants. eDNA analyses can complement traditional soil community studies, offering more comprehensive information for conservation practitioners. Studies are also needed to examine differences between field and greenhouse soil biomes because greenhouse-grown plants are often transplanted in the field during restoration efforts.
Methods
We used eDNA multilocus metabarcoding to test how the soil biome of the federally and state-endangered species, Lupinus nipomensis, differed between wet-cool and dry-warm microhabitats. At Arroyo Grande, California, 20 experimental plots were sampled, representing a factorial combination of wet-cool vs. dry-warm soil and plots that did or did not contain L. nipomensis. In a simultaneous greenhouse study, L. nipomensis was grown...

Pollen specialist bee species are accurately predicted from visitation, occurrence and phylogenetic data

Tue, 8 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000
An animal’s diet breadth is a central aspect of its life history, yet the factors determining why some species have narrow dietary breadths (specialists) and others have broad dietary breadths (generalists) remain poorly understood. This challenge is pronounced in herbivorous insects due to incomplete host plant data across many taxa and regions. Here, we develop and validate machine learning models to predict pollen diet breadth in bees, using a bee phylogeny and occurrence data for 682 bee species native to the United States, aiming to better understand key drivers. We found that pollen specialist bees made an average of 72.9% of their visits to host plants and could be predicted with high accuracy (mean 94%). Our models predicted generalist bee species, which made up a minority of the species in our dataset, with lower accuracy (mean 70%). The models tested on spatially and phylogenetically blocked data revealed that the most informative predictors of diet breadth are plant...

Seven new species of Rinorea (Violaceae) from the Neotropics

Tue, 8 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000
Over the course of revising the genus Rinorea (Violaceae) from Colombia, field observations and herbarium studies revealed seven new species. Several of the new species described here belong to species complexes that required examination of herbarium material from across the Neotropics. Each of the new species described here have oppositely arranged leaves and belong to Rinoreasect.Pubiflorae, a section restricted to the Neotropics. Two new species are segregated from the R.ovalifolia species complex: Rinoreachiribiquetensis from Chiribiquete National Park in the Colombian Amazon and Rinoreastevensii from the Orinoco River near the border of Colombia and Venezuela. Two new species are segregated from the Rinoreahirsuta species complex: Rinoreagaleanoae-bernalii and Rinoreacogolloi, both from the eastern slopes of the Andean Central Cordillera along the mid-Magdalena River Valley in Colombia. From the widely distributed R.pubiflora...

Native bee habitat restoration: key ecological considerations from recent North American literature

Tue, 8 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000
Habitat loss is a primary driver of global biodiversity decline, negatively impacting many species, including native bees. One approach to counteract the consequences of habitat loss is through restoration, which includes the transformation of degraded or damaged habitats to increase biodiversity. In this review, we survey bee habitat restoration literature over the last 14 years to provide insights into how best to promote bee diversity and abundance through the restoration of natural landscapes in North America. We highlight relevant questions and concepts to consider throughout the various stages of habitat restoration projects, categorizing them into pre-, during-, and post-restoration stages. We emphasize the importance of planning species- and site-specific strategies to support bees, including providing floral and non-floral resources and increasing nest site availability. Lastly, we underscore the significance of conducting evaluations and long-term monitoring following...

Envisaging a global infrastructure to exploit the potential of digitised collections

Tue, 8 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000
Tens of millions of images from biological collections have become available online over the last two decades. In parallel, there has been a dramatic increase in the capabilities of image analysis technologies, especially those involving machine learning and computer vision. While image analysis has become mainstream in consumer applications, it is still used only on an artisanal basis in the biological collections community, largely because the image corpora are dispersed. Yet, there is massive untapped potential for novel applications and research if images of collection objects could be made accessible in a single corpus. In this paper, we make the case for infrastructure that could support image analysis of collection objects. We show that such infrastructure is entirely feasible and well worth investing in.

Reinvasion of restored California vernal pools reveals the importance of long‐term restoration planning

Tue, 8 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000
Ecological restoration often focuses on short‐term intervention efforts with the goal of creating restored ecosystems that do not require continuous human maintenance. Here, we ask: Do short‐term restoration efforts result in self‐sustaining native assemblages, or do these restored ecosystems require long‐term management to prevent reinvasion of exotic species? We address this question using restored vernal pool wetlands in coastal California. Restoration efforts in vernal pool ecosystems are often hindered because many restored vernal pools exist within a grassland matrix that is highly invaded by exotic annual grasses and forbs. To test whether restored pools experienced reinvasion, we assessed plant species abundance and diversity at varying times after intensive weeding had ceased. The central bottom of pools, where inundation duration is the longest, showed stable or even increasing native cover and no trends in exotic abundance over time. However, exotic cover and richness...

Toward a Functional Trait Approach to Bee Ecology

Tue, 8 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000
Functional traits offer an informative framework for understanding ecosystem functioning and responses to global change. Trait data are abundant in the literature, yet many communities of practice lack data standards for trait measurement and data sharing, hindering data reuse that could reveal large-scale patterns in functional and evolutionary ecology. Here, we present a roadmap toward community data standards for trait-based research on bees, including a protocol for effective trait data sharing. We also review the state of bee functional trait research, highlighting common measurement approaches and knowledge gaps. These studies were overwhelmingly situated in agroecosystems and focused predominantly on morphological and behavioral traits, while phenological and physiological traits were infrequently measured. Studies investigating climate change effects were also uncommon. Along with our review, we present an aggregated morphological trait dataset compiled from our focal...

Phenotypic divergence in an island bee population: Applying geometric morphometrics to discriminate population‐level variation in wing venation

Tue, 8 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000
Phenotypic divergence is an important consequence of restricted gene flow in insular populations. This divergence can be challenging to detect when it occurs through subtle shifts in morphological traits, particularly in traits with complex geometries, like insect wing venation. Here, we employed geometric morphometrics to assess the extent of variation in wing venation patterns across reproductively isolated populations of the social sweat bee, Halictus tripartitus. We examined wing morphology of specimens sampled from a reproductively isolated population of H. tripartitus on Santa Cruz Island (Channel Islands, Southern California). Our analysis revealed significant differentiation in wing venation in this island population relative to conspecific mainland populations. We additionally found that this population-level variation was less pronounced than the species-level variation in wing venation among three sympatric congeners native to the region, Halictus tripartitus,...

Developing a vocabulary and ontology for modeling insect natural history data: example data, use cases, and competency questions

Tue, 8 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000
Insects are possibly the most taxonomically and ecologically diverse class of multicellular organisms on Earth. Consequently, they provide nearly unlimited opportunities to develop and test ecological and evolutionary hypotheses. Currently, however, large-scale studies of insect ecology, behavior, and trait evolution are impeded by the difficulty in obtaining and analyzing data derived from natural history observations of insects. These data are typically highly heterogeneous and widely scattered among many sources, which makes developing robust information systems to aggregate and disseminate them a significant challenge. As a step towards this goal, we report initial results of a new effort to develop a standardized vocabulary and ontology for insect natural history data. In particular, we describe a new database of representative insect natural history data derived from multiple sources (but focused on data from specimens in biological collections), an analysis of the abstract...

Social conditions facilitate water conservation in a solitary bee.

Wed, 19 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000
Climatic stressors are important drivers in the evolution of social behavior. Social animals tend to thrive in harsh and unpredictable environments, yet the precise benefits driving these patterns are often unclear. Here, we explore water conservation in forced associations of a solitary bee (Melissodes tepidus timberlakei Cockerell, 1926) to test the hypothesis that grouping can generate synergistic physiological benefits in an incipient social context. Paired bees displayed mutual tolerance and experienced reduced water loss relative to singleton bees when exposed to acute low-humidity stress, with no change in activity levels. While the mechanism underlying these benefits remains unknown, social advantages like these can facilitate the evolution of cooperation among nonrelatives and offer important insights into the social consequences of climate change.

Plant–arthropod interactions of an endangered California lupine

Wed, 19 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000
The reintroduction of endangered plant species is an essential conservation tool. Reintroductions can fail to create resilient, self-sustaining populations due to a poor understanding of environmental factors that limit or promote plant success. Biotic factors, specifically plant-arthropod interactions, have been shown to affect the establishment of endangered plant populations. Lupinus nipomensis (Nipomo Mesa lupine) is a state of California (California Rare Plant Rank: 1B.1) and federally (65 FR 14888) endangered endemic plant with only one extant population located along the central California coast. How arthropods positively or negatively interact with L. nipomensis is not well known and more information could aid conservation efforts. We conducted arthropod surveys of the entire L. nipomensis extant population in spring 2017. Observed arthropods present on L. nipomensis included 17 families, with a majority of individuals...

The importance of pilot studies and understanding microhabitat requirements when reintroducing endemic plants during coastal dune restoration

Mon, 8 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000
In coastal California dune ecosystems protect coastal cities from damaging storms and provide habitat for native wildlife. Despite the economic and ecological importance of coastal dunes, habitat loss has continued and is predicted to accelerate with a changing climate. To combat the effects of climate change and ensure that coastal dunes will persist into the future, they need to be prioritized for conservation and restoration. However, for restoration to be successful, endemic plants, which are plant with specialized habitat requirements, need to be prioritized because they make up a significant portion of the biodiversity in California coastal dunes. Because endemic plants are rare and there is limited stock of plants available for transplant, we need to be more aggressive in using pilot studies. These can be used to evaluate the biotic and abiotic conditions that maximize growth and reproduction and to help guide effective reintroduction. To evaluate how exploratory pilot...

Local grassland restoration affects insect communities

Thu, 4 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000
It is hypothesised that ecological restoration in grasslands can induce an alternative stable state shift in vegetation. The change in vegetation influences insect community assemblages and allows for greater functional redundancy in pollination and refuge for native insect species. 2. Insect community assemblages at eight coastal California grassland sites were evaluated. Half of these sites had undergone restoration through active revegetation of native grassland flora and half were non-restored. Insects were collected from Lupinus bicolor (Fabaceae) within 2 × 2-m2 plots in spring 2017. Lupinus bicolor is a common native species that is used in California restoration projects, and home and state landscaping projects. 3. Ordination demonstrated that insect community assemblages were different between restored and non-restored sites. These differences were seen in insect functional groups as well as taxa-specific differences and were found to be driven by environmental characteristics...

Recent ccber_postprints items

Leveraging local species data, a global database, and an occupancy model to explore bee-plant interactions

Realistic 3D morphology reshapes insect heat budgets

Concentrated vulnerabilities in bees: Diet specialists have smaller geographic ranges

Humidity induces structural colour change and contributes to biogeographic colour variation in sweat bees

A curated and integrated dataset for exploring global bee-plant interactions

Subspecies differentiation in an enigmatic chaparral shrub species

Hedgerow Gardens Provide Floral Resources for Diverse Insect Visitors to Avocado Fowers in Southern California

Improving the standardization of wild bee occurrence data: Towards a formal wild bee data standard

Taxonomic clarifications, a new combination, and three new species of Neotropical Rinorea (Violaceae)

Plant Communities in the Americas Are Highly Bee Dependent Regardless of Biome or Local Bee Diversity

Leveraging Community Science to Measure Bee Body Size From Museum Specimens

Defining the decline: a glossary relevant to insect decline

Climate explains global functional trait variation in bees

How does climate change impact social bees and bee sociality?

Estimating body size in the large carpenter bees (Xylocopa)

Indexing Biotic Interactions in GBIF data

Making Parasite-Host Associations Visible using Global Biotic Interactions

Implementation Experience Report for Controlled Vocabularies Used with the Audubon Core Terms subjectPart and subjectOrientation

GENOME SKIMMING OF HERBARIUM SPECIMENS REVEALS PHYLOGEOGRAPHIC TRENDS AMONG POPULATIONS OF AN ESTUARINE SEABLITE (CHENOPODIACEAE: SUAEDA ESTEROA)

Invertebrate-biased diet of burrowing owls in a newly-restored coastal grassland

THE CALIFORNIA PHENOLOGY COLLECTIONS NETWORK: USING DIGITAL IMAGES TO INVESTIGATE PHENOLOGICAL CHANGE IN A BIODIVERSITY HOTSPOT

A semantically enriched taxonomic revision of Gryonoides Dodd, 1920 (Hymenoptera, Scelionidae), with a review of the hosts of Teleasinae

Building a community-based taxonomic resource for digitization of parasites and their hosts

Hedgerow Gardens Provide Floral Resources for Diverse Insect Visitors to Avocado Fowers in Southern California

Bark beetle mycobiome: collaboratively defined research priorities on a widespread insect-fungus symbiosis

Soil biome variation of Lupinus nipomensis in wet-cool vs. dry-warm microhabitats and greenhouse

Pollen specialist bee species are accurately predicted from visitation, occurrence and phylogenetic data

Seven new species of Rinorea (Violaceae) from the Neotropics

Native bee habitat restoration: key ecological considerations from recent North American literature

Envisaging a global infrastructure to exploit the potential of digitised collections

Reinvasion of restored California vernal pools reveals the importance of long‐term restoration planning

Toward a Functional Trait Approach to Bee Ecology

Phenotypic divergence in an island bee population: Applying geometric morphometrics to discriminate population‐level variation in wing venation

Developing a vocabulary and ontology for modeling insect natural history data: example data, use cases, and competency questions

Social conditions facilitate water conservation in a solitary bee.

Plant–arthropod interactions of an endangered California lupine

The importance of pilot studies and understanding microhabitat requirements when reintroducing endemic plants during coastal dune restoration

Local grassland restoration affects insect communities