Contact

Andrea Weeks

Organization

George Mason University

Partners

Virginia Master Naturalists, South East Regional Network of Expertise and Collections (SERNEC). 

Funding Source

National Science Foundation #EF-1410086, “Digitization TCN: Collaborative Research: The Key to the Cabinets: Building and sustaining a research database for a global biodiversity hotspot.” and the Virginia Native Plant Society. 

Description

Nearly two-thirds of flowering plant species depend on animal pollinators. Help us learn more about this critical partnership in Virginia.

Pollinator populations and their overall health have declined in recent decades. While much current research is necessarily focused on the health of non-native, domesticated honey-bees and agricultural productivity, thousands of other invertebrate pollinators such as bumble-bees, small solitary bees, butterflies and moths are in need of help, too (see native bee Augochloropsis metallica on local spiderwort; credit, Alex Wild). In order for researchers to find these small creatures in the wild to monitor their population sizes or to test them for diseases, they must first locate the food plants that are preferred by each pollinator and wait for their research subjects to appear. Many native pollinator species will consume the pollen or nectar of very few plant species; this very choosy feeding behavior is called oligolecty. It also means that these species can die out if their food plants disappear. In this project, we have assembled herbarium specimens from over 100 plant genera that are identified by the Xerces Society (http://www.xerces.org/pollinator-resource-center/) as the most important pollinator plants in the mid-Atlantic region. By transcribing these herbarium records, you help us develop very fine scale maps of the plants’ locations and flowering times, which can be used by pollinator researchers to find their quarry.

Incentives

Geographic Scope

The Commonwealth of Virginia, USA

Taxonomic Scope

Vascular plants 

Temporal Scope

1880's to present

Language Skills Required

English

Activities