Collaborative Research: Digitization TCN: iDigBees Network, Towards Complete Digitization of US Bee Collections to Promote Ecological and Evolutionary Research in a Keystone Clade

Title: Digitization TCN: iDigBees Network: Towards Complete Digitization of US Bee Collections to promote ecological-evolutionary research in a keystone clade Overview: Bees are the most important pollinators in both managed and natural ecosystems, and yet concerns about bee declines are growing. Unfortunately, only a fraction of the 20,000 known bee species has adequate data to assess the status of species and susceptibility of populations to decline. The iDigBees Thematic Collections Network (TCN), comprise of 42 institutions, addresses this need and extends the scope of ADBC insect digitization in three fundamental ways. First, it will achieve near-complete digitization of all bee holdings in the United States, greatly increasing data depth and breadth for use in a wide spectrum of ecological-evolutionary work. Second, iDigBees will incorporate innovations including molecular identification, phenology and phylogeny plugins, R-based workflows, and additional linkages to BOLD and GBIF. LightningBug imaging will be introduced to increase transcription rates by four-fold and train a workforce to use simple robotics, machine learning, and computer vision. Third, in collaboration with a currently funded USDA-RCN project, iDigBees will integrate specimen data with ongoing biodiversity research, education, and outreach programs. We have targeted over 30 biodiversity outreach programs that will be leveraged for k-16 educational efforts. The iDigBees network will accelerate our understanding of mechanisms that mediate species distributions, plant associations, and changes over time. iDigBees provides a foundation to more fully test hypotheses regarding trajectories of species and bee-plant associations and help inform future inventory, monitoring and conservation efforts across the spectrum of human-dominated ecosystems. Intellectual Merit: iDigBees TCN will be the most in-depth insect biodiversity digitization to date. Our coordinated effort involves ~36 collections and will mobilize up to 2.3 million bee specimens in US collections, leading to an average of 1,275 records per species. The ability to assess suitable species habitat and understand communities and bee-plant networks requires historic and integrated data to track how species distributions and associated life history traits change over time. iDigBees will quantify historical trends over decadal timescales to assess the trajectory for several thousand bee species, including invasive species and changes in distribution for species of conservation concern. It will identify candidate pollinators restoration options associated within agricultural and other-managed ecosystems. iDigBees will integrate non-specimen data ranging from plant-bee associations to remote-sensing and partner with researchers and government agencies to provide open datasets for policy, research, and education. Broader Impacts: iDigBees will promote broader impacts in four areas: digitization, research, education, and outreach. Through the SCAN portal, digitization of bees will be facilitated for all US collections to obtain complete transcription of occurrence data. The iDigBees model will be promoted outside the United States to obtain Deep Global Digitization. iDigBees will assist the currently funded USDA RCN to create a US National Native Bee Monitoring Plan, thus engaging broadly with >50 bee researchers. A dedicated education program (i.e, SMARTBees) will synthesize iDigBees data with data from Open Tree of Life, Encylopedia of Life, GloBI, BOLD, and ecological research labs. Most collaborating iDigBees partners museums already host bee education and training programs at various levels (museum staff, undergraduate/graduate education, K-12, and continuing) and these resources will be further promoted through iDigBees. Participating institutions developing undergraduate course materials that involve examination of bee specimens or use of data derived from specimens will contribute lesson plans to BLUE (Biodiversity Literacy for Undergraduate Education). Network museums will build on existing in-person and virtual workshops and courses in bee identification.