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National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior Project Update Great Smoky Mountains National Park Bees on the Brink Research at Great Smoky Mountains National Park Importance: Pollinators at risk in a changing climate Bees provide a critical ecosystem service, pollination, yet we know little about their abundance, diversity, and distribu- tion across National Park Service (NPS) lands. We know even less about the possible effects of climate change on bee popu- lations. Coastal dunes, inland dunes, and alpine areas are Collecting bees: Pouring the contents from particularly vulnerable to effects from climate change, and Augochlorella aurata, a common green one of the 30 blue, yellow, and white “bee these habitats are often hot spots for rare and/or endemic bee metallic sweat bee, found in the park. bowls” through a strainer, and then into a Photo: © 2006-2010 John Ascher plastic bag for storage and shipping. and plant species. Great Smoky Mountains National Park is one of 48 NPS units that are surveying the distribution of bee Methods species in these and other vulnerable habitats. Because the The vulnerable site was a low-elevation dry grassy area park does not have any of the target vulnerable habitats, a surrounded by oak-pine forest in the southwest corner of the low-elevation dry meadow, at risk of drying further with park, at 419 m elevation, near to a powerline. The common site was an artificially maintained grassy bald on Purchase Knob, climate change, was selected as a vulnerable site. The bee at 1476 m elevation. species within the targeted habitats are compared to bee A transect of 30 small painted bowls spaced 5 m apart was species found in nearby, more common habitats. Comparing laid out at each site. Bowls were filled with soapy water and these different habitats within each park will reveal if there left open for 24 hours on sunny days, collecting bees which are rare and/or endemic bee species associated with sensitive were attracted to the color. Five samples were taken at both areas which might be vulnerable to processes such as species sites between early May and late September, 2011, and three loss, population decline, and disruption of pollination more were taken between late March and September, 2012, networks in response to climate change. These areas can then timed to coincide with peak bee activity. After each run, bees be targeted for future monitoring, and where appropriate, for were collected (see photo above) and sent to a central process- W e st P ing facility at Patuxent Wildlife Research Center (USGS active management. ro n g N I L ay TA it w N tle rk OU P a i M geo P n Maryland) for identification. EE OW lls LH R i I i H v h C Sampling Locationt e o r o n F o e ig P Gatlinburg Welcome Center R National Park Information Center iv Common Site er TENNE SSEE N Common Walland Exit 451 AI is an artificially NT U 32 O NOR M WearTH C Valley C AROLI maintained grassy bald on o NA E Vulnerable y Little V To Chattanooga s a O b rkw Greenbrier C y a Mount School P Purchase Knob Cammerer Cosbyls C 73 l r e 321 hi Big Creek t e Townsend o k Visitors Center o S 40 F IN ad A Ro Townsend er T Little Riv N R I U C d H a k o OBig e Great Smoky R e Elkmont IN ) r M r C M Mountains A O M e S T T K Y t i Look Rock A d Institute at E n n N i R i d U a t Tremont G w l O M e d n M T K a u Ni n o P o R R r o M d n e k A g s e o e h l MountP r L c c C i i ( t I L l tl T OR e e NA N A r EE Sterling u R W Mount Guyot a ive M O L Waterviller idd H le Prong IL Abrams Creek H Lake C Cabl B e Mill CADES COVE r A C L S Abrams Cades CoveA M GREATek SMOKY MOUNTAINS e Visitor Center r M Spence C O Field hian lac U Thunderheade a e p N T Mountainh p r Chilhowee T a A c Vulnerable Site A il I o N o PISGAH l a t NATNATIOIONANALL PARK is a dry grassy area Cataloocheek a e e C h r c C FOREST an r Gregory surrounded by oak-pine B e l d Bald g n a a o E o s R C r a o forest P v e C k r r d k e o R e e F k e R r High Rocks C n d t ek re C M y Calderwood Shuckstack Appalachian e m Laken l n a e r CHEROKEE e s Highlands z B l a Exit 20 o v F r a H a Deals Gap a NATIONAL B Science d R l FOREST Twentymile Learning O e L co y ake Center n Cheoah a lu f te F E o SE A e rk S IN E L H N O e ( 276 R N R in c E A l i T C 129 t o v o Fon e s tana H o r T e Lake g R FONTANA d O a Smokemont N Balsam MouVntainILLAGE i n R d i a d o w R g i n e e t JOYCE v e KILMER - SLICKRoOCK Ro A r p C ) p WILDERNESS AREA a ig a B d la Black Camp Gap c h dge ia i R Par n k Maggie Dellwood e wa Mingus Mill lu y B Valley 0 10 20 T 19 ra E Mi i Oconaluftee Santeetlah l Stecoah Gap Visitor Center Lake To AsNANTAHheville ALA NATIONAL FOREST y kywa ala S eroh Bees on the BrinkCh 1 www.nps.gov/grsm/ Results Tapoco Station 1981-2010 Normal Temperature °F A total of 576 bees were collected at the two sites in 2011 and 85 2012. The vulnerable low elevation meadow yielded 103 bees, 75 comprising 40 species, while the common site had almost five times as many bees (473) and 52 species. Overall species richness 65 for the park was impressive at 76 species. 55 The vulnerable and 45 High Low Average Sampling Period common sites were quite 35 different also in their species Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov composition, only one fifth of 2 Departure From Normal Temperatures °F During Study Period the total species were shared 1 between the two sites (see bar graph below). The common 0 high elevation site had very -1 Osmia sandhouseae, female high densities of several Max Temperature A mason bee found at the dry, low-elevation site Min Temperature common eastern “field” Photo: Public Domain, USGS BIML -2 species, including the sweat -3 bee Augochlorella aurata, the mining bee, Andrena nasonii, and Spring Summer Fall the masked bee complex Hylaeus affinis/modestus. The low eleva- The top graph shows the 30 year normal minimum, maximum, and average tempera- tion vulnerable site had few if any of these generally ubiquitous tures from a weather station near the vulnerable site, for the months that bees were sampled. The bottom graph shows how seasonal temperatures during the five year species. The vulnerable site also had a much lower diversity of (2010-2014) study period departed from normal. Summer temperatures were slightly warmer than normal, but fall were cooler than normal, especially the maximum mining bees (genus Andrena) and had none of their parasites temperatures during the day. (genus Nomada), but did have four species of leafcutter bees Data source: Corrected weather station data sets, used as inputs to create TopoWx. (Oyler et al., 2014); NOAA NCEI 1981-2010 Climate Normals www.ncdc.noaa.gov (genus Megachile) that were completely absent from the common high elevation site. One non-native bee species was collected in both the As in Blue Ridge vulnerable and common sites, the mason bee Osmia Parkway, there were cornifrons (Japanese hornfaced bee). This species was several “northern” species intentionally introduced to the U.S. from Japan in the that occur this far south 1970’s to assist in tree fruit pollination and wild popula- only at high elevations in tions have established in the East and Midwest. In the the Appalachians: the Mid-Atlantic area they can be one of the dominant bees in mining bee Andrena woodlands. wheeleri, the bumble bees Hylaeus modestus, Masked Bee Bombus sandersoni and Comparison of bee species richness within genera in vulnerable Photo: © 2014-2015 Hadel Go B. vagans, and the sweat and common sites in Great Smoky Mountains National Park www.discoverlife.org Vulnerable Site Common Site bee Lasioglossum laevis- Xylocopa simum. These species were all collected in the common high eleva- # species within genera Augochlora # species unique to vulnerable or common site tion site, although Bombus sandersoni was also collected in the Coelioxys # sand specialists vulnerable lower elevation site. Two uncommon species were Eucera collected in the vulnerable site only: the sweat bee Lasioglossum Megachile apocyni is found primarily in the Appalachians and the mason bee Osmia Lasioglossum Osmia sandhouseae is associ- Andrena ated with dry low-elevation Ceratina habitats, and more commonly Bombus found in sandy areas on the Halictus coastal plain.
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