Promoting Data Collection in Pollinator Citizen Science Projects

Abstract

Pollinators provide ecosystem services that are threatened by the loss of wild and managed bees. Citizen scientists can monitor bees to yield useful data that may guide conservation of threatened bee populations. However, the factors that promote data collection in pollinator citizen science projects are largely unknown, inhibiting development of citizen science that promotes pollinator conservation. We used data from two citizen science projects to assess factors that mediated data collection by volunteers who monitored bees in Washington State, USA, from 2015 to 2017. One project monitored bee-plant interactions with photography; the other gave volunteers nest boxes to monitor cavity-nesting bees. Both projects involved educational trainings, although the project methods differed. Volunteers were given post-training questionnaires to assess their motivations for participation and to evaluate if the volunteer’s level of educational attainment influenced data collection. Citizen scientists who monitored cavity-nesting bees were more likely than those who monitored plant-bee interactions to submit data. Data collection was independent of educational attainment, and participants in both projects were more likely to volunteer for their own educational reasons rather than to collect data. Our findings suggest that pollinator citizen science projects which use nest boxes to monitor cavity-nesting bees will receive more data submissions, indicating that these projects may be particularly useful for monitoring pollinators. More broadly, our results suggest that researchers must carefully evaluate project methods, and volunteer motivations, prior to offering trainings to increase rates of data collection.