To better protect wild and honey bees, precise knowledge of bee diversity in agricultural landscapes is necessary.

Researchers at the Julius Kühn-Institute, Institute for Bee Protection, are currently collecting data on the occurence of honeybees and wild bees in agricultural landscapes in two regions in Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, for the second consecutive year. Local bee communities are sampled monthly from April to August, using the pan-trap method. Systematic data collection over several years will provide a robust reference for future interval monitoring.

The survey sites represent the typical spectrum of agricultural land in the northeastern German lowlands that can be categorized according to their landscape structure, intensity and type of land use and prevailing biophysical factors. The collected bee species are identified based on their DNA in the samples (DNA metabarcoding). Beside bees, other pollinators such as hoverflies and butterflies are detected too.

By considering the entire pollinator community instead of few selected focus species, the work thus addresses the core objective of World Bee Day, improving collectively the protection of honeybees, wild bees and other pollinators. Further information is available here.