States
AlaskaHow often do you notice bees - only when one flies near you? Bees are actually VIPs: very important pollinators. Worldwide, bees play a part in 1 of every 3 bites of food people eat. For a group we know is so important, relatively little is known about wild bee species across much of Alaska. That’s where the "Alaska Bee Atlas" project comes in.
Staff from Selawik Refuge conducted bee surveys in 2021, 2022 and 2024 following the Alaska Bee Atlas procedure. Sampling consists of placing (and later collecting) bowl traps which attract and capture bees - or actively searching for bees and capturing them with a net - or a combination of the two. It also includes noting the weather, GPS location and plant/flower species present. All collected bees are sent off to a lab for careful species identification. Fifty-nine samples were collected and submitted from Selawik Refuge between 2021-2024 as follows:
| year | number of specimens collected | number of different species recorded | number of sites sampled |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 32 | 6 | 2 |
| 2022 | 19 | 6 | 3 |
| 2024 | 8 | 2 | 6 |
Most of the samples collected (34/59) were bumblebees. Bumblebees are social insects. They build their nests in the ground, in abandoned burrows and under logs. The queen overwinters in the soil while the rest of the colony dies. In early spring she establishes a new nest and rears the first worker brood. Bumblebees pollinate a wide array of plants and carry a lot of pollen from plant to plant, leading to fertilization. Alaska has 22 known species of bumblebees. Eight species were collected here:
- Bombus mixtus, 10 specimens (pictured at right)
- B. frigidus, 7 specimens
- B. polaris, 4 specimens
- B. cryptarum, 4 specimens
- B. lapponicus sylvicola, 3 specimens
- B. jonellus, 2 specimens
- B. melanopygus, 1 specimen
In addition to the bumblebees, we found solitary bees from 2 groups: sweat bees (24/59 samples, genus Halictidae) and plasterer bees (1/59 samples, genus Colletes).
In 2021, 2022 and 2024 we focused pollinator sampling in areas where little to no information was available. This data was high priority for the project. In future years, we may conduct additional pollinator sampling as funding and staff capacity allow.
For more information about the Alaska Bee Atlas project, see maintained by the University of Alaska Anchorage's Alaska Center for Conservation Science (ACCS).
