Bee and Angiosperm interaction Maps

This is my research oriented repository for exploring bee & flowering plant co-occurrences, interactions, and relational biodiversity.

Research Question(s)

1. What drives bee diversity in California?
2. How can we link flowering plant & bee diversity using open source occurrence data?
3. What abiotic trends in the level 3 ecoregions of California shape these two groups assemblages?

Goals of the Project

• Using iDigBio & GBIF occurrence records we would like to investigate trends in diversity and spatial distribution of bees & angiosperms of the level 3 EPA ecoregions originating in California.
• Investigate Abiotic & Biotic factors that describe the ecoregions, and how these could act as possible drivers for bee (& angiosperm) diversity.
• Investigate possible interaction space between angiosperm & bee co-occurrences within the ecoregions.
• Create Reproducible workflow in bash & R for organizing and analyzing occurrence data.

Background

Recent research indicates that bee diversity at a global scale is driven by warm temperatures & low levels of percipitation (Orr et al. 2021). To test this hypothesis on a more localized level, we are interested in investigating bee diversity drivers within the state of California. California provides an unique case study by containing both high bee diversity (~1600 described species) and spatially hetergenous enviroments. To divide up enviromental gradients in California we are using the EPA defined ecoregions. Pleminary analysis suggests that indeed bee diversity is significantly correlated by warm temperatures & low levels of percipitation within the state of California. An interesting aspect of this however is that these drivers alone don't seem to explain diversity when categorized at the ecoregion level. Our next step for investigating bee diversity is looking at how flowering plant diversity is shaped by the ecoregion designations.

Flowering plants are a logical next step for our research question for two reasons. First off, part of the criteria for defining the ecoregions is by their flora composition. Therefore identifying what magnitude of diversity exists in angiosperms among the ecoregions as well as relative phylogenetic diversity will help us understand how these assemblages are spatially distributed. Second, bees & plants are well known mutualist that may present interesting co-driven diversity trends at a large spatial scale.

Acknowledgments:

• NSF Grant DBI2102006
• iDigBio for funding our research
• Open-source data providers, collection managers, and collectors. In order to give back to the biodiversity informatics community, a goal of this project is to provide reproducible workflow and well noted methodology for dealing with occurrence data. Versions of the compiled occurrence data for bee & angiosperm are planned to be openly published for subsequent research projects involving these groups within the proposed geographic extent.

People

• JT Miller: Repo owner, iDigBio Post-bac researcher at the Soltis Lab University of Florida, and research affiliate at CCBER UC Santa Barbara
• Katja Seltmann: Project Advisor, Director of CCBER at UCSB. Advisor on Bee diversity, natural history, and biodiversity informatics.
• Pamela Soltis: Project Advisor, Co-PI for the Soltis Lab at UF. Advisor on Flowering plant diversity and systematics.