Conventional ground surveys will be led by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s Dolezal Bee Lab and EPRI. These surveys will be used to validate the accuracy of eDNA and remote sensing data. Like the other project methods, they will occur throughout the growing season within the second and third year of the project, between May and September.
Vegetation Surveys
Conventional vegetation monitoring will consist of 2 methods:
- Transect surveys: These surveys record vegetation found within a designated survey transect. The team will survey four 100m transects randomly placed within a site. A 0.5m quadrat will be placed every 20m along the transect, and vegetation and groundcover metrics will be recorded within each of these areas. The GPS coordinates for the center of each quadrat will be recorded to align with remote sensing data.
- Meander surveys: These surveys will record additional flowering plant species present on site that occur outside sampled quadrats. Team members will walk around the site for 15 minutes, recording what they see.
Image source: PeaceCorp
Pollinator Community Surveys
Pollinator community surveys will be used to validate the accuracy of eDNA pollinator surveys. Collected pollinators will be stored and later identified in the laboratory down to the species level. Two methods will be used to characterize the pollinator community at each site:
- Pan trapping: This method involves setting up four 2m garden stakes at random locations within each sample area, spaced 10m apart. Each stake will hold three trays of pan traps at foliage height. Pan traps will be deployed for a 24-hour period each month. This method can assess various pollinator communities beyond bee diversity.
- Targeted timed netting will be conducted to complement pan trapping, mitigating potential biases in assessing bee communities alone. This method involves hand nets and aspirators to collect bees within each site during a 30-minute sampling effort between 9:30 am and 1:30 pm CDT, on warm days with minimal wind.
Field Survey Metrics
Ground Photos
Ground photos will be collected to develop a habitat analysis tool, and may serve as another means to validate habitat quality when coupled with satellite imagery. Photo stations will be established around the perimeter of each site where oblique ground photos will be collected.
