Digitizing the Bee Collection of the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory

授粉对开花植物的繁殖至关重要。高达90%的开花植物依靠昆虫或其他动物授粉，使其成为重要的生态系统服务。虽然许多生物可以作为传粉者，一些最常见的传粉者是蜜蜂（膜翅目，超科蜜蜂）。鉴于全球范围内对蜜蜂数量减少的担忧日益增加，蜜蜂已被确定为需要长期监测的重要传粉者群体。这种监测工作依赖于科学界可以获得的蜜蜂标本和与标本相关的数据，最好是在线的数字格式。本生物研究收藏基金的目的是对落基山生物实验室（RMBL）超家族Apoidea（以下简称蜜蜂收藏）的标本和标本相关数据进行数字化捕获。任何观众都可以在www.rmbl.org上在线观看该系列。科学家、学生和公众将从这项资助中受益。对于科学家来说，数字化捕捉蜜蜂收藏提供了一个机会，使这些有价值的收藏可以在网上向更多的观众提供。对于学生来说，有机生物学吸引了许多学生，但他们往往没有机会参加无脊椎动物生物学的课程。该奖项将在两年内为六名学生提供培训和就业机会。对于公众，pi将与学生一起在人民币博物馆举办蜜蜂展览，突出本地蜜蜂的多样性。

Pollination is critical to the reproduction of flowering plants. Up to 90% of flowering plants rely on insects or other animals for pollination, making it an important ecosystem service. Although many organisms can act as pollinators, some of the most common pollinators are bees (Hymenoptera, superfamily Apoidea). Given growing concerns about bee declines worldwide, bees have been identified as an important pollinator group in need of long-term monitoring. This monitoring effort relies on bee specimens and specimen-related data that are available to the scientific community, preferably in digital format online. The goals of this Biological Research Collections grant are to digitally capture the specimens and specimen-related data of the superfamily Apoidea (hereafter, the Bee Collection) of the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (RMBL). The collection will be available online to any viewer at www.rmbl.org. Scientists, students, and the general public will benefit from this grant. For scientists, digitally capturing the Bee Collection provides an opportunity to make this valuable collection available to a larger audience online. For students, organismal biology fascinates many students but they often don't have the opportunity to take courses in invertebrate biology. This award will provide training and employment opportunities for six students over two years. For the general public, the PIs will work with the students to develop a bee exhibit in the RMBL museum that highlights the diversity of native bees.