Caring for Pollinators - Bundesamt für Naturschutz
Caring for Pollinators - Bundesamt für Naturschutz
Caring for Pollinators - Bundesamt für Naturschutz
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Fonseca, Saraiva, Gonçalves, de Jong, Alves, Menezes, Francoy Brazilian <strong>Pollinators</strong><br />
Initiative<br />
Data acquisition systems <strong>for</strong> research on pollinators have been developed mainly by L.S.<br />
Gonçalves and collaborators (<strong>for</strong> Apis) and by A.M Saraiva, V.L. Imperatriz-Fonseca and<br />
collaborators (<strong>for</strong> stingless bees). Examples are instruments <strong>for</strong> studying flight activity and<br />
thermo-regulation inside the colonies. Networked sensors that can be accessed by the<br />
Internet are also the focus of the Virtual Network Center of Ecosystem Services. Weblabs on<br />
pollinators are being developed, e.g. laboratories whose data and/or experiments can be<br />
accessed via Internet. The availability of an Internet 2 connection between the project<br />
partners at the Universidade de Sao Paulo, (Agricultural Automation Lab and BeeLab) will<br />
allow sharing contents such as high definition images and real-time high-definition video.<br />
Video and audio data can be recorded and analyzed <strong>for</strong> behavioral studies. This project is<br />
financed by FAPESP (TIDIA – KyaTera project). Other novel approaches such as wireless<br />
sensor networks are currently being studied <strong>for</strong> use on pollinator research.<br />
Handheld computers have been used to run computer programs that help collect data in the<br />
field. Ethologer (<strong>for</strong> behavioral studies, developed with J.C. Nieh, from U.C. San Diego) and<br />
Trap nest scouter (<strong>for</strong> trap nest experiments) are two examples of specific software<br />
developed <strong>for</strong> use in pocket PC computers.<br />
In<strong>for</strong>mation about Brazilian native pollinators have been on-line at the BeeLab’s web pages<br />
since the mid 90’s and led to the development of WebBee, which is an on-line in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
system (developed originally with support from CNPq-Brazil), with a database of stingless<br />
bees species data: text, images and videos and also hosting most of the activities of the<br />
Brazilian Pollinator Initiatives (www.webbee.org.br). The experience gained in the<br />
development of this system has been important to help develop the IABIN <strong>Pollinators</strong><br />
Thematic Network (http://pollinators.iabin.net). This is a distributed data and in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
network that will provide content in the following areas: pollinator checklists, experts,<br />
specimens and observations, pollinator-plant-relationships, and literature. This project of the<br />
InterAmerican Biodiversity In<strong>for</strong>mation Network (IABIN) aims at providing access to<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation on pollinators from the integrating data providers from all American countries,<br />
linking to other global data networks, such as GBIF, the Global Biodiversity In<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
Facility.<br />
The digitization of biological collections data is a crucial and basic point. Many Brazilian<br />
pollinators collections have now been digitized by CRIA (Centro de Referência em<br />
In<strong>for</strong>mação Ambiental), with support from agencies such as Fapesp in Brazil, and GBIF<br />
which helped develop the speciesLink project (splink.cria.org.br). Biological collections on<br />
pollinators are included, 12 collections are part of the network, with around 213,000 records<br />
online, of which 169,000 are georeferenced (20% of total estimated records in Brazilian<br />
collections).<br />
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