Safeguarding pollination services in a changing world: theory into practice (SURPASS2)

Abstract

Pollinators have an essential role in the reproduction of plant species in natural areas and in agriculture. Knowledge about their spatial and temporal distribution is of extreme importance for biodiversity conservation and sustainable use, and can be generated from records of species occurrence obtained from field inventories. Online availability of those data is increasing rapidly and with it we can identify the existence of knowledge gaps, with undersampled regions and taxa, that require a greater collecting effort, that can be achieved with the collaboration of citizens adequately trained for the task, the citizen scientists. Online digitized data of species interactions, such as plants and pollinators, are even scarcer, despite their importance to the understanding of biological relations and processes. This is due to the intrinsic complexity of interaction data, which is also reflected in the lack of a data standard to represent them, just the contrary that can be verified with occurrence data, that has an internationally well-accepted data standard, the Darwin Core, to represent them. In order to tackle those questions, this project proposes: a) to develop a data standard to digitize plant-pollinator interaction data, that facilitates data sharing, reuse and aggregation; b) develop of an information system based on that standard; c) generate a diagnosis of plant-pollinator interactions in Brazil, and d) identify knowledge gaps. The project also proposes to develop a citizen science program for pollinators, including: a) development of an app and system appropriate for collecting occurrence data and for monitoring pollinator; b) assess the quality of data generated; c) assess the knowledge gains of the participant citizens; d) create a Latin American network on the themes of plant-pollinators interactions and on citizen science for pollinators. (AU)