[Pollinator] Collaborators needed for large-scale study of insect abundance in North America

[Peter O Dunn]

Dear Colleagues

We are inviting you to join our collaborative network studying trends in insect abundance, the North American Insect Abundance Network (www.insectabundance.org<http://www.insectabundance.org/>). This year we will be starting our 7th year of sampling using Malaise traps at 213 locations spread across Canada and the US.  Our focus is on insects in open, grassy areas, but this can include a variety of human-modified areas too, such as agricultural areas and golf courses.

Our study is designed to detect insect declines of 1-5% per year (the long-term averages from meta-analyses).  We have already found declines in some taxa and increases in others. Preliminary results can be found at: www.insectabundance.org/news<http://www.insectabundance.org/news>.

Please look at the “join us” page on the web site for what you need to contribute. As in the past, all collaborators who send in data will be authors on the resulting papers.

Our project is designed so you do not have to do a lot of work collecting and processing samples.  The minimum contribution involves setting up a Malaise trap and collecting three samples from it, typically in May & June.  Each sampling period is 3 days (72 hrs).  Collaborators can sort the samples (to at least Order) and weigh them themselves or send the samples to me for processing. It does not get much easier.

The main caveat is that you will need to purchase a Townes-style Malaise trap from Forestry Suppliers (item number 54077). The price is discounted for this project to about $240 ($203 + $36 shipping). If you want this discount on purchasing a trap, please contact me before 15 Feb with your billing and shipping addresses and quantity of traps desired (Peter Dunn, pdunn at uwm.edu<mailto:pdunn at uwm.edu>).

This could be an excellent project for public outreach or school projects.  It is an engaging and important question that students and the public can help to answer.

Thanks, and I look forward to hearing from you.

Peter Dunn pdunn at uwm.edu<mailto:pdunn at uwm.edu>
Distinguished Professor Emeritus
Dept. of Biol. Sciences
Univ. of Wisconsin-Milwaukee





Peter Dunn

31781 McLoughlin Dr.

Philomath, OR 97370

Distinguished Professor Emerit

Dept. of Biological Sciences
Univ. of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Milwaukee, WI 53211
http://people.uwm.edu/pdunn/
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