(Socio-)ecological tools and insights for a changing climate
Authors:   , Miller Zachary James 
Published: February 2023

In one way or another, climate change is impacting all social, economic, and ecological systems on the planet. Scientists worldwide warn of catastrophic and irreversible damage to social and ecological systems in absence of rapid, far-reaching, and unprecedented shifts in energy and land use. Yet, many social systems continue to operate business-as-usual, and decision-making across multiple levels of social organization continues to neglect the use of scientific evidence to minimize long-term risk. Contemporary biodiversity losses are occurring on scales that surpass the major extinction events in geological records, threatening the loss of critical ecosystem services, such as pollination, that underpin myriad facets of human societies as well as ecosystem resilience. In my dissertation, I call into question conventional lethal sampling approaches for bumble bees, an economically and ecologically important pollinator group, and simultaneously advance non-lethal techniques. Additionally, with aims to advance climate action in Missouri, I investigate how state-level decision-makers and land-use experts are thinking about climate resilience in the context of rural Missouri. More specifically, in chapter one, I explore how the use of lethal sampling, a traditional entomological sampling approach, has changed over time with evidence of numerous declining bumble bee populations. Global declines of bumble bees are welldocumented and have spurred widespread conservation efforts. However, lethal sampling continues to serve as a common entomological practice despite conservation concern. In collaboration with a research team from the Galen lab, I review 411 bumble bee-related publications from 1970-2019 alongside records from over 230,000 pinned bumble bee pinned specimens to discern whether lethal sampling has decreased with heightened conservation awareness and availability of novel non-lethal sampling methods. Our literature review shows that lethal sampling of bumble bees has instead kept pace with publication output. Interestingly, the highest rates of lethal sampling are found in papers demonstrating conservation awareness and persist despite low scholarly impact in comparison to papers based on non-lethal alternatives. Facing numerous pressures, vulnerable bumble bee populations may be less resilient to traditional sampling norms than broadly assumed. We highlight non-lethal sampling alternatives and underscore the need for proactive, empirically informed sampling guidelines that reflect the conservation needs of bumble bee pollinators. In chapter two, I review advances in acoustic monitoring technologies for bumble bees and discuss potential applications. Acoustics show promise for use in bumble bee investigations, as bumble bees create a range of distinguishable sounds while flying, sonicating (buzzing on flowers to eject pollen) and interacting within the colony, making them amenable for acoustical surveys. Acoustics offer an alternative sampling approach that is affordable, scalable, and non-destructive, with potential to augment conservation and agricultural practices. Application of AMT to investigate bumble bees is still nascent in development, and improvements are needed across all stages of the AMT process, from sensor technologies and data transfer to audio classification and user interfaces. I review the sound-producing activities of bumble bees, highlighting extant research and underscoring opportunities for further investigation. I conclude by reiterating the importance of cross-disciplinary collaboration between ecologists and computer scientists to monitor and manage species of conservation concern. In chapter three, I advance acoustic applications in bumble bee research using a combination of field work and literature surveys. Leveraging technological advancements that allow for remote monitoring and automated processing of information, such as acoustics, has been identified as a key next step for pollinator research. I test whether the acoustics of bumble bee flight buzzes can be used to track morphological traits and phenological phases of foragers throughout the season. I used flight cage experiments and a literature survey to extend data on the relationship between the fundamental frequency of flight buzzes and body size across castes and species. I then use these data to test whether acoustics can track caste size dimorphisms across species and variation in intraspecific worker size. Next, I acoustically monitored wild bumble bee colonies in subalpine and alpine ecosystems in Colorado, United States, where I corroborated acoustic data with in-person observations to distinguish phenological phases (queens only vs. queens and workers) of the colonies. I demonstrate that remotely monitoring bumble bee colonies with acoustics can provide large datasets with cues for different morphological and phenological features of the colony and discuss potential applications. In chapter four, I investigate climate resilience in rural Missouri. Rural areas of the United States -- approximately 97 percent of the total land area -- often lag urban areas in the implementation of climate adaptation practices. Understanding how perspectives vary within and among actors in the rural land use decision-making ecosystem can help to identify catalysts and constraints for climate change adaptation planning and action. I conducted semi-structured interviews with 23 experts -- policymakers, state/federal agency professionals, non-profit organization leadership, and researchers -- at the nexus of rural land use, agriculture, natural resources, and conservation in Missouri to elucidate conceptualizations of climate resilience. I aligned interview questions with NOAA's Steps to Resilience to investigate participants' perceptions of the major vulnerabilities of rural communities and landscapes, threats to rural vitality, and potential concrete steps for making rural Missouri more resilient in the face of climate change. I then discuss examples of climate resilience in Missouri and conclude with suggestions for potential next steps towards climate resilience in the state.