A beneficial arthropod dataset for agricultural landscapes in Western Canada and adjacent mountain ecosystems

One of the largest drivers of global biodiversity trends is land use
change and habitat loss. Through several studies of beneficial arthropods,
we have compiled a spatially- extensive passive-sampling arthropod dataset
for Western Canada focused on landscape diversity. This dataset, collected
from 2015-2019, consists of more than 200,000 specimens, five arthropod
orders, and 26 families of either pollinators (Hymenoptera, Diptera) or
natural enemies of pests (Coleoptera, Araneae, Opiliones). In the research
that collectively makes up this dataset, there are 409 sampling sites in
two focal areas: the Canadian Rockies (n=70) and the agriculturally
intense Canadian prairies (n=339).  Sampled in the montane region
focused on Bombus species, while both pollinators and natural enemies were
sampled in the prairies. Within the prairie region, there was also a focus
on non-crop habitat that occurs within or adjacent to the annual crop
fields and rangelands that dominate the region. This data can be used to
investigate beneficial insect abundance and richness over a gradient of
elevation, land cover, landscape diversity and climate.