Data from: Estimating bee abundance: Can mark-recapture methods validate common sampling protocols?

Wild bees can be essential pollinators in natural, agricultural, and urban
systems, but populations of some species have declined. Efforts to assess
the status of wild bees are hindered by uncertainty in common sampling
methods, such as pan traps and aerial netting, which may or may not
provide a valid index of abundance across species and habitats.
Mark-recapture methods are a common and effective means of estimating
population size, widely used in vertebrates but rarely applied to bees.
Here we review existing mark-recapture studies of wild bees and present a
new case study comparing mark-recapture population estimates to pan trap
and net capture for four taxa in a wild bee community. Net, but not trap,
capture was correlated with abundance estimates across sites and taxa.
Logistical limitations ensure that mark-recapture studies will not fully
replace other bee sampling methods, but they do provide a feasible way to
monitor selected species and measure the performance of other sampling
methods.