Webinar – Learn about Ground-Nesting Bees with Cornell’s GNBee Project

Did you know that most native bees are ground nesting? Aggregations (aka groups) of these nests are under-studied, but Dr. Jordan Kueneman at Cornell University is working to change that through Project GNBee (gnbee.org). Since spring 2023, the public has already provided over 5,000 observations of about 370 species of ground-nesting bees to GNBee. This community science project provides critical information for researchers to understand when, where, and why solitary ground-nesting bee aggregations occur. It’s easy to participate and the coming weeks are a great time of year to observe new bees emerging from the ground!

Please join Dr. Kueneman as he teaches us about ground nesting bees, shows off some great bee photos, and learn how your Bee City or Bee Campus community can get involved in GNBee.

This free Bee City USA webinar is hosted by Xerces Society and will be recorded and available on our YouTube channel on the Bee City USA playlist. Auto-generated Closed Captioning will be available during this webinar.

Dr. Jordan Kueneman
Cornell University

Dr. Jordan Kueneman is a research associate at Cornell University, working in the Danforth Lab within the Department of Entomology. He earned his Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Colorado, Boulder, where he focused on conservation medicine and host-associated microbiomes under the mentorship of Dr. Valerie McKenzie.

Following his Ph.D., he spent four years in Panama at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, studying plant and animal microbiomes. During this time, he led a large-scale project investigating the microbiome of bees across different life-history strategies, seasonal patterns, and spatial distributions.

Most recently, Dr. Kueneman has developed and runs Project GNBee, a research initiative dedicated to understanding why solitary ground-nesting bees form aggregations in specific locations, identifying the factors that determine their long-term success, and working to protect nesting aggregations where they occur.

Image credit: Jack Clauss and GNBee