Bee more specific! New radar tech could revolutionise how we identify and track the world’s key pollinators

Posted on: 06 May 2026

While pollinator declines have received widespread attention in recent years, most monitoring efforts focus on counting insect numbers, rather than the diversity of species.

This distinction is vital. Not all flower-visiting insects contribute equally to pollination, while identifying and tracking the variety of species that visit different plants—especially food crops and endangered flora—has remained a major scientific challenge.

A buff-tailed bumblebee collects pollen from a purple flower.

The new method was developed as a proof-of-concept under controlled lab conditions but is now being trialled in real-world, outdoor environments, where insects can be monitored freely. It uses a detailed analysis of insect “wingbeat signatures” (derived from radar reflections of millimetre-wave electromagnetic waves), which can distinguish species with high precision. 

“Crucially, the approach means we can accurately identify different species, even telling apart very closely related insects. That is very hard to do visually, or via other existing technological tools,” explained Trinity’s Prof. Ian Donohue, senior author of the research article that has just been published in the international journal PNAS Nexus.

“And unlike large-scale monitoring systems, this technique can also operate cheaply and effectively over a small spatial range, making it particularly suited to studying insect activity directly in and around flowers.” 

This enables researchers to pinpoint which insects are genuinely acting as pollinators in real time, rather than simply passing through an area. And it offers the potential to then track the numbers of various species across discrete time periods, to provide a far more accurate assessment of how those species are faring.

What are the potential implications of this research?

The implications for conservation and agriculture are significant, because policymakers and scientists have long struggled to determine the most important pollinators in different habitat types and at different times of year. By identifying the variety of species that visit specific plants, this approach could help direct targeted conservation strategies and direct and improve ecosystem restoration efforts.

Prof. Jane Stout, another senior author of the research, and Vice-President for Biodiversity & Climate Action at Trinity, said: “The need for such innovation is urgent as pollinator populations continue to decline across Europe, including in Ireland, where even common species are showing worrying downward trends. 

“According to the EU Red List of Bees (2025) 10% of assessed wild bee species are now threatened with extinction, which is more than double the number identified in 2014. Meanwhile, Ireland’s National Biodiversity Data Centre reports a 3.5% annual decline in bumblebee populations since 2012.”

Despite these alarming trends, major policy frameworks, including the EU Nature Restoration Regulation, still largely overlook the question of pollination effectiveness at the species level.

In brief, this technology could provide an unprecedented window into pollination dynamics and help to answer one of the more pressing ecological questions of our time.

Next steps and future developments 

The team now plans to increase its insect radar signature database to include more species and seeks to detect changes in insect behaviour by analysing unusual alterations in wing-beat patterns, which may be linked to changes in variables such as temperature or humidity.

The tech can be integrated into emerging millimetre-Wave communication and sensing infrastructures, such as 5G/6G and IoT, which means scalable, networked, continuous biodiversity monitoring should be achievable – in theory making it useful in multiple settings. 

This research is an output of the Digitising Biodiversity project, funded through a Trinity College Dublin Kinsella Challenge-Based E3 Award, and by Nature+CONNECT, funded by Microsoft and Research Ireland through CONNECT, the Research Ireland Research Centre for Future Networks and Communications.

The research article can be read on the PNAS Nexus journal website. 

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