Technological advances in field studies of pollinator ecology and the future of e-ecology

•Ecologists need technological solutions for acquiring large datasets in the field.•Field-deployed e-ecology tools are constrained by power draw and reliability issues.•Progress has been made in radio tracking, and automated monitoring and identification.•E-ecology will be driven by IoT and AI resulting from innovation and enterprise.•E-ecology needs cross-disciplinary scientific consortia and industry partners.