This summer, I spent two months on the island of Lesvos, Greece, the setting of the National Science Foundation-sponsored Pollinators, Climate Change, and the Aegean Archipelago Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU). Our team of seven students and four senior researchers from various backgrounds in the U.S. worked to untangle the interacting stressors impacting bees in…
When Clancy talks about saving native bees, he bursts with energy reminiscent of his conservationist idol Steve Irwin. “There’s a common misconception that all bees make honey and live in hives,” he says, citing Australia’s 2,000-odd species. “But the majority of our native bees are actually solitary.” The 23-year-old ecologist known as “The Bee Man”…
Despite their reputation as buzzing nuisances, flies serve a critical role as some of the Earth’s most prolific pollinators. A new study led by Penn State scientists suggests that flies are increasingly at risk due to rising global temperatures. An international team of researchers examined the heat tolerance of various bee and fly species in…
Connectivity and maintenance measures support wild bees in limestone quarries A research team at the University of Göttingen, Germany’s Nature And Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU) in Rhede, and the Thünen Institute in Braunschweig has investigated the importance of limestone quarries for wild bee conservation. Diverse landscapes with good connectivity between quarries and calcareous grasslands proved…
Reforms needed to ensure the protection of all pollinator species, our food systems and biodiversity as a whole A new study reveals alarming risks that pesticides pose to ground-nesting bees, which are crucial for pollination and food production. As agriculture increasingly relies on pesticides to protect crops, the unintended consequences for these essential pollinators are…
I did not know many of these things about Lesbos when I first visited it as one of the faculty mentors of a National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Experiences for Undergraduates … >>> Gonzalez Betancourt, V. H. American Entomologist, 69 (2), 38–39 (2023) Recent related articles in this category All articles in this category >>>