Insecticides can cause lasting harm across generations in bees. Meat-eating 'vulture bees' sport acidic guts. What the world can learn from Britain’s humble hedge.
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Conservation
What the world can learn from Britain’s humble hedge
(Knowable Magazine) Hedgerows are as British as fish and chips. Without these walls of woody plants cross-stitching the countryside into a harmonious quilt of pastures and crop fields, the landscape wouldn’t be the same. Over the centuries, numerous hedges were planted to keep in grazing livestock, and some of today’s are as historic as many old churches, dating back as far as 800 years. Today, Britain boasts about 700,000 kilometers (435,000 miles) of them, a length that surpasses that of its roads. In recent years, ecologists have come to view these man-made structures as important ecosystems in their own right. They form a vital reservoir of biodiversity in human-dominated landscapes where many species might otherwise struggle to survive. By nurturing pollinating insects, they can enhance the yield of crops. And they do it all while pulling carbon out of the atmosphere.
Europe’s butterflies are vanishing as small farms disappear
(National Geographic) Industrial farms and abandoned farms are both bad for butterflies. Intensive farming is clearly bad for biodiversity. But counterintuitively, too little human intervention harms the natural grassland ecosystems, too – through forest encroachment. Part of the reason why less intensive, traditional agricultural landscapes are so biodiverse is because they’re a mosaic: Fields, woodlots and orchards are bordered by rock walls, hedges, and uncultivated margins. The different human uses leave space for wild plants and animals, which find refuge in these interstitial zones. The result is a sort of domesticated wilderness.
New study shows which places must be protected to stave off catastrophic climate change
(Yale Environment 360) A new study maps out the old growth forests, peatlands, and mangroves that must be preserved to prevent catastrophic climate change. Though these areas cover only around 3% of land, they contain vast stores of carbon that, if unleashed, could not easily be recovered.
Economics
A blue-green bee from the boreal forest could help food production in northern Quebec
(CBC) A small native bee could help make Quebec’s north less dependent on fruit and vegetables flown in at high cost. Researchers at the Boreal Forest Experimentation and Development Center in Baie-Comeau, Quebec are studying whether the Osmia Tersula bee could help grow food in greenhouses in northern Quebec. “The Osmia has characteristics that are very similar to bumblebees, but the advantage is that they are a native species. We therefore avoid bringing a foreign species into northern communities.”
Beekeepers seek out resilient feral honey bees
(Farm and Dairy) Parasitic varroa mites are a serious threat to Ohio’s honey bees, but some populations of feral honey bees defend themselves by chewing off the mites’ legs and eating into their abdomens. That chewing behavior is one of the adaptations that a group of beekeepers is looking for as part of the Ohio Queen Bee Improvement Project. For several years, the beekeepers have been working to capture swarms of feral bees that are thriving without human help. Now they are hoping to use the superior genetics from those feral populations to develop more resilient captive bee colonies.
Policy/Law
Lawsuit aims to speed U.S. protection for foreign butterflies and birds
(Center for Biological Diversity) The Center for Biological Diversity has sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to propose Endangered Species Act protection for seven foreign wildlife species. The species – four butterflies and three birds – are parked on the Service’s “candidate” waiting list, where some have lingered unprotected for more than 30 years.
Republicans lawmakers in U.S. criticize recent EPA regulations
(Progressive Farmer) A group of 33 Republican legislators sent a letter to EPA on Monday, decrying the agency’s recent regulatory actions on several ag pesticides, including chlorpyrifos, glyphosate and atrazine. The letter also signals that the legislators will fight any future additional regulations on other herbicides, at a time when the agency is considering potential changes to dicamba use.
Science
Insecticides can reduce bee fertility, causing lasting harm across generations
(National Geographic) New research shows that one of the most widely used agricultural chemicals, a neonic called imidacloprid, does not just harm blue orchard bees immediately, but has negative effects that can be seen across generations. As described in the study, descendants of wild-caught bees exposed to small amounts of imidacloprid as larvae – from tainted pollen and nectar given to them by their mothers – produced 20% fewer offspring than blue orchard bees not exposed to the insecticide. Some of the bees were exposed more than once throughout life, and each exposure additionally reduced their fertility. “The effects are additive – you can’t just take one exposure at face value.”
When bees get a taste for dead things: Meat-eating ‘vulture bees’ sport acidic guts
(Phys.org, University of California - Riverside) Typically, bees don’t eat meat. However, a species of stingless bee in the tropics has evolved the ability to do so, presumably due to intense competition for nectar. Given their radical change in food choice, a team of UCR scientists wondered whether the vulture bees’ gut bacteria differed from those of a typical vegetarian bee. They differed quite dramatically, according to a study the team published recently.
(The Conversation) “We’ve all watched a honeybee fly past us and land on a nearby flower. But how does she know what she’s looking for? And when she leaves the hive for the first time, how does she even know what a flower looks like? Our paper... set out to discover whether bees have an innate ‘flower template’ in their minds, which allows them to know exactly what they are looking for even if they’ve never seen a flower before.”
Competition drives carpenter bees to share nests but often with unrelated individuals
(Twitter, Jess Vickruck @jessvickruck) “Eastern carpenter bees can live alone or in groups. Their nests are costly to create and are reused for many years. We marked individual bees, took a live DNA sample and tracked their movements across two summers... We found that when population density was high there were significantly more social nests in the population and that group sizes were larger... Even more interesting, when females came together to form social groups, they were made up of largely unrelated individuals!” Original paper
Computer vision model gets entomologists, bumble bee buffs all abuzz
(Kansas State University) A Kansas State University project that harnesses the power of artificial intelligence and the curiosity of nature lovers may just be the bee’s knees for saving one of the world’s most efficient pollinators. The BeeMachine uses computer vision to identify North American bumble bee species with images submitted from public databases and ordinary citizens. As of summer 2021, the database has more than 125,000 images and feeds a computer algorithm that its creator hopes will break a bottleneck in getting important research data to conservationists and others who put that knowledge to use.
(ScienceDaily, University of California - Riverside) In high enough concentrations, milkweed can kill a horse, or a human. To be able to eat this plant, monarchs evolved a set of unusual cellular mutations. New research shows the animals that prey on monarchs also evolved these same mutations.
Society/Culture
After years of pushing for prairie strips, this ecologist won a MacArthur ‘Genius Grant’
(Civil Eats) Ecologist Lisa Schulte Moore is changing the agricultural landscape one prairie strip at a time. These swathes of native prairie strategically planted on farmland as contour buffers or edge-of-field filters are an ecological wonder. Not only do they help control erosion and mitigate climate change, but they also improve soil health, water quality, and biodiversity. And few have done more to promote their use than Schulte Moore, who has worked across communities and disciplines to bring the benefits of prairie strips to the Corn Belt and beyond.
UCR publishes book on Costa Rican bees to raise awareness
(The Costa Rica News) As part of its commitment to defend the environment and food security of the country, the University of Costa Rica has published the book “Bees of Costa Rica”. In Costa Rica there are 700 species of bees, responsible for pollination in wild ecosystems, agriculture and domestic gardens. The distribution of the book is being done virtually and is free.
One More Thing…
The winners of the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards will brighten your day
(NPR) The Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards have been unearthing hilarious and heartwarming photos of creatures basically being their best selves since 2015. And this year is no exception.