We discuss various strategies for locating nests of the rare and endangered above-ground nesting bumblebee species Bombus muscorum. Although we did not find any nests, we were able to track bees marked with paper strips for up to 800 m. @jki-research.bsky.social @nabu.de doi.org/10.1111/icad...

Locating nests of endangered bumble bees: Lessons from field trials in northern Germany

Tracking bumble bees to find their nests using coloured strips of paper stuck to their thorax proved to be the most suitable method, while radio transponders were too heavy. Tracking times of up to .....

doi.org

Cool approach to use expert-elicited tree attractiveness scores. Would be could to match them with field-derived data in the future.

Alexa Varah@alexavarah.bsky.social · 7mo ago

⚡New paper! ⚡from my student @ellenknight.bsky.social on how to integrate new land cover classes into ecological models so we can predict the #biodiversity impacts. We illustrate this for UK agroforestry & pollinators 🐝🌳: tinyurl.com/3yp26eu5 @ukceh.bsky.social @uor-research.bsky.social @nhm.org

Seeing the actual numbers plotted takes the shock and disbelief to the next level... @wbrazelton.bsky.social

David Ho@davidho.bsky.social · 7mo ago

This is the most astonishing graph of what the Trump regime has done to US science. They have destroyed the federal science workforce across the board. The negative impacts on Americans will be felt for generations, and the US might never be the same again. www.nature.com/immersive/d4...

Happy to share our latest publication with you. 🧵 Trees are often overlooked as relevant bee forage ressources. Realising that there is relatively little known about bees in flowering tree canopies, we searched for data and methodologies to tackle this gap. @jki-research.bsky.social

JPE - Journal of Pollination Ecology@jpollecol.bsky.social · 7mo ago

FIT for purpose? Sampling Bees in Flowering Canopies with Flight Interception Traps (FITs) by Krahner et al. provides methodological advice on how to best sample pollinators in tree canopies. doi.org/10.26786/192...

🥁 Wer wird Vogel des Jahres 2026? Das digitale Wahllokal hat ab sofort für euch geöffnet und jetzt kommt es auf deine Stimme an. 💌 Waldohreule, Schleiereule, Amsel, Zwergtaucher oder Rebhuhn – Wer wird dieses Jahr an die Spitze flattern? 👉 Jetzt abstimmen auf www.vogeldesjahres.de

woah this is genuinely, utterly WILD Ant queens of one species produce males of another species, so she can then mate with them and produce hybrid workers! This is so gloriously weird I can't quite compute it 🤯🧪🐜 www.nature.com/articles/d41...

‘Almost unimaginable’: these ants are different species but share a mother

Ant queens of one species clone ants of another to create hybrid workers that do their bidding.

nature.com

This is hot!! doi.org/10.1016/j.uc... One of the puzzle pieces to predict future urban bee community composition...

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)@kit.edu · 12mo ago

Hitzebelastung in Städten metergenau sichtbar gemacht: Forschende von #KITKarlsruhe und @uni-freiburg.de haben mithilfe von #KI hochauflösend und über lange Zeiträume berechnet, wie sich die #Hitzebelastung in einem Stadtgebiet künftig pro Quadratmeter entwickelt. www.kit.edu/kit/pi_2025_...

Honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) and wild bee resource competition: how big is this problem? Spoiler: not a very big problem. Pike & Rittschof 2025 doi.org/10.1093/icb/... #apidologie #beeresearch #beescience #science #biology #environment #beekeeping #bees

Honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) and wild bee resource competition: how big is this problem?

Abstract. The Western honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) has been managed by humans for centuries for honey, wax, and most recently, crop pollination. The deep

doi.org

Interesting study by the @isaacslab.bsky.social showing the need for drift-reducing agricultural application techniques in order to mitigate risks for pollinators academic.oup.com/ee/article/5...

Entomological Society of America@entsocamerica.bsky.social · 12mo ago

Wildflower plantings near crop fields are a common tool for attracting pollinators, but a new study shows pesticide applications to crops are likely to drift as far as 100 feet into these wildflower zones, potentially harming the very pollinators they're meant to attract.

Great to read this synthesis on how effective promotion measurements for urban pollinators really are! They work! Sadly, there is no data on perennial plantings yet - watch this space.

Dave Goulson@davegoulson.bsky.social · 12mo ago

New Europe-wide study finds that efforts to provide pollinator habitat in urban areas - such as sowing wildflower mixes - really do work, boosting numbers of bees and butterflies: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

If you can, please donate to help with funeral costs and supporting her family. RIP Sheila Colla. www.gofundme.com/f/support-sh...

Donate to Support Sheila Colla Through Cancer Treatment, organized by Anna Penner

There is a good chance that you already know Sheila Colla: she is a brillian… Anna Penner needs your support for Support Sheila Colla Through Cancer Treatment

gofundme.com

I'd like to see our opinion paper to be a starting point for a wider discussion before monitoring methodology is written in stone.

Julius Kühn Institute (JKI)@jki-research.bsky.social · last yr.

The revised EU Pollinator Monitoring Scheme #EUPoMS suggests standardised methods, but lacks strong evidence for key choices. The authors from JKI urge clarification on excluding pan traps to maintain scientific integrity and public trust in the scheme. doi.org/10.26786/192... tinyurl.com/3rt2ewce

Researchers at our Institute for #Bee Protection are currently collecting data on the occurrence of honeybees and wild bees in agricultural landscapes. Systematic data collection over several years will provide a robust reference for future interval monitoring. #WorldBeeDay www.julius-kuehn.de/en/bs

Great to have you here @jki-research.bsky.social

Julius Kühn Institute (JKI)@jki-research.bsky.social · last yr.

👋🥳 The #JKI team, with more than 1,300 staff members, says “Hi” to the #PlantScience community here! We are looking forward to presenting the #research from our 18 specialised institutes across 9 sites in Germany. 🔬 Discover more: www.julius-kuehn.de/en/structure 🎥 youtu.be/ne4yfS3vYNs @bmel.de

Ok, so I know all bees are incredible creatures, and it's a brave human who ranks them. But surely this blue carpenter bee would be near the top? This is Xylocopa tumida and she is gorgeous. 1/3

[new paper] EuPPollNet: A European Database of Plant-Pollinator Networks onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... Another wonderful paper of @joseblanuza.bsky.social making open more than >1500 networks and looking at their properties. Come for the data, stay for the cool figures!

EuPPollNet: A European Database of Plant‐Pollinator Networks

Motivation Pollinators play a crucial role in maintaining Earth's terrestrial biodiversity. However, rapid human-induced environmental changes are compromising the long-term persistence of plant-pol...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

2025 starts with a methodology publication by Ștefan et al. on Utilising affordable smartphones and open-source time-lapse photography for pollinator image collection and annotation - Happy new year! doi.org/10.26786/192...

Kürzlich ist ein Wildbienen-Artikel erschienen 🐝🐝 Autor*innen: Thomas Fechtler, Hanna Gardein (Julius-Kühn-Institut), Felix Kirsch @thuenen.de, Friederike Grau & Annika Haß @funcagroeco.bsky.social @unigoettingen.bsky.social & Fionn Pape. ▶️ www.researchgate.net/publication/...

The world's richest man has joined a growing chorus of right-wing voices attacking Wikipedia as part of an intensifying campaign against free and open access information. Why do they hate it so much?

Elon Musk and the right’s war on Wikipedia

The world's richest man has joined a growing chorus of right-wing voices attacking Wikipedia as part of an intensifying campaign against free and open access information.

citationneeded.news

A deep dive into an old box file has unexpectedly resulted in a possible answer to the question: what was the first online database of plant-pollinator interactions? jeffollerton.co.uk/2025/01/07/w... #bees #pollinators #biodiversity #ecology #botany #History

Was this the first online database of plant-pollinator interactions?

Over the past few years, the ways in which we collate and use large databases of plant-pollinator interactions, and make them publicly available according to FAIR data principles, has been much on …

jeffollerton.co.uk

Butterflies and moths use The (electrostatic) Force to transfer pollen to and from nearby flowers. New on Sciworthy! #SciComm #ecology #ecosystems sciworthy.com/butterflies-...

Butterflies use electrostatic force to pollinate

Two biologists showed that butterflies and moths generate enough electrostatic charge to attract pollen grains from nearby flowers, but they might attract predators in the process.

sciworthy.com

A biting buzz: Thanks to Sigma Xi and New Scientist for covering our work on how #bees bite flowers to transmit vibrations to flowers during buzz pollination! www.americanscientist.org/article/a-bi...

A Biting Buzz

Bees transfer vibrations better and increase pollen rewards when they grasp flowers with their mandibles.

americanscientist.org

New study: #CropDiversification can help pollinators without taking land out of agricultural production, but only some #pollinator species may benefit. We highlight mechanisms on the spatial and temporal #diversity of crops. Led by Thijs Fijen @w-u-r.bsky.social

Crop diversification for pollinator conservation - Landscape Ecology

Context Intensive agriculture drives insect decline impacting insect-mediated ecosystem services that support production. Crop diversification shows promise in increasing crop productivity and enhanci...

link.springer.com

"Fieldwork-based research and education in ecology are under multiple threats and are progressively declining." This issue is linked to the erosion of natural history training in general.

Jean-Marc Bonzom@jmbonzom.bsky.social · 2y ago

Extinction of experience among ecologists dlvr.it/THHFk2

An inspirational study that everyone interested in the thermal ecology of bees and their responses to environmental warming should read. I'll most likely borrow some of the elegant methods used here, and put them to work with some wild bees next summer 😉 doi.org/10.1242/jeb....

Bees remain heat tolerant after acute exposure to desiccation and starvation

Summary: Sublethal desiccation exposure and short-term starvation do not significantly affect heat tolerance in honey bees and sweat bees.

doi.org

Come join us at the University of Bristol! Lecturer/senior lecturer position in the school of Biological Sciences www.bristol.ac.uk/jobs/find/de...

What are the barriers and enablers for smallholders in Western Kenya to increase tree diversity on farms? Read our post in advance of @peopleandnature.bsky.social paper relationalthinkingblog.com/2024/12/18/p... Paper amazingly led by Ennia Bosshard! @uniexecec.bsky.social @isleconserv.bsky.social 🌍

Plain Language Summary: What are the barriers and enablers for smallholders in Western Kenya to increase tree diversity on farms?

Photo by Anne Spratt on Unsplash. By Ennia Bosshard, Harrison Carter, Lillian Aluso, Reuben Chumba, Christopher N. Kaiser-Bunbury, Chris JKettle, Ana Nuno. This Plain Language summary is published …

relationalthinkingblog.com

New records of predation by Vespa velutina on wild pollinators in Asturias. We have observed Vespa velutina preying not only on honeybees but also on other species, including Colletes hederae, Epeolus fallax and Vespula vulgaris. www.entomologica.es/publicacione... @entomoprofessor.bsky.social

Join Óscar Aguado and me for "KNOW YOUR BEES," an introductory course on bee taxonomy and ecology Location: Botanical Garden of Barcelona Date: March 10-13, 2025 Call Opening: January 10th, 2025 Application Deadline: January 31st, 2025

INC-STEP Reference Collection@incstep.bsky.social · 2y ago

Are you interested in bees 🐝? Then don't miss THIS! Next year, the Arthropoda collection of @museuciencies.cat, as part of #INCSTEP @tettris.eu, is holding a course on bee taxonomy and ecology at @ibb-botanic.bsky.social 🌻🌳🌱 Registrations open soon. Stay tuned! 🔗 t.ly/9G_im

The arctic is now more of a source of greenhouse gasses than a sink. (The same goes for northern forests.) Along with accelerating climate change, this also highlights the extent of habitat disruption and negative effects on biodiversity in those regions. 🧪 🌎 insideclimatenews.org/news/1112202...

Arctic Tundra Shifts to Source of Climate Pollution, According to New Report Card - Inside Climate News

NOAA scientists and affiliated researchers have documented profound change in the frozen north as U.S. government science itself faces an uncertain future.

insideclimatenews.org