Examining the effects of urban park management on wild bees
We are currently studying the effects of mowing and management practices on wild bees in Metro Vancouver parks. To do this, we are comparing the plant and bee communities in 10 parks that are regularly mowed versus 10 parks that contain un-mowed, semi-natural spaces. To better monitor individual bee health in these environments, we are also tracking survival and reproductive output of wild bees that are nesting in pots of soil and open cavities that have been placed in protected enclosures at each park. By recording bee-plant interactions and by collecting pollen samples from bees in these parks, we will additionally examine the effects of park management on the network of relationships between plant and pollinator communities. Our overall goal is to discover the role of urban land management schemes on wild bee populations and their community dynamics.
Bees in the Anthropocene: The Large-Scale Impacts of Agricultural Innovation, Intensification, and Simplification on Bees and Other Pollinators
Using an amalgam of data from citizen science and museum collections, we are uncovering the effects of various agricultural practices on bee occupancy across North America. In particular, we are exploring the impacts of genetically modified crops (GMOs), crop homogenization, pesticide use, fertilizer use, and crop type on various pollinator populations. To measure this effect, we are employing Bayesian Hierarchical Occupancy models which allows us to account for the probability of detecting a pollinator as well as the probability of that pollinator occupies a space to predict overall pollinator occupancy. Our work will: provide key evidence for the macroecological impacts of anthropogenic drivers impacting pollinators and the ecological relationships existing between pollinators and update current conservation measures and agricultural practices.
Log-transformed pesticide load per kg per square kilometer overlain with the presence of bumble bee data per county in 1992. Data from Douglas et al. (2020).
PERCS: Perennial Plant Restoration for Carbon Sequestration in Canadian Agricultural Landscapes
Approximately 30% of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions (GHG’s) originate in agriculture. At the same time, agricultural land management holds unique opportunities to mitigate GHG emissions through carbon sequestration. The 2023 IPCC report identified carbon sequestration in agricultural landscapes as a promising option for GHG mitigation, especially over longer time scales. Perennial plantings, as windbreaks, hedgerows, riparian cover and woodlands, and as ground cover in field margins and between rows, have the potential to increase long term carbon sequestration and storage in Canadian agricultural landscapes. In addition to their role as carbon sinks, perennial plantings offer a suite of important ecological and socio-economic co-benefits. Hedgerows co-designed with Indigenous ecological knowledge keepers could have the additional co-benefit of supporting Indigenous food systems and reconciliation. However, research is needed to better understand how the species composition, configuration and location influence the benefits of perennial plantings, including their ability to sequester carbon over long time scales. In our novel research program, we test the hypothesis that ecological, social and economic benefits of plantings accrue faster by prioritizing landscape connectivity of new and existing perennial plantings in an agricultural region, for example through shared knowledge, community acceptance, enhanced marketing opportunities, savings on pesticides and managed pollinator costs, and health benefits from reduced agrochemical use. In partnership with 7 non-profit and governmental organizations, and with researchers across 4 Canadian universities, our unique inter-disciplinary research program will study the development and outcomes of perennial planting networks to increase national agricultural carbon sequestration and co-benefits through integrated networks of multi-farm perennial planting schemes. Our work will examine the ways that co-operation and co-benefits within and among communities can accelerate the adoption of perennial planting networks, offering a critical tool to rapidly transform the Canadian agricultural landscape towards a more sustainable future.
For more information, visit https://percs.landfood.ubc.ca/