May 5 2016

#779: Pollination: Bee Diversity and Abundance Survey

Alberta Innovates Technology Futures, Environment, Wildlife, Women in Science

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Bees are the perfect example of an organism that provides an essential ecosystem service.

At least one third of all our food is dependent on pollination by insects.

Dr. Jessamyn Manson studies bees at the University of Alberta.

Some of her current projects are supported by Alberta Innovates and the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute.

And for the past two years, she’s been researching the diversity and abundance of wild bees in Alberta.

DR JESSAMYN MANSON: This has never been done before and so it’s our first step at understanding how many bees we have and how their communities are structured And it’s going to help us understand how many ecosystems services are available across the province and also where our ecosystem services are potentially at risk. Our work with ABMI is actually done in canola fields. And we have a partner project that’s happening in sites close by in rangeland. So we’re working in two paired, agro-ecosystems. Highly managed ecosystems like canola fields, and less managed ecosystems like rangelands which provide a lot of wildflowers as well as habitat for the bees.

Dr. Jessamyn Manson says her graduate students have already collected over 18 thousand pollinators for identification

Thanks today to Alberta Innovates

FOR INNOVATION ANTHOLOGY
I’M CHERYL CROUCHER