Follow us:
Subscribe to our e-newsletter

logo

  • Energy
  • Construction
  • Resources
  • Projects
  • Products and Services
  • Events
  • Online Magazine
  • Advertise
  • Contact
Home
  • Energy
  • Construction
  • Resources
  • Projects
  • Products
  • Events
  • Online Magazine
  • Advertise
  • Contact

Bees native to WA under threat from growing urbanisation, study finds

08 Feb, 2021
20
Picture credit: Kit Prendergrast. Image courtesy of Curtin University.


Residential gardens are a poor substitute for native bushland and increasing urbanisation is a growing threat when it comes to bees, Curtin University researchers have discovered.

Published in the journal, Urban Ecosystems, the research looked at bee visits to flowers, which form pollination networks across different native bushland and home garden habitats.

Lead author, Forrest Foundation Scholar Miss Kit Prendergast, from Curtin’s School of Molecular and Life Sciences, said the findings highlight the need to prevent the destruction of remaining bushland and preserve native vegetation, in order to protect sustainable bee communities and their pollination services.

“Our study involved spending hundreds of hours at 14 sites on the Swan Coastal Plain at Perth, Western Australia, recording which bees visited which flowers in the two types of habitats – gardens and native bushland,” Miss Prendergast said.

“From these bee-plant interactions I was able to map pollination networks, which could be analysed to determine how ‘healthy’ each habitat was for bees and the pollination services it provided, as well as how much potential competition there was between different bee groups, such as between introduced European honeybees and native bee groups.”

“We found residential gardens were structurally different to those in bushland remnants, and the increasing loss of these native areas for residential development could disrupt important bee-plant interactions,” she explained.

Miss Prendergast said while bushland remnants were more favourable environments for thriving pollination networks of bees and flowers, the chance of bee populations completely disappearing from an area was higher than in residential gardens.

“This suggests that, if disrupted for urban development, bee and plant populations in native bushland remnants would be even more prone to extinctions,” she said.

“The research shows the importance of bushland preservation to the survival and health of bee populations and the broader ecosystems.”

“This has implications for the conservation of wild bee populations in this biodiversity hotspot, and suggests removal of remnant native vegetation for residential development could disrupt the balance and integrity of local ecosystems and lead to extinctions,” Miss Prendergast concluded.

Co-authored by Professor Jeff Ollerton from the University of Northampton, the full paper, ‘Plant-pollinator networks in Australian urban bushland remnants are not structurally equivalent to those in residential gardens’, can be found online here.

Related Articles

Market Square

Market Square to be one of SA’s first all-electric workplaces

Heliostat technology shines at Rhodes Central

Heliostat technology shines at Rhodes Central

Metro and CEFC shoot for the stars with new greener homes

Metro and CEFC shoot for the stars with new greener homes

Leigh Creek Energy to be carbon neutral from 2022

Leigh Creek Energy to be carbon neutral from 2022

Comments

Leave a comment Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Latest Posts

  • Energy
  • Construction
  • Resources
30 Jun

AEMO releases energy roadmap to phase out coal generation

30 Jun

Cairns charging up with new network-connected battery

30 Jun

MGA Thermal announces breakthrough in storage technology

29 Jun

Survey shows majority of Australians want investment in renewables

29 Jun

New renewably-powered desalination plant planned for Alkimos

23 Jun

Cities of the future may be built with algae-grown limestone

22 Jun

Global sophisticated green building designs awarded

22 Jun

A national environmental impact standard to measure embodied carbon

15 Jun

Australian cities falling behind global cities on sustainability according to 2022 Sustainable Cities Index

14 Jun

Only timber can tackle climate change – timber and the latest construction technology

29 Jun

Binding methane with metal: a new hope for recycling the potent fossil fuel

29 Jun

WA’s first Clean Energy Future Fund project now operational

29 Jun

New battery and critical minerals prospectus to power investment

29 Jun

Australian-German business coalition produces a roadmap for large scale green hydrogen import to Germany

24 Jun

Farmers say food supply must come before gas export industry

Online Magazine

    Current Cover
  • Login
  • Subscribe

Subscribe

Subscribe to our newsletter

Our Titles

  • Home
  • Contact Us
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy
© Sage Media Group 2022 All Rights Reserved.
×
Authorization
  • Registration
 This feature has been disabled
 This feature has been disabled until further notice, however you may still register
×
Registration
  • Autorization
Register
* All fields required