Fieldwork

Automated pollinator identification, community and interaction monitoring from video captures

Background In order to understand the processes behind the pollinator declines, besides monitoring species occurrences, we also have to focus on monitoring interactions. In addition to traditional trapping and observation methods, we should develop fast, reliable, and cheap automated methods which are capable of monitoring both species occurrences and interactions. Using cutting-edge tools in ecology, …

Fieldwork

Environmental impacts on bumblebees’ behaviour

Background In recent decades, the populations of pollinators have been declining worldwide. This is increased by anthropogenic background factors such as agrochemical pollution, degradation of natural habitats, noise, dust and heavy metal loads from roads. Anthropogenic noise is a type of pollution that has so far been little studied, but it has been proven to …

Bombus sp.

The Mind of a Bee

📚 A snippet from a book about the astonishing cognitive abilities of bee: “We humans have our senses of sight, hearing, smell, and taste neatly packaged into completely different sense organs (and we can’t additionally taste with our feet). This is clearly different in bees, whose antennae are as multifunctional as a Swiss Army knife! …