UC Davis Alumnus John Mola: ‘The Significance of Forests in Bumble Bee Biology and Conservation’ – Entomology & Nematology Information

John Mola

“A rising physique of proof means that forests might play an essential function in bumble bee life historical past,” says a workforce of scientists led by UC Davis alumnus and analysis ecologist John Mola in a newly printed article, “The Significance of Forests in Bumble Bee Biology and Conservation,” the quilt story within the present version of the journal Bioscience. 

Mola, a U.S. Geological Survey Mendenhall Postdoctoral Fellow based mostly on the Fort Collins Science Heart, Colorado, and a former member of the Neal Williams laboratory, UC Davis Division of Entomology and Nematology, authored the analysis evaluate article with colleagues Jeremy Hemberger, a postdoctoral researcher within the Williams lab; Jade Kochanski of the College of Wisconsin, Madison;  Leif Richardson of the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation; and UC Davis alumnus Ian Pearse of the Fort Collins Science Heart.

Photographer Diego Delso took the quilt picture exhibiting a Bombus terrestris, a buff-tailed bumble bee that is among the most quite a few bumble bee species in Europe. He captured the picture on a pink mulla mulla, Ptilotus exaltatus, in Estonia.

The summary:

“Declines of many bumble bee species have raised issues due to their significance as pollinators and potential harbingers of declines amongst different insect taxa. At current, bumble bee conservation is predominantly centered on midsummer flower restoration in open habitats. Nevertheless, a rising physique of proof means that forests might play an essential function in bumble bee life historical past. In contrast with open habitats, forests and woody edges present meals sources throughout phenologically distinct intervals, are sometimes most well-liked nesting and overwintering habitats, and might provide favorable abiotic situations in a altering local weather. Future analysis efforts are wanted so as to anticipate how ongoing adjustments in forests, equivalent to overbrowsing by deer, plant invasions, and shifting cover demographics, have an effect on the suitability of those habitats for bumble bees. Forested habitats are more and more appreciated within the life cycles of many bumble bees, they usually deserve higher consideration from those that want to perceive bumble bee populations and support of their conservation.”

They identified that “Bumble bee conservation and administration has garnered appreciable consideration due to bees’ function as pollinators of economically and ecologically essential crops and wild vegetation. The precipitous decline of a number of bumble bee species has been documented within the twenty-first century, elevating alarm concerning the viability of those charismatic species (Cameron and Sadd 2020). Due to this, bumble bees have develop into a focal taxon for understanding and stopping the lack of insect biodiversity extra broadly (Goulson and Nicholls 2016, Wagner et al. 2021). Threats to bumble bee populations embody habitat loss, novel pathogen publicity, local weather change, and pressures from intensive agriculture, equivalent to pesticide functions (Cameron and Sadd 2020). One of many main duties for bumble bee conservation is creating a higher understanding of the habitat necessities of species all through their life cycle and incorporating that information into restoration and administration plans.” See extra right here.

An invited participant on the Western Bumble Bee Species Standing Evaluation Skilled Group and the Native Bee Monitoring Analysis Coordination Community, Mola can also be an organizing member  (since 2020) of BOMBUSS: Constructing Our Strategies by Utilizing Sound Science.

Mola, who holds a bachelor of science diploma in environmental research from Florida State College, and a grasp’s diploma in biology from Humboldt State College, obtained his doctorate in ecology in 2019 from UC Davis. He offered his exit seminar on “Bumble Bee Motion Ecology and Response to Wildfire.” 

Mola additionally was a UC Davis Professors for the Future Fellow, receiving a yr {of professional} improvement and pedagogical coaching. His honors additionally embody a 2013-2018 Nationwide Science Basis Graduate Analysis Fellowship of $133,500 and a 2014-2016 UC Davis Graduate Group in Ecology Fellowship of $43,000. He received the graduate pupil analysis poster competitors on the 2018 UC Davis Bee Symposium for his work on  “Bumble Bee Motion and Panorama Genetics.”