What’s abuzz at the University of Calgary?
Thanks to a collaborative project between the Faculty of Science and Libraries and Cultural Resources (LCR), a new digital collection of native Albertan bee species is now available to researchers and bee lovers across the globe.
Dr. Paul Galpern, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, is interested in understanding bees and other beneficial insects as a means to promote conservation on agricultural and urban landscapes. The majority of the bees in this online resource were collected by members of his research group. Their work since 2015 has grown the university’s physical bee collection to over 100,000 specimens, making it one of the largest in Canada.
“Knowing which bees live in specific areas of our province or country can help answer questions like how to design cities for bees,” says Galpern. “Or how to select the right plants for pollinators in the designs we create.
“Most importantly,” he adds, “it can help us identify and protect endangered bee species like the Gypsy Cuckoo Bumble bee Bombus bohemicus, which was recently discovered in the Canyon Meadows area of Calgary.”
Continue reading at University of Calgary.
Image via University of Calgary.