Supporting biodiversity across landscapes
POLLINATOR-FRIENDLY ENERGY CORRIDORS
Although powerline and pipeline corridors are often perceived as areas of deforestation and disturbance, they often support a surprising diversity of wild pollinators. These sites often contain the habitat and floral resources needed by a diversity of wild pollinators. In comparison to nearby agricultural lands, pipeline and powerline Rights-of-Way corridors represent a unique opportunity to study and monitor and our wild and native bees. Through assessments of floral diversity and pollinator habitat along these working landscapes, we can gain the essential ecological knowledge needed to improve biodiversity along these landscapes, while maintaining safety and accessibility for corridor managers
PROTECTING URBAN BIODIVERSITY
Cities can often host a higher diversity of native bees than agricultural, and even some rural areas. However, the popularization of urban beekeeping represents a new threat to native pollinators in cities. Our director led a study focused on competition between wild and managed pollinators in the city of Montreal, where we found that that wild bee species richness declined significantly with an increase in honeybee abundance across sites and years. This work highlights the need for improved ecological planning in cities, in order to preserve urban biodiversity.
TRANSFORMING URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE INTO HABITAT
Assessments of the quality of wildlife management tools and practices are crucial to develop effective biodiversity conservation strategies in urban ecosystems. However, finding landowners willing to host long-term research study sites is a significant impediment to urban ecology. Using widespread urban infrastructure for research represents a unique and innovative solution to create habitat within highly urbanized areas. We are currently collaborating with researchers at the University of Montreal Biodiversity Research Institute (IRBV) to assess the effectiveness of pollinator nesting boxes on urban biodiversity. These nesting boxes aim to reduce environmental footprint of urban infrastructure, while supporting scientific research focused on biodiversity conservation.
WILD BEE MONITORING AND CONSERVATION
Our team has collected biodiversity data and identified thousands of native bee species on both the east and west coasts of Canada. In Montreal, we work with the taxonomists at the Institut de Recherche en Biologie Vegetale and the Ouellet-Robert Entomological Collection of the University of Montreal to categorize bee diversity across Canada. We are happy to contribute our data to provincial and national bee monitoring initiatives.
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