Let’s celebrate Australian Pollinator Week!

Good resources on pollination and the importance of invertebrates for healthy ecosystems

We’ve highlighted the excellent work done by Xerces in the past, which is the world’s largest insect-focussed organisation. This report describes the work Xerces is doing to address the alarming falls in insect populations by creating extensive large-scale habitat corridors – some of which are more than 6 miles long. 

Over 95% of the world’s animals are invertebrates, which includes pollinators. This report gives a lay person’s overview of a recent review of a range of insect groups from around the globe. The review found that over 40% of all insects are declining and a third are endangered.

Here in Australia, the Bush Blitz has discovered more than 1700 new fauna species and has added thousands of species records to what is already known since the program began in 2010.  Incredibly, forty-five per cent of continental Australia and over 90 per cent of our marine area have never been comprehensively surveyed by scientists. 

Some interesting Reads, Podcasts and Videos
Southern WA experienced an unusually rainy winter , which triggered an exceptional wildflower season this year. Mt Gibson is on Badimia Country and this beautiful video showcases the wildflowers blooming at Mt Gibson this Spring. 
“Mt Gibson also hosts one of the world’s most significant rewilding projects, a 7,800-hectare feral predator-free fenced area into which nine locally extinct mammal species have been reintroduced, including the Bilby, Numbat, and Woylie. Excitingly, the wildflower boom has also provided new opportunities for an ongoing collaboration with a threatened plant breeding program at Kings Park Botanic Garden in Perth. Senior Plant Breeder Digby Growns collects and develops native plants for cultivation, with a particular focus on rare and threatened plants. It’s the only conservation-based ornamental plant breeding program on the planet.”

This interview with University of Queensland entomologist Dr Trevor Lambkin delves into his labour of love documenting butterflies over 40 years in the Torres Strait and how his data could provide a key indicator of climate change impact on the Torres Strait islands.

We suggested reading Suzanne Simard’s book in the last newsletter. Even if you haven’t read the book, you will find this podcast ‘Forests Are Wired For Wisdom’ where Suzanne Simard talks about her work, really interesting.

Paul Stamets has shed new light on the importance of fungi for overall ecological health. In this video, he talks about how fungi may help alleviate colony collapse in bee hives.

And hot off the press, exciting news of the discovery of thousands of rare forest honeybees, the last wild descendants of Britains native honeybee population have been discovered in the ancient woodlands of Blenheim Palace.Until now, they had been thought to have disappeared due to disease and competition. Read more in ‘Wild heirs of lost British honeybee found at Blenheim.’