September-2: Native Bees, CA Fires, + More
"Weekly" recap of environment and climate news from September 7-22, 2024.
Sorry that this week’s edition is LATE, I’ve been on vacation! Typical of me to start a consistent project and immediately drop the ball. Anyway, the news wrap-up is still on, and it has been eventful. Now you get 2 weeks of news!
My special little bee article will be posted soon. Like I said before, you’re not gonna want to miss it! I also have an article about energy use, renewables, and why we missed the boat on nuclear power, out this week as well! Thank you, readers, for your patience and I hope you find this informational! I almost said “I hope you enjoy",” but considering the news, I think it’s better if we not enjoy the destruction of our world.
Native Bees + Native Plants = Healthy, Biodiverse Gardens
If you didn’t know, I’m in graduate school studying biology/ecology. In my first class, I was able to do a small-scale research project on a topic of my choosing, and because I love studying the relationships between organisms, I decided to study bee pollination.
First, I have a question for you. When planting flowers, do you generally choose the flowers based on what you like or what the wildlife in your area likes?
If I had to guess, the poll would show that personal preference often overrides planting based on ecological benefits. The garden is an extension of our house, so it should reflect personal style! However, personal style and utility to wildlife, especially pollinators, can go hand-in-hand.
For my project, I wanted to compare the number of bees that visit a selection of native plants vs non-native plants. I live in Chicago, so I chose 10 flowers that were present in my yard to observe for bee visitation during July 2024. These flowers were paired based on appearance characteristics, such as color, number of flowers, height, etc.
You can explore the gallery below with some images of the flowers for full context.
I was able to observe over a thousand bees over the course of the study, which feels like a lot for a tiny urban yard!
What I discovered in my project was that the bees (most of them native bees) highly preferred native species. Due to their evolutionary connection, this makes perfect sense. These native bees have evolved alongside native plants for hundreds to thousands of years. These ancient links can get disturbed, though, when non-native and invasive species colonize an area. This is why it is so important to understand not just the identification of a species, or it’s needs, but its’ native range, what pollinators it attracts (if any), and many other factors. We can protect and conserve biodiversity, even in the smallest of gardens, by promoting these evolutionary links and reducing the impact of invasive species.
To spare you from the 20 full pages of my paper, here’s what I think you need to know.
Investigating Chicago Native Bee Preferences (Sanchez-Dudik, 2024 - unpublished)
The U.S. is home to 3,657 species of bees, including bumblebees, honey bees, stingless bees, and solitary bees (1).
The largest issues that native bees face are habitat fragmentation/loss and pesticide use
Urban environments have a high diversity of bees, but also a greater population of non-native plants and animals, increasing competition (2)
Non-native honey bees have a negative effect on plant fitness by lower quality pollination, as well as altering plant communities over time by pollinating non-native flowers. This negatively affects native bees as they must compete with honey bees
Some non-native flowers can be great resources for bees, but some can be extremely invasive, showy, and less nutritionally valuable
Invasive species are one of the 5 leading causes of biodiversity loss (3)
The results in the table and figure below show that more total bees visited native plants, with the Virginia Mountain Mint and Anise Hyssop coming out on top for bee visits. Lesser Calamint and Spearmint were the two most visited non-natives, both having highly attractive features to bees.
Let me give you some information about native (mostly Midwestern) bees, because I find it absolutely fascinating.
The U.S. is home to 3,657 species of bees, all of which play key roles in the environment and are being effected by climate change and human actions. There’s a few categories of bees, based on how social they live. There are eusocial bees, like bumble bees, stingless bees, and non-native honeybees, that live in a hive together and work collectively. There are also solitary bees (sweat bees, yellow-faced bees, mason bees, and leaf-cutter bees) that live completely on their own and only come together to mate.
Chicago Bees Profile
Info from: IL Bees
Solitary Bees
Bumble bees — Bombus species
Active during: spring to late fall
Nesting site: cavities like rodent burrows
Type of forager: generalist
Eastern Carpenter bee — Xylocopa virginica
Active during: spring to fall
Nesting site: exposed wood
Type of forager: prefer large/open-faced flowers
Small Carpenter bees — Ceratina sp.
Active during: early spring to fall
Nesting site: dead stems
Type of forager: generalist
Yellow-faced bees — Hylaeus sp.
Active during: late spring to late summer
Nesting site: pre-existing tunnels / stems + twigs
Type of forager: generalist
Mining bees — Andrenidae sp.
Active during: early spring to fall
Nesting site: ground
Type of forager: specialist or generalist
Long-horned bees — Melissodes sp.
Active during: mid-summer to fall
Nesting site: ground
Type of forager: preference for sunflowers and asters
Leaf-cutter bees — Megachilidae sp.
Active during: early to late summer
Nesting site: pre-existing cavities
Type of forager: most generalist, some specialist for aster and pea families
Plasterer/Polyester/Cellophane bees — Colletidae sp.
Active during: spring to fall
Nesting site: ground
Type of forager: specialist
Mason bees — Osmia sp.
Active during: spring to early summer
Nesting site: pre-existing cavities
Type of forager: generalist
Eusocial Bees
Non-native European/Western Honey bee — Apis mellifera
Active during: early spring to late fall
Nesting site: cavities, beehives
Type of forager: generalist
Honey bees are native to Europe, western Asia, and Africa, only introduced to other regions in the 17th century because of beekeeping. This means that they reinforce the invasion of non-native plant species, as they have evolutionary links to these species from their native range.
Non-native honey bees have been found to be less effective pollinators than native bees in the U.S., even though greenwashing efforts in “Save the Bees” movements make it seem like honey bees are the best bees. We should be saving NATIVE bees, as honey bees are not struggling and are found worldwide. For the conservation of plant-pollinator networks and maintaining pollination of crops, we must focus our efforts on native bees, not honey bees.
Generalist bees, which comprise most of Chicago’s bees, can feed on a variety of flowers, which specialists are limited to a few. As you probably noticed, many of the bees have different nesting sites and times of activity. There is no one size fits all for planning for bees, instead you have to focus on the best options for your local populations of bees AND plants.
Urban environments have been found to have a high diversity of bees, even in fragmented areas, so these areas of urban bee habitat must be protected and expanded. Urban ecosystems also contain a higher amount of non-native plant and animal species, leading to increased competition with native species for resources and space. Learning to identify and remove invasive species in your own garden should be a regular part of your gardening routine, if it isn’t already! (Just do it naturally by weeding - anything you spray will effect the insects!) By conserving the symbiotic relationship between native pollinators and native plants, you can create a high quality, biodiverse natural space.
In my study of native bees, I found a few key points that help to provide habitat for bees in ways that may be overlooked by surface level design. My guidance for planting with bees in mind involves 3 easy to accomplish steps.
Plant densely
Solitary bees have reduced foraging ranges, so density in flower resources allows bees to not travel as far. This reduces interaction with competitors and human infrastructure. It also means less work for you, since established perennials after a few years require lower maintenance than exotic plants.
Plant for all seasons and pollinator life cycles
As you can see in the bee profiles above, different species need food and shelter during different parts of the year. By providing flowers and habitat in all 4 seasons, we can help the most amount of bees! During the warm seasons, they need abundant and diverse floral resources. In the winter, they need safe, undisturbed habitat. For solitary bees, that means leaving standing dead perennials and annuals that will hollow out and become refuges for hibernating bees and a variety of insects! Even if it looks messy, these plants are not just sitting there, they’re homes to insects. Considering a bee’s life cycle is also important, because if a bee can live it’s entire life from egg to death in one garden, that’s a great sign that the garden is a successful space for native species.
Plant with structural diversity
In my study, I found that some bees struggled to find flowers because they were strictly looking for them in one zone of the garden, usually at ground-level, and not in other heights. That resulted in bees wasting time looking for flowers that were available, just not on the garden’s surface. Based on this observation, it would be ideal to plant with structural diversity in mind, that is, planting species with differing heights. This could include groundcover, middle-height (like Culver’s Root), and tall flowering plants (like Sunflowers or Hyssop). This provides for a high diversity of pollinators, more than just bees.
Gardening and conserving bees goes hand in hand. I think that treating our garden spaces to be as sacred as national parks is the mindset we must begin to embrace NOW, before more bee species are lost. No more pesticides or herbicides, and no more invasive species planting, even if just in part of your yard. A great initiative on this subject is Homegrown National Park, building a network of yards across the country that are devoted to conserving native species and biodiversity.
Bees benefit from native plants, but so do humans! There are many resources in finding native plants in your area, such as the USDA Plant Database. I’ve also made a fairly comprehensive guide to native AND invasive plants in the Chicagoland, which I would love for you to check out and share if you live in the area. I’ve put a lot of love and time into it, and probably will add even more to it in the coming months. Click the button below to check it out!
September 7th-16th News Recap
Francine made landfall in Louisiana in the evening of September 11th as a Category 2 hurricane.
Within an hour of landfall, 100,000 power outages were reported (4). Outages at their maximum reached 365,000 customers (5). 6-8 inches fell on some areas of New Orleans, with severe flooding affecting many areas in the storm’s path. In one town, Kenner, 264 homes flooded (6).
Due to the storm, some oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico were shut down and 24 offshore stations evacuated (7). 12% of crude oil and 16% of natural gas in the Gulf were offline after Francine passed through (7).
Francine is the 5th storm in the past 5 years to hit Louisiana (5). With continued storms, damages build up and can devastate communities. Insurance is becoming unaffordable for residents, with up to 25% being uninsured, leaving the fate of their homes up to the weather (8). With the elections coming up soon, it really feels like the issues that truly are impacting the most people, like repeated climate change-related damage and trauma, are not being addressed. Just something to think about!
Californian Wildfires
According to Cal Fire’s current incident reports, there have been 6,195 wildfires in 2024 as of Sept. 16th and 994,837 acres burned (9). That’s about 10,000 acres larger than Rhode Island, and more than 3 times larger than the size of Los Angeles.
High winds and low humidity provide the perfect conditions for fires to spread. One thing to remember is the fire triangle, a concept that states that fires need 3 things to start: oxygen, fuel, and heat. Oxygen is provided by the air and winds, while heat is provided by the sun and weather. Fuel is the burnable objects that fire feeds off of, such as alive and dead trees, underbrush, grasses, and other vegetation. Fires need all three of these factors to burn, and if one is removed, it can be put out. If a fire runs out of fuel, rain and cool temperatures arrive, or small fires are smothered, this is the fire triangle at work.
*Note: I updated the following 3 fire statistics to be time accurate, but other parts of the Sept. 7th-16th news recap were written prior to Sept. 22.*
Three large wildfires near Los Angeles sparked during the recent brutal heatwave and record high temperatures (covered in September-1!). The Line, Bridge, and Airport fires have burned a combined 117,628 acres, an area little bigger than the size of San Jose.
The Line Fire started on Sept. 5th in San Bernadino county, is 60% contained, and has burned 39,232 acres (10). This fire was started by arson, an unusual cause to a wildfire as most are started by lightning strikes (10).
The Bridge Fire, in Los Angeles and San Bernadino counties, started on Sept. 8th by unknown causes. As of writing this (September 22), it is 69% contained and has burned 54,877 acres (11).
The Airport Fire, in Riverside and Orange counties, started on Sept. 9th, is 74% contained, and has burned 23,519 acres (12). It’s cause is equipment. There was also a pretty bad crash of firefighters on the highway one night, with some injuries.
Flooding in Europe
Boris, an extreme storm in Europe that developed over the past few days, has resulted in severe flooding and at least 12 fatalities over Central Europe (13). More moisture in the atmosphere due to the greenhouse effect is fueling repeated storm events and heavy rain all over the globe.
September 17th-21st News Recap
Thwaites Glacier
You may have heard of the ‘Doomsday’ glacier in Antarctica, the Thwaites glacier. Although environmental skeptics have claimed that those studying this glacier are crying wolf, anybody who knows about climate change understands that it is a gradual process on the scale of thousands to millions of years, not an immediate change. This glacier is indeed melting, maybe it won’t collapse tomorrow, but when it does, we know it will raise global sea levels by 25.59 in / 65 cm (14). It is a domino in a long line of climate change-related Earth system disruptions, always looming. A reminder of our mistakes, with consequences yet to come.
Thwaites is the widest glacier in the world, measured to be as big as Florida, and has been leaking melted ice water at an increasingly alarming rate. The International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration (ITGC) is studying the glacier and trying to model and predict it’s retreat, as well as the expected impacts due to sea level rises on coasts around the globe (14). New studies show that Thwaites and the surrounding West Antarctic Ice Sheet could be lost by the 23rd century, only 176 years away. That’s a few generations…in the grand scheme of things, it may as well be tomorrow.
Moo Deng
You know her, you love her… Moo Deng is doing great. That’s the update.
Thanks so much for your patience in this double edition, from now on I’m sticking to the weekly. Although I’m going to keep posting free articles because I want people to be able to read this info and share it with the maximum amount of people, I do want to say that subscribing for the paid version will genuinely help me as a struggling grad student who just wants people to care about our Earth.
Please share with your friends as well! I’ll keep doing the work of gathering all the most pressing stories to make it easier to understand these environmental problems.
Selections for You
Some news stories are better to just read from the source!
Emerald ash borers have made it to the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Anyone in the Midwest or East Coast knows how damaging they are. Experts recommend diversifying forests and not bringing woody materials (like campfire logs) between regions to reduce spread.
The misleadingly named ‘Fix Our Forests Act’ would do anything but
I would love to delve deeper into the topic of historical wildfire management and how it set the stage for our current problems with wildfire management, but for now, this article highlight an extremely important developing situation in congress. The ‘Fix Our Forests Act’ is nothing more than a way for Republicans to make more money for lumber companies and completely obstruct environmental scientists from addressing this problem efficiently.
Sources
Lesko, M. M. (2023). https://pollenpaths.com/classification-of-a-bee/#google_vignette
Gruver, A. and P. CaraDonna. (2021). Chicago Bees: Urban Areas Support Diverse Bee Communities but With More Non-Native Bee Species Compared to Suburban Areas. Environmental Entomology. 50(4): 982-994. https://doi.org/10.1093/ee/nvab048
IPBES Secretariat. (2023). IPBES Invasive Alien Species Assessment. https://www.ipbes.net/IASmediarelease
Romine, T. (2024). September 11, 2024 - Francine makes landfall in Louisiana. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/weather/live-news/hurricane-francine-louisiana-landfall-wednesday/index.html
Alonso, M. (2024). September 11, 2024 - Francine makes landfall in Louisiana. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/weather/live-news/hurricane-francine-louisiana-landfall-wednesday/index.html
Hernandez, R. (2024). Hurricane Francine caused over 260 homes to flood in Kenner. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/hurricane-francine-caused-over-260-homes-to-flood-in-kenner/ar-AA1qFveb
Reuters. (2024). More than 12% of US Gulf of Mexico oil output still shut after Hurricane Francine. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/more-than-12-us-gulf-mexico-oil-output-still-shut-after-hurricane-francine-2024-09-16/
Truong, T. (2024). Francine’s roughly $1.5B in insured losses adds pressure on uninsured homeowners. https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/francine-s-roughly-15b-in-insured-losses-adds-pressure-on-uninsured-homeowners/ar-AA1qG9ic
Fire.ca.gov. (2024). Current Emergency Incidents. https://www.fire.ca.gov/Incidents
Fire.ca.gov. (2024). Line Fire. https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2024/9/5/line-fire
Fire.ca.gov. (2024). Bridge Fire. https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2024/9/8/bridge-fire
Fire.ca.gov. (2024). Airport Fire. https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2024/9/9/airport-fire
Stillman, D., and Brady, K. (2024). Here’s why Central Europe has had disastrous flooding and torrential rain. https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/here-s-why-central-europe-has-had-disastrous-flooding-and-torrential-rain/ar-AA1qFA7H
ITGC. (2024). Grim outlook for Antarctica’s Thwaites glacier. https://thwaitesglacier.org/news/grim-outlook-antarcticas-thwaites-glacier