Can you stop the extinction?
You can stop the extinction!
Michael Otterstatter of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology has found a way.
| WHY STUDY? |
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| Ecology and Evolutionary Biology |
Wild bumble bees are disappearing throughout North America, and that spells trouble. The decline in pollinating bees has serious implications for agriculture and food supply, as up to a third of the human diet comes from plants pollinated by insects. But Michael Otterstatter may have found the culprit, and amazingly enough, the reason may be all in the family.
A researcher in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Otterstatter was spurred by reports of rapidly declining populations of wild bees throughout North America and speculation that diseases may be spreading from commercial to wild bee species. Through extensive field work across several locations in southern Ontario, with the help of several undergraduate students in the department, he found a connection by analyzing patterns of disease among wild bees near greenhouses that use commercially reared bees for pollination of industrial crops. It all became apparent when he found a significant spillover of Crithidia bombi (C.bombi), a destructive contagious pathogen commonly found in commercial bees, among the wild bees in areas surrounding the greenhouses.
Industrial greenhouses, which can be up to 25 football fields in size and contain tens of thousands of bumblebees, have vents in the ceiling and walls for temperature control. Otterstatter concluded that the commercial bees simply fly out through these vents and leave infectious material on wild flowers nearby, which in turn is picked up by wild bumblebees on the outside who are merely doing their part for the ecosystem. They found that the frequency and severity of infections declined as distance from the greenhouses increased, and at sites distant from the greenhouses they found no bees at all harbouring the fatal pathogen. In addition, the team never observed instances of wild bees flying into the greenhouses and opening themselves up to infection that way.
Otterstatter co-published his findings with faculty member James Thomson in the online science journal PLoS ONE in July 2008. His ultimate hope is that his findings will lead to improved management of domestic bees through greater attention the amount of parasites that they carry and their contact with wild species.
Otterstatter's work is just one example of how faculty and students in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Toronto are helping to answer the world's questions. Research and teaching in ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Toronto covers all life forms — microbes, fungi, insects, plants, and animals — and focuses on understanding of the diversity of life and all aspects of organismal biology in the natural world.
Research faculty use a broad array of approaches in their studies, including molecular studies, laboratory experiments, computer and mathematical modeling, and field studies in many different areas of the world. Instruction provides opportunities for research projects conducted in the laboratory and the field.
Courses are offered in many areas including: molecular evolution, population and quantitative genetics, genomics, animal behaviour, population, community, and landscape ecology, evolutionary and ecological theory, biodiversity, conservation biology, and systematics.
Students exposed to these subjects come to realize that the ecological and evolutionary underpinnings of life present a host of scientific problems that are both intellectually challenging and critical to our future.
So…do you want to help stop the killer bees? Or maybe something else?
