I have been stumbling across bug (or insect) research at a greater rate than usual and while the ‘bug-informed’ community is, no doubt, acutely aware of the loss of insect life, the severity of the situation was a revelation to me.

Bugpocalypse (h/t IFLScience for the head)

This work looks at adaptation strategies, from a March 5, 2025 Northwestern University (Chicago, Illinois) news release (also on EurekAlert) by Win Reynolds, Note: Links have been removed,

• Insect populations, foundational to food chains and pollination, have dramatically declined over the past 20 years due to rapid climate change

• Scientists identify two ways fly species from different climates (high-altitude forest and hot desert) have adapted to temperature

• Paper provides evidence that changes in brain wiring and heat sensitivity contributed to shifting preference to hot or cold conditions, respectively

• Results may help predict the impact of ongoing climate change on insect distribution and behavior

EVANSTON, Ill. — Tiny, cold-blooded animals like flies depend on their environment to regulate body temperature, making them ideal “canaries in the mine” for gauging the impact of climate change on the behavior and distribution of animal species. Yet, scientists know relatively little about how insect sense and respond to temperature.

Using two species of flies from different climates — one from the cool, high-altitude forests of Northern California, the other hailing from the hot, dry deserts of the Southwest (both cousins of the common laboratory fly, drosophila melanogaster) — Northwestern scientists discovered remarkable differences in the way each processes external temperature.

Forest flies showed increased avoidance of heat, potentially explained by higher sensitivity in their antennae’s molecular heat receptors, while desert flies were instead actively attracted to heat, a response that could be tracked to differences in brain wiring  in a region of the fly brain that helps compute the valence (inherent attractiveness or aversiveness) of sensory cues.

The scientists believe these two mechanisms may have accompanied the evolution of each species as it adapted to its distinctive thermal environment, starting from a common ancestor dating back 40 million years (not long after dinosaurs went extinct).

These findings, published today (March 5 [2025]) in the journal Nature, help understand how animals evolve the preferences for specific temperature environments and may help predict the impact of a rapidly changing climate on animal behavior and distribution.

‘Not enough people care about insects’

“Insects are especially threatened by climate change,” said Northwestern neurobiologist Marco Gallio. “Behavior is the first interface between an animal and its environment. Even before the struggle to survive or perish, animals can respond to climate change by migration and by changing their distribution. We are already seeing insect populations declining in many regions, and even insect vectors of disease like the Zika virus and malaria spreading into new areas.”

Gallio, a self-appointed “insect advocate,” is a professor in the neurobiology department and the Soretta and Henry Shapiro Research Professor in Molecular Biology at the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. His lab examines fruit flies and their sensing systems. Gallio acknowledged there is limited data because “not enough people care about the insects,” but that available figures record a dramatic decline in insects in the past 20 to 50 years. Though bug haters may rejoice, Gallio said the population decline in the animal group with the most species on Earth is nothing to celebrate.

In addition to their position at the foundation of most terrestrial food chains, insects pollinate 70% of our crops. Gallio said losing insect communities could cause catastrophic damage to ecosystems across the globe and have a direct impact on human wellbeing.

Understanding heat circuits in the brain

Previous work from the Gallio Lab focused on how small insects like laboratory flies respond to sensory cues like harmless and painful temperature changes.

“The common fruit fly is an especially powerful animal to study how the external world is represented and processed within the brain,” Gallio said. “Many years of work on fly genetics and neuroscience have given us a map of the fly brain more detailed than that of any other animal.”

In the present study, Gallio and colleagues wondered how the brain circuits and resulting behaviors compared in fly species that were very similar aside from their choices of thermal habitat.

Using genetic tools, including CRISPR [clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats], to knock out certain genes and gene swaps between species, the team studied both the molecular and brain mechanisms that may explain species-specific differences in temperature preference.

Ph.D. student and lead author Matthew Capek explained that they first found differences in the molecules that detect heat, causing them to activate at different temperatures. And while Capek said the difference in activation could explain the forest flies’ preference for cooler environments, a shift in receptor activation was not enough to explain the behavior of the desert fly.

“The desert fly seemed actively attracted to warmer temperatures — around 90 degrees Fahrenheit compared to the forest fly’s sweet spot just below 70 degrees,” said Capek, who works in the Gallio lab. “In fact, the activation threshold of the antenna heat sensors corresponded to their favorite temperature range, which they will seek, rather than to a temperature they should avoid.”

“In other words, the fly doesn’t behave any longer as though the antennae are telling it to run away from dangerous heat; they seem to be telling it higher temperatures are good, and to approach them.”

High cost, high reward

Gallio was initially puzzled — deserts are hot, so it did not make sense that flies sought out heat — but a lab trip to the Anza Borrego desert of Southern California provided key inspiration.

“Deserts in this region are very hot during the day, but temperatures can drop extremely rapidly when the sun goes down, and night can be downright freezing,” said Alessia Para, also a key author of the study and a research associate professor of neurobiology. “Flies in this climate may need to constantly attend to the rapidly changing temperature and always seek the ideal range, finding shady spots during the day and hiding in cacti for warmth at night.”

Flies from more forgiving environments may instead ignore temperature except when it changes rapidly. Constantly detecting the right temperature is costly from an energy perspective, but for desert flies, it’s life or death.

“This comparative work is useful in a couple of different ways,” Gallio said. “When an animal is born, the brain is already programmed to know if many of the things it will encounter are bad or good for it, and we do not understand how that programming works.

These fly species represent a natural experiment because a stimulus that is good for one species is bad for the other, and we can study the differences that make it so. We also want to learn more about how animals have been able to adapt to different temperatures during evolution, so that we may be able to better understand and even predict how they react to ongoing climate change. Of course we care about the insects, and we hope that what we learn may help us appreciate and protect them better.”

There’s more but first, a citation and a link to the Gallio Lab’s paper,

Evolution of temperature preference in flies of the genus Drosophila by Matthew Capek, Oscar M. Arenas, Michael H. Alpert, Emanuela E. Zaharieva, Iván D. Méndez-González, José Miguel Simões, Hamin Gil, Aldair Acosta, Yuqing Su, Alessia Para & Marco Gallio. Nature (2025) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-08682-z Published: 05 March 2025

This paper is behind a paywall.

Bugs Matter

Thanks to buglife.org.uk for the subhead and the report. Here’s more from their April 30, 2025 press release, Note: Links have been removed,

The troubling extent of insect declines across the UK has been highlighted once again by the results of the 2024 Bugs Matter citizen science survey published today. The latest data shows that the number of flying insects sampled on vehicle number plates, across the UK, has fallen by a staggering 63% since 2021.

The Bugs Matter survey, led by Kent Wildlife Trust in partnership with invertebrate charity Buglife, relies on a nationwide network of volunteer citizen scientists who record insect splats on their vehicle number plates after journeys, using the Bugs Matter app built by Natural Apptitude. Analysis of records from more than 25,000 journeys across the UK since 2021 shows an alarming decrease in bug splats but data from 2024 shows this decrease has slowed.

Insects are critical to ecosystem functioning and services. They pollinate crops, provide natural pest control, decompose waste and recycle nutrients, and underpin food chains that support birds, mammals and other wildlife. Without insects, the planet’s ecological systems would collapse.

Dr. Lawrence Ball of Kent Wildlife Trust stated: “This huge decrease in insect splats over such a short time is really alarming. Its most likely that we are seeing the compounding effects of both a background rate of decline as well as a short term cycle of decline, perhaps linked to the extreme climate in the UK in recent years. Bug splats declined 8% from 2023 to 2024, following sharper drops of 44% in 2023 and 28% in 2022. This shows the rate of decline has slowed and it may even flatten or reverse next year. Continued support from citizen scientists is key to revealing the overall trend in insect numbers.”

The new data shows a decrease in insect splat rates across all the UK nations, with the sharpest fall between 2021 and 2024 recorded in Scotland at 65%. In England, the number of insect splats fell by 62%, in Wales by 64%, and in Northern Ireland by 55%, over the same time period.

Andrew Whitehouse, from Buglife added: “The latest Bugs Matter data suggests that the abundance of flying insects in our countryside has fallen again. The consequences are potentially far-reaching, not only impacting the health of the natural world, but affecting so many of the essential services that nature provides for us. Human activities continue to have a huge impact on nature, habitat loss and damage, pesticide use, pollution, and climate change all contribute to the decline in insects. Society must heed the warning signs of ecological collapse, and take urgent action to restore nature.”

Participation in Bugs Matter is growing and the number of journeys recorded in 2024 far exceeded previous years. This is in part thanks to a new partnership with Openreach, owner of the nation’s second largest commercial van fleet.

Peter Stewart, Openreach’s UK Operations Director for Service Delivery said: “We’re excited to participate in the ‘Bugs Matter’ survey for the second year. Our engineers travel millions of miles annually across the UK to build and maintain our network, making it easy for them to measure insect splats on vehicle number plates. We recognise the crucial role pollinators play for all of us to thrive, and as part of our strategy to protect nature, we’re proud to support this campaign again. Last year, we contributed around 10% of the registered journeys, and with our 25,000-strong fleet, we aim to do even better this year.”

Andrew Whitehouse concluded: “Thank you to everyone who participated in the Bugs Matter survey in 2024. Your contribution has provided invaluable insights into the health of our insect populations and wider environment. We are relaunching the survey on May 1 this year [2025], and with our expansion into the Republic of Ireland, we hope to engage even more people in this crucial citizen science effort.”

The 2025 Bugs Matter survey will run from Saturday 1 May to Tuesday 30 September. It is quick, free and easy to get involved – simply download the free mobile phone app and start recording insect splats on vehicle journeys.

Expansion into Republic of Ireland

In response to growing interest and the need for more comprehensive data, the Bugs Matter survey is expanding into the Republic of Ireland for the 2025 season, thanks to the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Imagine Grant ‘Go Further, Faster’ Award received by Bugs Matter at the end of 2024. This grant provides vital resources to non-profit organisations looking to deploy cloud technology as a central tool to achieve their mission goals, and is providing Bugs Matter with a combination of funding, cloud computing credits, and engagement with AWS technical specialists. This marks an important step in building a more complete picture of insect populations across the British Isles, and future expansion of the Bugs Matter survey.

Dr. Lawrence Ball of Kent Wildlife Trust stated, “We’re extremely grateful for the financial and technical support from Amazon Web Services, which means we can launch in Ireland this year and in more countries in 2026. If you drive or know someone who drives in Ireland, please download the app, sign up, and take part! The UK results highlight the importance of understanding insect numbers elsewhere.”

The charities caution that continued long-term monitoring is essential to track the precise magnitude of these alarming trends, but stress that the current pace of decline is clearly ecologically unviable. By taking part in the Bugs Matter survey each year, citizen scientists can provide crucial data to better understand insect population patterns and support evidence-based conservation actions.

…

Zac Sherratt’s April 30, 2025 article for the British Broadcasting Corporation’s (BBC) online news website offers little more information,

A survey tracking the “staggering” decline in insect numbers across the UK and Ireland has begun.

The Bugs Matter survey, led by Kent Wildlife Trust and invertebrate charity Buglife, runs from 1 May to 30 September each year and sees “citizen scientists” record the number of bug splats on their vehicle number plates after a journey.

…

Dr Ball [Dr. Lawrence Ball of Kent Wildlife Trust ] said: “Without insects, the planet’s ecological systems would collapse so this huge decrease in insect splats over such a short time is really alarming.”

Bug splats declined 8% in 2024, following sharper drops of 44% in 2023 and 28% in 2022.

Dr Ball said the slowing rate of decline shows the curve may flatten or even reverse next year.

More than 25,000 journeys have been analysed as part of the survey since 2021.

You can find the 2024 The Bugs Matter Citizen Science Survey here and the Buglife organization (and signup information for the 2025 survey) here.

IFLScience (and Bugpocalypse)

There’s an interesting back story for IFLScience (which started life as as Facebook page titled, “I Fucking Love Science”). If you want to find out more about IFLScience’s origins and founder, there’s Elise Andrew’s Wikipedia entry.

Returning to the bugs, Dr. Russell Moul’s April 30 (?), 2025 article for IFLScience further highlights the plight of insects around the world, Note: Links have been removed,

Insect populations have been declining across the world at an alarming rate, but no one has been sure why. According to a new study, intense agricultural practices are at the top of the list of causes, but there are multiple interrelated factors that are all contributing to quickly killing off these vital creatures.

…

“Insects are fundamental to life on earth. They are really important pollinators, decomposers, and prey for birds, bats, reptiles, and other species”, Eliza Grames, Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences, told IFLScience.

“Insects pollinate around 80 percent of wild flowering plants, and 75 percent of agricultural crop species rely on insects for pollination. Without insects as decomposers, the earth would essentially be covered in manure. Cow manure takes 60 percent longer to deteriorate when insects are excluded from an area.”

…

But despite their importance, insect numbers are declining. In 2017, a devastating study demonstrated that there has been more than a 75 percent decline in insect populations over the last three decades. As a result, scientists have been seeking to identify the likely causes for this decline.

In order to understand which causes the scientific community has found so far, Grames and colleagues from Binghamton University examined some 175 scientific reviews, which contained over 500 hypothesized drivers behind the decline. This information allowed the team to create an interconnected network of 3,000 possible links, known as a meta-synthetic approach, which spanned everything from beekeeping and deforestation to urban sprawl and parasites.

…

Within this network of information, the team found that intensified agriculture was the most cited driver behind the mass die-off. This was linked to issues such as land-use change and insecticides. However, focusing solely on the most cited drivers is not the way to interpret this information. As the team note in their work, the results show how interconnected the drivers are, highlighting complex issues.

For example, the climate may be an important driver behind the decline, but there are aspects within that, such as extreme precipitation, fire, and temperature rises, which can then contribute to other drivers. It’s an extremely connected and synergistic network.

“The drivers of insect decline are really complex and there are many overlooked stressors that we should be thinking about and researching,” Grames told IFLScience.

…

If you have a little more time, you can find some interesting tidbits in Moul’s April 30 (?), 2025 article.

Here’s a link to and a citation for the recent meta-analysis/meta-synthesis mentioned in the article,

Meta-synthesis reveals interconnections among apparent drivers of insect biodiversity loss by Christopher A Halsch, Chris S Elphick, Christie A Bahlai, Matthew L Forister, David L Wagner, Jessica L Ware, Eliza M Grames. BioScience, biaf034 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biaf034 Published: 22 April 2025

This paper is behind a paywall.

InsectNet

A February 6, 2025 news item on ScienceDaily announces an application that uses machine learning for insect identification,

A farmer notices an unfamiliar insect on a leaf.

Is this a pollinator? Or a pest? Good news at harvest time? Or bad? Need to be controlled? Or not?

That farmer can snap a picture, use a smartphone or computer to feed the photo into a web-based application called InsectNet and, with the help of machine learning technology, get back real-time information.

“The app identifies the insect and returns a prediction of its taxonomic classification and role in the ecosystem as a pest, predator, pollinator, parasitoid, decomposer, herbivore, indicator and invasive species,” said a scientific paper describing InsectNet recently published by the journal PNAS Nexus [PNAS stands for Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the US]. Iowa State University’s Baskar Ganapathysubramanian and Arti Singh are the corresponding authors.

..

A February 5, 2025 Iowa State University news release (also on EurekAlert but published February 6, 2025), which originated the news item, delves further into InsectNet,

InsectNet – which is backed by a dataset of 12 million insect images, including many collected by citizen-scientists – provides identification and predictions for more than 2,500 insect species at more than 96% accuracy. When the application isn’t sure about an insect, it says it is uncertain, giving users more confidence when it does provide answers.

And, because the application was built as a global-to-local model, it can be geographically fine-tuned using expert-verified local and regional datasets. That makes it useful to farmers everywhere.

So, beware, armyworms, cutworms, grasshoppers, stink bugs and all the other harmful insects. And, hello, butterflies, bees and all the other pollinators. Good to see you, lady beetles, mantises and all the other pest predators.

“We envision InsectNet to complement existing approaches, and be part of a growing suite of AI technologies for addressing agricultural challenges,” the authors wrote.

A village of researchers

InsectNet’s ability to be fine-tuned for specific regions or countries make it particularly useful, said Singh, an associate professor of agronomy.

In Iowa, for example, Singh said there are about 50 insect species particularly important to the state’s agricultural production. To identify and provide predictions about those insects, Singh said the project used about 500,000 insect images.

That could happen for farmers all over the globe. And wherever there isn’t sufficient data – these sophisticated models often require millions of images – for local fine-tuning, the global dataset is still available for farmers.

InsectNet isn’t just for farmers, though. Singh said it could also help agents at ports or border crossings identify invasive species. Or it could help researchers working on ecological studies.

So, the app is usable and flexible. But is it accessible?

You can’t go to an app store and download a version just yet, said Ganapathysubramanian, the Joseph and Elizabeth Anderlik Professor in Engineering and director of the AI Institute for Resilient Agriculture based at Iowa State. But the app is running on a server at Iowa State. With a QR code (see sidebar) or this URL (insectapp.las.iastate.edu/), users can upload insect pictures and get an identification and prediction.

This works throughout the stages of an insect’s life: from egg to larva to pupa to adult. It works with look-alike species. And it works with diverse image qualities and orientations.

The bottom line for any user is basic information about an insect: “Is this a pest?” Singh said. “Or is it a friend?”

Developers demonstrated the app during last August’s Farm Progress Show in Boone, Iowa. And now the research paper is introducing it to a broader, scientific audience.

But aren’t there already apps that help identify insects?

Yes, said Ganapathysubramanian, but they’re not to the scale of InsectNet and aren’t capable of global-to-local applications. And they’re also not open-source applications with technology that can be shared.

“Making InsectNet open source can encourage broader scientific efforts,” he said. “The scientific community can build on these efforts, rather than starting from scratch.”

The project also answered a lot of technical questions that could be applied to other projects, he said.

How much data is enough? Where can we get that much data? What can we do with noisy data?

How much computer power is necessary? How do we deal with so much data?

“Lastly, it takes a village of expertise to get to this point, right?” said Ganapathysubramanian.

It took agronomists and computer engineers and statisticians and data scientists and artificial intelligence specialists about two years to put InsectNet together and make it work.

“What we learned working with insects can be expanded to include weeds and plant diseases or any other related identification and classification problem in agriculture,” Singh said. “We’re very close to a one-stop shop for identifying all of these.”

…

Paper co-authors are:

Iowa State University

• Shivani Chiranjeevi (first author)
• Mojdeh Saadati
• Talukder Z. Jubery
• Daren Mueller
• Matthew E. O’Neal
• Asheesh K. Singh
• Soumik Sarkar
• Arti Singh (corresponding author)
• Baskar Ganapathysubramanian (corresponding author)

Carnegie Mellon University

• Jayanth Koushik
• Aarti Singh

University of Arizona

• Zi K. Deng
• Nirav Merchant

Funding

The InsectNet project was supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (through the AI Institute for Resilient Agriculture), the National Science Foundation (through COALESCE: COntext Aware LEarning for Sustainable CybEr-Agricultural Systems), the NSF’s Smart and Connected Communities Program, the USDA’s Current Research Information System Project, and Iowa State’s Plant Sciences Institute.

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

InsectNet: Real-time identification of insects using an end-to-end machine learning pipeline by Shivani Chiranjeevi, Mojdeh Saadati, Zi K Deng, Jayanth Koushik, Talukder Z Jubery, Daren S Mueller, Matthew O’Neal , Nirav Merchant , Aarti Singh , Asheesh K Singh , Soumik Sarkar , Arti Singh , Baskar Ganapathysubramanian. PNAS Nexus, Volume 4, Issue 1, January 2025, pgae575, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae575 Published: 27 December 2024

This paper is open access.

Bugs and kids

The University of Adelaide’s (Australia) March 25, 2025 press release (also on EurekAlert but published March 24, 2025) announces some research on insect-related, school-based citizen science,

Pro-environmental behaviour increases among school students who participate in insect-related citizen science projects, according to new research from the University of Adelaide.

Students who participated in citizen science project Insect Investigators, which engages students in the discovery of new insects, not only expressed an intention to change their personal behaviour but also to encourage others to protect nature.

“As a result of their involvement in this program, students expressed intentions to further engage in insect–science–nature activities,” says the University of Adelaide’s Dr Erinn Fagan-Jeffries, who contributed to the study.

“In addition, teachers reported increased intentions to include insect-related topics in their teaching, which was positively associated with students’ own intentions for pro-environmental behaviour change.

“This suggests students’ response to the project influenced their teacher’s decision to include citizen science in their lessons.”

School-based citizen science projects facilitate authentic scientific interactions between research and educational institutions while exposing students to scientific processes.

“Teachers’ motivations for providing citizen science experiences to students was to create hands-on learning opportunities and to connect students with real science and scientists,” says Professor Patrick O’Connor AM, Director of the University’s School of Economics and Public Policy.

“Teachers reported interactions with researchers as invaluable. These interactions could take the form of in-person visits by team members, or even instructional videos and curriculum-linked teacher lesson plans.”

Incorporating insects into school-based citizen science projects can challenge widespread human misconceptions about insects and their roles in ecosystems, and foster human–insect connections.

“Given global concerns of rapid insect declines and the overarching biodiversity crisis, insect-focused, school-based citizen science projects can ultimately contribute towards equipping students with knowledge of, and actions to promote, insect conservation,” says lead author Dr Andy Howe, from the University of the Sunshine Coast.

“In Australia, approximately 33 per cent of insects are formally described, the remainder exist as ‘dark taxa’, to the detriment of environmental and biodiversity management initiatives.

“Encouraging more young people to engage in science not only engenders positive feelings in them towards the environment, it will also help to build the next generation of scientists who will fill in the vast knowledge gap that exists in the world of insects.”

Before getting to the link and citation, here’s an update on the Australian higher education ecosystem, from the March 24, 2025 version of the press release on EurekAlert ,

The University of Adelaide and the University of South Australia are joining forces to become Australia’s new major university – Adelaide University. Building on the strengths, legacies and resources of two leading universities, Adelaide University will deliver globally relevant research at scale, innovative, industry-informed teaching and an outstanding student experience. Adelaide University will open its doors in January 2026. Find out more on the Adelaide University website.

Here’s a link to and a citation for the study,

Catching ‘the bug’: Investigating insects through school-based citizen science increases intentions for environmental activities in students and teachers by Andy G. Howe, Trang Thi Thu Nguyen, Patrick O’Connor, Alice Woodward, Sylvia Clarke, Nathan Ducker, Kate Dilger, Erinn P. Fagan-Jeffries. Austral Entomology Volume 64, Issue 2 May 2025 e70004 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/aen.70004 First published online: 18 March 2025

This paper is open access.

You can find Insect Investigators here. BTW, (from their About US webpage, “Inspired by the Canadian School Malaise Trap Program [hosted by the University of Guelph], we’re working with schools across South Australia, Western Australia and Queensland to collect specimens of invertebrates: butterflies, spiders and more.”)

Bugs and parks

The University of British Columbia (UBC) issued an April 22, 2025 news release (also received via email) by Sachi Wickramasinghe announcing research on ‘parks for bugs’,

As the days get longer and gardeners plan their spring planting, research from the University of British Columbia offers some good news this Earth Day: small, simple changes to urban green spaces can make a big difference for pollinators. The study, published in Ecology Letters, found that reducing lawn mowing and creating pollinator meadows – think of them as ‘parks for bugs’– significantly boosts pollinator diversity, creating healthier and more resilient ecosystems.

A buzzing success

The three-year study, conducted in collaboration with the City of Vancouver’s pollinator meadows program, surveyed pollinators in 18 urban parks across Vancouver, comparing parks where meadows were planted and mowing was restricted with parks that remained as standard turfgrass lawns.

…

And while the tall grass caused a small stir among some neighbours, the results were striking: parks with meadows saw an immediate increase in pollinator species, with 21 to 47 more wild bee and hoverfly species compared to parks without meadows. The increase persisted over the three-year study period, suggesting that the meadow parks also support pollinators in the long run.

More than 100 species of wild bees and hoverflies were identified, with 35 of them only found in parks with meadows – including the Vancouver and Nevada bumble bee, some miner bees such as the Milwaukee miner bee, the red-faced miner bee and several species of hoverflies.

“Many people think of urban landscapes as poor environments for biodiversity, but our research shows that small actions can have a lasting impact,” said lead author Jens Ulrich, a PhD candidate in the faculty of land and food systems. “You don’t need a lot of space or resources to make a difference.”

Urban landscapes as pollinator havens

Unlike farmland, where large fields with monocrops can limit pollinator movement, urban areas are full of green spaces—gardens, parks, and even roadside boulevards—that can serve as pollinator refuges. The patchwork of small habitats allows species to move freely and settle into restored areas quickly.

The research highlights the importance of maintaining and expanding such efforts. Ongoing management, such as adding more native plants and controlling invasive species, can further strengthen pollinator communities.

The findings also offer practical guidance for city planners and community groups looking to enhance urban green spaces, and have already informed the City of Vancouver’s long-term planning—helping to establish pollinator meadows as a permanent option for parks and shaping future efforts to balance ecological function with aesthetic and cultural values.

“With so much land dedicated to lawns, there’s a major opportunity to rethink how we use these spaces,” said co-author Dr. Risa Sargent, an associate professor in the faculty of land and food systems. “Even small patches of insect-friendly meadows can provide critical resources for pollinators.”

Whether you have a backyard, balcony, or community garden plot, you can support pollinators with these simple steps:

• Reduce mowing: Pollinators thrive in areas where flowers are allowed to bloom. Consider letting a section of your lawn grow longer or mowing less frequently.
• Plant native flowering shrubs and trees: Perennial species like native chokecherry, Pacific ninebark, oceanspray, native hawthorn, red flowering currant, salal, red-osier dogwood, snowberry and vine maple are great choices for British Columbia’s Lower Mainland.
• Create a diverse habitat: Incorporate a variety of plants that bloom at different times of the year to provide food from spring to fall.
• Avoid pesticides: Many urban areas, including Vancouver, have already restricted pesticide use, but avoiding chemical treatments in your own garden can further protect pollinators.
• Leave natural nesting sites: Many native bees nest in the ground or in plant stems. Keeping some bare soil or leaving flower stalks through winter can provide valuable shelter.

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

Habitat Restorations in an Urban Landscape Rapidly Assemble Diverse Pollinator Communities That Persist by Jens Ulrich, Risa D. Sargent. Ecology Letters Volume 28, Issue 1 January 2025 e70037 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.70037 First published online: 31 December 2024

This paper is open access.

You can find out more about Vancouver’s Pollinator meadows (project) here.

*May 26, 2025 at 3:07 pm PT: ‘abut’ corrected to ‘about’