Summer 2010 - University of Guelph

Hummingbird moth onbutterfly bushBee sure youknow the facts■ Beekeeping at Guelphdates back to 1894.■ U of G’s Buckfast beestrace their ancestry toEngland.■ The University apiaryboasts 300 colonies;only 70 are on campus.■ The apiary produces8,000 kilograms ofhoney per year.■ Both students andlocal customers enjoyGuelph honey ontheir toast.■ No other university orresearch centre in thecountry possessesmore beekeeping infrastructurethan U of G.To read more abouthoneybees and U of Gresearch devoted topollinators, visitwww.uoguelph.ca/news/theportico.Honeybee on tree peonydevelop better bees. Considered among thetop facilities of its kind worldwide, it resemblesa molecular biology lab, complete withPCR machines used to generate numerouscopies of bee DNA for closer study. Guzmanuses bees at that Honeybee ResearchCentre on campus and at other locationsaround Guelph for his studies. Working withOntario bee breeders, his team will look forgenes to improve resistance to mites anddiseases, as well as genes of economic importanceand even parts of the bee genomepossibly connected with social behaviour.Guzman also works with other researchersacross Canada within CANPOLIN’s workinggroup on managed pollinators, which isstudying the impacts of diseases, parasites andpesticides on honeybees, bumblebees andrelated pollinators. As part of that group,Kevan’s interests are in the area of mitigatingthe effects of stresses such as overwintering,management, diseases and parasites throughresearch on bee nutrition, the environmentwithin the hive and novel medications.That’s just one of seven working groupswithin CANPOLIN that involve U of Gscientists. Within the ecosystems group,Woodcock and other researchers have surveyedvarious ecosystems across Canada tolearn more about how pollinators and plantswork together. Other groups are studyingnative pollinators, plant reproduction, windORNAMENTALS■ allium■ anemone■ angelica■ bachelor buttons■ beebalm■ bergamot■ blue lobelia■ boneset■ Brown-eyed Susan■ butterfly weed■ Canada wild rye■ Cardinal flower■ cornflower■ cosmos■ cow parsnip■ creeping thyme■ crocus■ Culver’s root■ cup plant■ daffodil■ datura■ daisy fleabane■ delphinium■ evening primrose■ fireweed■ flax■ Fuchsia■ golden Alexanders■ goldenrod■ hairy beardtongue■ heuchera■ Indian hemp■ iris■ ironweed■ Joe-Pye weedpollination, beekeeping economics and theuse of predictive tools to gauge likely impactsof, say, changes in climate and land use.At Guelph, these groups draw in partnersfrom two departments not directly related tobiology. Faculty members in the Departmentof Food, Agricultural and Resource Economicsare studying economics and socialaspects of pollination to ultimately help shapepolicy and management decisions. Prof. AyeshaAli, a statistician in the Department of Mathematicsand Statistics, is studying pollinationwebs that describe the interaction of diversespecies of plants and pollinators. She hopes todevelop models to help biologists understandhow problems such as habitat loss, forest fragmentationor the introduction of non-nativespecies can affect plant-pollinator interactions.Another CANPOLIN member is Prof.Cynthia Scott-Dupree, an entomologist whohas studied apiculture and agriculture atGuelph for 24 years. As a teenager in Brandon,Man., she helped tend about 100colonies kept by her dad. Now she workswith growers (vegetables, ornamentals andfood crops) and industry to help design integratedpest management strategies thatmitigate insect pests while avoiding harm tobene ficial insects. She has looked at the impactsof pesticides on pollinators as well as invasivespecies imported with plants intended forCanadian greenhouses. In another projectGROW A POLLINATOR GARDEN■ late figwort■ lobelia■ marigold■ meadowsweet■ morning glory■ New England aster■ New Jersey tea■ nicotiana■ ninebark■ pale Indian plantain■ petunia■ phlox■ purple clematis■ purple coneflower■ Queen Anne’s lace■ sand coreopsis■ sedum■ shasta daisy24 The Portico