Helping the honey bee and other flower-visiting insects in urban areas

As is much of the world’s biodiversity, bees and other flower-visiting insects are in global decline, largely due to human activities. The impacts of humans on wildlife can be ameliorated, at least to an extent, by wildlife-friendly management practices in both rural and urban areas. This thesis comprises two introductory chapters (Part 1), followed by a series of ten research chapters (Parts 2 - 5) aimed at informing management practices that encourage bees and other flower-visiting insects in urban areas, and ends with a concluding chapter (Part 6). The projects are grouped in four parts making contributions to four broad areas of research. Part 2 is concerned with evaluating the attractiveness of ornamental garden plants to insect flower-visitors. Individual projects examine the advice currently available to gardeners via recommended plant lists, and describe surveys of plant varieties grown in a public garden (Southover Grange garden, Lewes), a Plant Heritage national collection of asters (Picton Garden, Malvern), and the experimental gardens planted on campus of the University of Sussex, Brighton, as well as in towns of Plumpton and Magham Down. Part 3 evaluates the attractiveness to insects of urban wild flowers, including those growing in amenity grass areas in parks, and the effects on their abundance and diversity of the various mowing regimes, as well as the attractiveness of the common autumn flowering ivy. Part 4 uses waggle dance decoding to investigate honey bee foraging in the urban landscape of Brighton, with an additional particular focus on foraging on spring-blooming oilseed rape in the surrounding agricultural land. Part 5 examines an aspect of good practice in urban apiary set up, the use of lattice fence or hedge barriers, which should facilitate beekeeping in urban areas, including in private gardens and allotments

On Boussinesq-type models for long longitudinal waves in elastic rods

In this paper we revisit the derivations of model equations describing long nonlinear longitudinal bulk strain waves in elastic rods within the scope of the Murnaghan model in order to derive a Boussinesq-type model, and extend these derivations to include axially symmetric loading on the lateral boundary surface, and longitudinal pre-stretch. We systematically derive two forced Boussinesq-type models from the full equations of motion and non-zero surface boundary conditions, utilising the presence of two small parameters characterising the smallness of the wave amplitude and the long wavelength compared to the radius of the waveguide. We compare the basic dynamical properties of both models (linear dispersion curves and solitary wave solutions). We also briefly describe the laboratory experiments on generation of bulk strain solitary waves in the Ioffe Institute, and suggest that this generation process can be modelled using the derived equations.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figures, submitted to the Special Issue of Wave Motion, "Nonlinear Waves in Solids", in Memory of Professor Alexander M. Samsono

Most ornamental plants on sale in garden centres are unattractive to flower-visiting insects

Background Gardeners and park managers seeking to support biodiversity in urban areas often plant ornamentals attractive to flower-visiting insects. There is a huge diversity of garden plant varieties, and some recommendations are available as to which are attractive to insects. However, these are largely not based on rigorous empirical data. An important factor in consumer choice is the range of varieties available for purchase. In the UK, garden centres are a key link in the supply chain between growers and private gardens. This study is the first to determine the proportions of flowering ornamentals being sold that are attractive to flower-visiting insects. Methods We surveyed six garden centres in Sussex, UK, each over two days in 2015, by making 12 counts of insects visiting patches of each ornamental plant on display for sale that was in bloom. To provide a consistent baseline among different locations, we brought with us and surveyed marjoram (Origanum vulgare) plants in pots, which are known to be attractive to a wide range of flower-visiting insects. The attractiveness of plant varieties to insects was then expressed in two ways: the absolute number and relative to that on marjoram (‘marjoram score’), both per unit area of plant cover. In addition, we noted whether each variety was recommended as pollinator-friendly either via a symbol on the label, or by being included in the Royal Horticultural Society’s ‘Perfect for Pollinators’ list. Furthermore, we compared the attractiveness of plants that are typically grown for more than one year versus only one year. Results We surveyed 59–74 plant varieties in bloom across the six garden centres. In each garden centre, the distributions of variety attractiveness were highly skewed to the right, with most varieties being relatively unattractive, and few varieties highly attractive to flower-visiting insects. The median attractiveness of varieties with a recommendation was 4.2× higher than that of varieties without. But, due to the large variation there was a substantial number of both poor varieties that had a recommendation and good varieties that did not. Median attractiveness of multi-year plants was 1.6× that of single-year plants, with a similar overlap in distributions. Discussion Our study demonstrates the practicality of carrying out plant surveys in garden centres. Garden centres display large numbers of varieties for sale, most of which are in bloom. Furthermore, data gathered in garden centres appear to correlate well with data gathered in two previous studies in Sussex for plants established in gardens. Although it is unclear whether the varieties being sold in garden centres are a fair representation of varieties that are actually grown by gardeners, our results suggest that there might be considerable scope for making parks and gardens considerably more insect-friendly through judicious variety choices

On Boussinesq-type models for long longitudinal waves in elastic rods

In this paper we revisit the derivations of model equations describing long nonlinear longitudinal bulk strain waves in elastic rods within the scope of the Murnaghan model in order to derive a Boussinesq-type model, and extend these derivations to include axially symmetric loading on the lateral boundary surface, and longitudinal pre-stretch. We systematically derive two forced Boussinesq-type models from the full equations of motion and non-zero surface boundary conditions, utilising the presence of two small parameters characterising the smallness of the wave amplitude and the long wavelength compared to the radius of the waveguide. We compare the basic dynamical properties of both models (linear dispersion curves and solitary wave solutions). We also briefly describe the laboratory experiments on generation of bulk strain solitary waves in the Ioffe Institute, and suggest that this generation process can be modelled using the derived equations

Lattice fence and hedge barriers around an apiary increase honey bee flight height and decrease stings to people nearby

Urban beekeeping is becoming more popular in the UK. One of the challenges faced by urban beekeepers is finding a suitable apiary location. Honey bees are often perceived as a nuisance, mainly due to their stinging behaviour. Here, we experimentally test the assumption that barriers around an apiary such as walls or fences, force the bees to fly above human height, thereby reducing collisions with people and, consequently, stinging. The experiment was conducted in two apiaries using two common types of barrier: a lattice fence (trellis) and hedge. Barriers were 2 m high, which is taller than > 99% of humans and is also the maximum height allowed by UK planning regulations for garden fences or walls. We found that barriers were effective at both raising the mean honey bee flight height and reducing stinging. However, the effects were only seen when the barrier had been in place for a few days, not immediately after the barrier was put in place. Although this raises interesting questions regarding honey bee navigation and memory, it is not a problem for beekeepers, as any barrier placed around an apiary will be permanent. The effect of the barriers on raising bee flight height to a mean of c. 2.2-2.5 m was somewhat weak and inconsistent, probably because the bees flew high, mean of c. 1.6-2.0 m, even in the absence of a barrier. As barriers can also reduce wind exposure, improve security and are inexpensive, we recommend their use around urban apiaries in places such as private gardens or allotments, where nuisance to humans is likely to be a problem

Garden varieties: how attractive are recommended garden plants to butterflies?

One way the public can engage in insect conservation is through wildlife gardening, including the growing of insect-friendly flowers as sources of nectar. However, plant varieties differ in the types of insects they attract. To determine which garden plants attracted which butterflies, we counted butterflies nectaring on 11 varieties of summer-flowering garden plants in a rural garden in East Sussex, UK. These plants were all from a list of 100 varieties considered attractive to British butterflies, and included the five varieties specifically listed by the UK charity Butterfly Conservation as best for summer nectar. A total of 2659 flower visits from 14 butterfly and one moth species were observed. We performed a principal components analysis which showed contrasting patterns between the species attracted to Origanum vulgare and Buddleia davidii. The “butterfly bush” Buddleia attracted many nymphalines, such as the peacock, Inachis io, but very few satyrines such as the gatekeeper, Pyronia tithonus, which mostly visited Origanum. Eupatorium cannibinum had the highest Simpson’s Diversity score of 0.75, while Buddleia and Origanum were lower, scoring 0.66 and 0.50 respectively. No one plant was good at attracting all observed butterfly species, as each attracted only a subset of the butterfly community. We conclude that to create a butterfly-friendly garden, a variety of plant species are required as nectar sources for butterflies. Furthermore, garden plant recommendations can probably benefit from being more precise as to the species of butterfly they attract

The dose makes the poison: have “field realistic” rates of exposure of bees to neonicotinoid insecticides been overestimated in laboratory studies?

Recent laboratory based studies have demonstrated adverse sub-lethal effects of neonicotinoid insecticides on honey bees and bumble bees, and these studies have been influential in leading to a European Union moratorium on the use of three neonicotinoids, clothianidin, imidacloprid, and thiamethoxam on “bee attractive” crops. Yet so far, these same effects have not been observed in field studies. Here we review the three key dosage factors (concentration, duration and choice) relevant to field conditions, and conclude that these have probably been over estimated in many laboratory based studies

Minority-carrier transport in InGaAsSb thermophotovoltaic diodes

Uncoated InGaAsSb/GaSb thermophotovoltaic (TPV) diodes with 0.56 eV (2.2 {micro}m) bandgaps exhibit external quantum efficiencies of 59% at 2 {micro}m. The devices have electron diffusion lengths as long as 29 {micro}m in 8-{micro}m-wide p-InGaAsSb layers and hole diffusion lengths of 3 {micro}m in 6-{micro}m-wide n-InGaAsSb layers. The electron and hole diffusion lengths appear to increase with increasing p- and n-layer widths. At 632.8 nm the internal quantum efficiencies of diodes with 1- to 8-{micro}m-wide p-layers are above 89% and are independent of the p-layer width, indicating long electron diffusion lengths. InGaAsSb has, therefore, excellent minority carrier transport properties that are well suited to efficient TPV diode operation. The structures were grown by molecular-beam epitaxy