UCalgary research collaboration reveals new urbanization and landscape modifications at ancient Maya city

Lidar technology unearthed tropical megapolis beneath forest canopy of the Calakmul Biosphere

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UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY

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IMAGE: IMAGE OF THE CALAKMUL LIDAR SURVEY. COPYRIGHT, BAJO LABERINTO ARCHAEOLOGICAL PROJECT AND INSTITUTO NACIONAL DE ANTROPOLOGÍA E HISTORIA. view more 

CREDIT: COPYRIGHT, BAJO LABERINTO ARCHAEOLOGICAL PROJECT AND INSTITUTO NACIONAL DE ANTROPOLOGÍA E HISTORIA.

Following years of research, scientists from the Bajo Laberinto Archaeological Project, a University of Calgary-led interinstitutional and multidisciplinary research project, in conjunction with Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH), Campeche, have utilized lidar (light detection and ranging) to help uncover more secrets of the enormous ancient Maya city of Calakmul. As a result, researchers can now better understand the density and landscape modifications of Mexico’s ancient Maya Calakmul settlement. 

“By using lidar imagery, we are now able to fully understand the immense size of the Calakmul urban settlement and its substantial landscape modifications, which supported an intensive agricultural system. All available land was covered with water canals, terraces, walls and dams, no doubt to provide food and water security for Calakmul residents,” says Kathryn Reese-Taylor, professor, department of Anthropology and Archaeology, UCalgary.

Located in the Calakmul bioreserve, a UNESCO Mixed World Heritage site since 2002 and 2014, the site of Calakmul was the new capital of the powerful Kanu’l (Snake) dynasty from ca. 635 to 850 CE. The Kanu’l regime dominated geopolitics of the Maya lowlands, controlling a vast network of vassal kingdoms. Yet despite our knowledge of Calakmul’s far-reaching hegemony in the Maya region, to-date, researchers were uncertain of the extent of the urban settlement and landscape modifications in the capital city itself. This changed with the lidar survey. Funded by a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada to Dr. Reese-Taylor and Lic. Adriana Velazquez Morlet, director, INAH, Campeche, and with authorization from the INAH Archaeology Council and carried out by the National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping (NCALM) at the University of Houston and Aerotecnología Digital S.A. de C.V. of Pachuca, Mexico, the lidar survey covered 95 km2 and revealed the dense and complex urban sprawl that lies beneath the Calakmul forest canopy.

Although the number of people who lived at Calakmul during the height of the Snake king’s rule was not a complete surprise because of previous mapping and archaeological investigations by the Autonomous University of Campeche and INAH, the team was astonished at the scale and degree of urban construction. Immense apartment-style residential compounds have been identified throughout the surveyed area, some with as many as 60 individual structures - the seats of large households composed of extended families and affiliated members. These large residential units were clustered around numerous temples, shrines and possible marketplaces, making Calakmul one of the largest cities in the Americas at 700 AD. Researchers were also able to see that the magnitude of landscape modification equaled the scale of the urban population. All available land was covered with water canals, terraces, walls, and dams, no doubt to provide maximum food and water security for the city dwellers.

Image of the Calakmul lidar survey. Copyright, Bajo Laberinto Archaeological Project and Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia.

CREDIT

Copyright, Bajo Laberinto Archaeological Project and Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia.

Going forward, the lidar survey will be used by INAH to help with policy and planning for the Biosphere in anticipation of the expected increased tourism in the area. Lidar will also continue to support the Bajo Laberinto Archaeological Project which aims to investigate the causes for the rapid population increase at Calakmul and its effect on the region’s environment. Directed by Dr. Reese-Taylor, Armando Anaya Hernández, Universidad Autónoma de Campeche, and Felix A. Kupprat, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, with the collaboration of Dr. Nicholas Dunning, University of Cincinnati, the Bajo Laberinto Archaeological Project initiated its first season of research at Calakmul in 2022 and focused on documenting the newly discovered settlement and excavating significant water management features within the city.

Reese-Taylor and her colleagues on the Bajo Laberinto Archaeological Project will present their preliminary findings from the lidar survey on the INAH TV YouTube channel, on Tuesday, October 25 at 5 p.m. MT.  

UCalgary is Canada’s entrepreneurial university, located in Canada’s most enterprising city. It is a top-five research university and one of the highest-ranked universities of its age. Founded in 1966, its 35,000 students experience an innovative learning environment, made rich by research, hands-on experiences and entrepreneurial thinking. It is Canada’s leader in the creation of start-ups. Start something today at the University of Calgary.

For more information, visit ucalgary.ca. Stay up to date with UCalgary news headlines on Twitter @UCalgary. For access to UCalgary news releases, images and b-roll, and details on faculties and how to reach experts, check out our newsroom at ucalgary.ca/newsroom.

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METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

Arts research inspires new approaches to emergency planning

As the UK Covid-19 inquiry gets underway and the country’s pandemic preparedness is examined, new performance research is making a significant impact on the future of emergency planning in the UK and beyond

Reports and Proceedings

NORTHUMBRIA UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: A PHOTO TAKEN DURING DR DUGGAN AND DR ANDREWS' RESEARCH IN NEW ORLEANS: SCHOOL BUSES CARRYING MARDI GRAS KREWES IN NEW ORLEANS (2022). view more 

CREDIT: PHOTO CREDIT: DR PATRICK DUGGAN

The Covid-19 pandemic challenged the country’s resilience in ways that most of the population have never witnessed. It also brought to the fore the vital role that emergency planning plays in preparing for, responding to and recovering from crises.

With that came calls for new ideas - ways of identifying and responding to local and city challenges both at speed and creatively.

To address this need for innovation, academics from Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, and Brunel University London investigated the ways in which arts, culture, and performance can open up new perspectives on city emergency and resilience strategy and practice, both in the context of Covid-19 and for future emergencies.

Dr Patrick Duggan and Dr Stuart Andrews’ 21-month project, Social Distancing and Reimagining City Life: Performative strategies and practices for response and recovery in and beyond lockdown, started in December 2020. Since then, their research, which was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), has helped several organisations and councils, such as those in Bristol, Cumbria, Newham, Northumberland and North Tyneside, to think and work differently – in both day-to-day practice and long-term strategy.

New ways of debriefing

The Emergency Planning Society (EPS), began working with Dr Duggan and Dr Andrews after reading their interim project report. With over 1200 members across the UK and internationally, the EPS is the UK’s leading membership body for professionals working or studying in disaster management, emergency response and resilience.

Jeannie Barr, Interim Chair, Emergency Planning Society, said: “Andrews’ and Duggan’s research has had a swift impact on our work that contributes to the future of emergency planning in the UK and internationally.

“Their work has led to several key changes that will be of significant benefit to the Society’s membership, and to our understandings of what good emergency planning looks like. This positively impacts on how we might help support our members to develop their professional practice, which will have significant wider societal benefits.

“The research revealed a critical gap in the ways resilience address approaches to coping with workplaces stresses in emergency planning. Our members were collectively experiencing a need for processes and practices of decompressing from work and means of taking breaks even during live events.”

Responding to this newly identified need, the academics were invited to develop what they termed ‘A Toolkit of Creative Strategies for Personal Debriefing’. Existing procedures for debriefing after a particular incident are normally conducted at organisational or inter-agency levels, not with individuals or at team level.

Jeannie Barr explained that conventional debriefs “focus on the technical aspects of any response and would not consider the human element of any response or rather how an individual reacts to a crisis situation before, during or after that crisis. This in turn resulted in lessons gathered during the de-brief process [being] identified but not learnt.

“To learn to do something differently, whether process, procedure or action requires a change specifically to things like routine, behaviours, muscle memory and learned behaviours etc. The toolkit provides an enormously beneficial new approach to debriefing that centres on individuals and teams, that opens the space for individuals to consider things from a different perspective, to use things like creative thinking as an approach to problem solving, that reduces fear of change and provides some tools that will support an individual with the emotional aspects of crisis and acceptance of the need for change. So important is this contribution that it has been integrated into our recently updated core competencies framework.”

Valuing creative practice

Northumberland County Council and Bristol City Council have been Involved in the research project from its inception. Both have noted how rewarding the work has been and the positive impact it has had and will continue to have on their respective councils and communities.

Bristol City Council’s Corporate Strategy identifies ‘resilience’ as one of its building blocks. Jim Gillman, City Operational Planning and Response Manager, Bristol City Council, said: “As we move from a pandemic to cost of living crisis and we increasingly understand emergencies as wider than ‘no notice, immediate impact events’… [Andrews’ and Duggan’s] research offers valuable new ‘access routes’ into communities to talk about risk and resilience. Routes that leave behind the ‘dry’, top down, traditional emergency planning approach and allow a more democratic conversation, driven by the communities and articulated through cultural, performative and artistic networks, organisations and the content of their outputs. Far more effective than a ‘Community Resilience Plan’!”

Helen Hinds, Business Resilience and Emergency Planning Lead, Northumberland County Council, said: “Andrews’ and Duggan’s findings reveal that performance methodologies provide what I think of as the interconnective tissue between what, on the surface, seem like disparate skills and activities. Performance can enable difficult conversations and engender a new approach to how we work. It reinforces the need for diverse voices and provides new methods to try something different, to challenge and to not be afraid to be creative.”

In Newham, the research has directly influenced the development of public policy that will have a substantial, material, and long-term impact on the cultural environment of the London Borough and on the wellbeing of its population of over 350,000 people. It has also had an impact on the way the Council understands the importance of and develops future policy for culture, creativity, and the arts in Newham.

Dr Duggan and Dr Andrews have also been invited to be involved in the development of North Tyneside Council’s new cultural strategy.

Head of Culture, Steve Bishop, said that their work had triggered new conversations within the Authority about the positioning of culture as a service area and also how it should be embedded in the Council’s approach to priorities around the climate change, equalities, community engagement and place agendas.

Professor Andy Long, Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive at Northumbria University, said: “Northumbria is developing a strong reputation for driving research which delivers real impact. It’s great to see this interdisciplinary project make such an impact on the future of emergency planning. Andrews’ and Duggan’s research highlights the need for new approaches to emergency planning and resilience work, especially given the breadth of unprecedented events that hazard mitigation, sustainability and resilience professionals have had to deal with in recent years. It’s also fantastic to see arts research at the forefront of innovations in these essential and complex fields.”

Professor Andrew Jones, Brunel University London’s Vice-Chancellor and President, said: “This project shines a spotlight on the impact of the arts in our society, and on the value of arts research as part of an interdisciplinary approach to tackling the challenges we face.”

The impact of Dr Duggan and Dr Andrews’ research in this area has also been seen internationally. In February 2022, Austin Feldbaum, Hazard Mitigation Administrator at City of New Orleans, said that Dr Duggan and Dr Andrews’ earlier research helped the city of New Orleans to understand the importance of leveraging the city’s ‘cultural vernacular’ as a means of pandemic response. Their research encouraged the city to recognise the need to ‘lift up the work’ of cultural practitioners in New Orleans as a means of communicating Covid-19 public health messages ‘with citizens in terms they could understand’.

The team presented the newly launched toolkit and wider findings from the research at the Emergency Services Show and the International Security Expo in September.

For more information about the project please visit www.performingcityresilience.com

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SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Arts research inspires new approaches to emergency planning

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

25-Oct-2022

Greenbelts are effective at slowing urban sprawl, new Concordia research shows

Study compares 60 European cities to see how protected landscapes lead to denser development

Peer-Reviewed Publication

CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: PARNIAN POURTAHERIAN view more 

CREDIT: PARNIAN POURTAHERIAN

Fifteen years ago, the global population was almost evenly divided between urban and rural dwellers. In 2022, according to World Bank figures, almost a billion more people live in cities and towns than in the countryside. This relentless trend of urbanization has led to a rapid, often unchecked growth of cities, with sprawl stretching far out beyond previous limits. Linking distant suburbs to the urban core is costly, both financially and environmentally, resulting in higher traffic and greenhouse-gas emissions, loss of agricultural soils and the destruction and fragmentation of wildlife habitats.

One tool local and regional governments can use to limit urban sprawl is the greenbelt: an open space, usually forest or farmland, or a combination of both, that embraces a city or region and is protected and preserved. This open space, in which development is either strictly limited or prohibited, serves as a barrier to urban expansion. While many cities worldwide have adopted greenbelts, their usefulness at cutting down sprawl is often debated: critics say they can spur exurban development and increase pressure on developers within the greenbelts.

A new paper in the journal Landscape and Urban Planning by two Concordia researchers argues that greenbelts almost always work in curbing sprawl, particularly in larger cities. It looks at 60 cities in Europe, half of them with a greenbelt, half without, and uses open-source data to compare changes in and levels of urban sprawl between 2006 and 2015.

“We noticed decreases in urban sprawl in 27 of the 30 cities that had greenbelts, so we can say that overall, greenbelts are very effective,” says the study’s lead author, Parnian Pourtaherian, MSc 21. Jochen Jaeger, an associate professor of geography, planning and environment in the Faculty of Arts and Science, co-authored the paper.

The future is smaller

The researchers separated the 60 cities into four categories according to their 2015 populations: very large (2.5 million or more inhabitants); large (more than one million); medium-large (between 500,000 and one million) and medium (between 96,000 and 500,000), with an equal distribution of cities with and without greenbelts. They quantified urban sprawl using a metric called weighted urban proliferation (WUP). It assigns a value to urban sprawl based on the amount of built-up areas in a landscape, how dispersed those areas are and the average amount of land taken up per inhabitant or job.

They examined the sizes of target cities’ built-up areas in 2006 and 2015, the longest time frame possible given the available data. While cities both with and without greenbelts showed increases in built-up areas, says Pourtaherian, “the differences between them were mainly due to land uptake per person, meaning the area that an individual occupies on average. In cities with greenbelts, the decrease in land uptake per person was the most effective measurement that led to a decrease in urban sprawl.”

Overall, 90 per cent of cities with greenbelts experienced decreases in urban sprawl. In contrast, just over a third — 36.7 per cent — of cities without them saw their sprawl decrease. Much of that decrease is the result of denser development, with lower uptake per inhabitant.

CAPTION

Map of cities with and without greenbelts

CREDIT

Parnian Pourtaherian

Transferrable practices

The researchers point out that denser urban development is essential to building greener, more sustainable and more compact cities. They encourage municipal authorities to implement them when possible and to work together with neighbouring towns and cities to advance similar sprawl-mitigating patterns of development. When full greenbelts cannot be implemented due to spatial obstacles, even fragments of them may help, notes Jaeger.

“We have seen recent discussions on having partial greenbelts, such as green corridors or green wedges, as urban boundaries,” he says. “There are various modifications available now, but in general, a greenbelt is a very good option to consider to support cities in using land more sparingly. We hope more cities in North America will use them.”

Read the cited paper: “How effective are greenbelts at mitigating urban sprawl? A comparative study of 60 European cities.”

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JOURNAL

Landscape and Urban Planning

DOI

10.1016/j.landurbplan.2022.104532 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

How effective are greenbelts at mitigating urban sprawl? A comparative study of 60 European cities

Do financial incentives increase adult vaccinations? A view of lessons learned

Peer-Reviewed Publication

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY'S MAILMAN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH

October 25, 2022-- Cash transfers had limited outcomes for increasing vaccination efforts among adults, according to research led by Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (Wits).  The impact of lottery programs also was limited, and there was no evidence that other non-cash incentives for COVID-19 or other adult vaccines improved vaccination coverage. The findings were published online in the journal Vaccine X.

Incentives aimed at individuals to encourage them to get vaccinated included direct cash transfers, lottery tickets, and non-financial incentives, such as food, appliances, and marijuana. In New York City, residents were offered a range of items – from a $100 pre-paid debit card, to free amusement park tickets, to a trip to the Statue of Liberty.

“While we found evidence of cash transfers increasing both the coverage and intention to be vaccinated, very few studies considered these effects at a population level and the ones that did found that the improvements were limited to a few percentage points in vaccination coverage,” said Nina Schwalbe, an adjunct assistant professor in the Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health at Columbia Mailman School of Public Health.

The researchers conducted a review using MEDLINE, PubMed, and Cochrane databases of peer-reviewed articles published between January 1, 2012 and February 9, 2022. The initial search yielded 617 articles. After title and abstract screening, we conducted a full-text appraisal of 110 articles, excluded duplicates, and identified 26 articles that met our inclusion criteria, with a majority of studies from the U.S. 

The effects of lottery programs ranged from none to a slightly over 2 percent increase in coverage, and no evidence was identified for positive effects of other non-cash incentives for COVID-19 or other adult vaccines.

“Of note, for all vaccines, incentives were found to be more effective for the first dose than the second dose,” said Schwalbe, who also a doctoral candidate at Wits. “Even more surprising, there was no evidence presented in any of the studies on the extent to which incentives serve to address the concerns of those who are hesitant or even increase uptake among this specific subset of the population.”

The authors note that some studies raise ethical concerns that financial incentives for vaccination could be construed as coercive, and that in politically-divided contexts, government-promoted incentives might generate a backlash among those who are already hesitant, heightening suspicion of vaccination programs. “This is an important concern to bear in mind and plan for,” observed Schwalbe.

In 18 months, eleven COVID-19 vaccines are now authorized for use by the World Health Organization, and more than 66 percent of the world’s population has received at least one vaccine dose. “While COVID-19 vaccines are available and affordable in most countries, accessibility is an ongoing challenge in many areas of the world.” The WHO classified vaccine hesitancy as among the ten biggest global health threats in 2019.

“We found it remarkable how many governments, states, and cities offered incentives to increase vaccination coverage and did not embark on any type of implementation research to evaluate program effectiveness, “said Schwalbe. “And while we found evidence that some programs work, no researchers took it further to understand why or for whom incentives resulted in positive effects.”

Co-authors are Layth Hanbali and Susanna Lehtimaki, Spark Street Advisors; Marta C. Nunes, South African Research Chair Initiative in Vaccine Preventable Diseases and South African Medical Research Council, and University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.

Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health

Founded in 1922, the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health pursues an agenda of research, education, and service to address the critical and complex public health issues affecting New Yorkers, the nation and the world. The Columbia Mailman School is the fourth largest recipient of NIH grants among schools of public health. Its nearly 300 multi-disciplinary faculty members work in more than 100 countries around the world, addressing such issues as preventing infectious and chronic diseases, environmental health, maternal and child health, health policy, climate change and health, and public health preparedness. It is a leader in public health education with more than 1,300 graduate students from 55 nations pursuing a variety of master’s and doctoral degree programs. The Columbia Mailman School is also home to numerous world-renowned research centers, including ICAP and the Center for Infection and Immunity. For more information, please visit www.mailman.columbia.edu.

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JOURNAL

Vaccine X

DOI

10.1016/j.jvacx.2022.100225 

Japanese cockroach east-west separation already established over 5000 years ago

Peer-Reviewed Publication

KUMAMOTO UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: ARCHAEOLOGICAL DIG SITES IN JAPAN WHERE PROF. OBATA’S TEAM FOUND COCKROACH IMPRESSIONS IN EARTHENWARE: (1) MOTONOBARU SITE, MIYAZAKI CITY, MIYAZAKI PREFECTURE; (2) KAMITSHIRO SITE, EBINO CITY, MIAZAKI PREFECTURE; (3) KOMAKI SITE, KANOYA CITY, KAGOSHIMA PREFECTURE; (4) SEKIGUCHI SITE, HOKUTO CITY, YAMANASHI PREFECTURE. view more 

CREDIT: DR. HIROKI OBATA

A Japan-based research team led by Professor Hiroki Obata has been continuing the work of identifying cultivated plants and household pests from Japan’s Jomon period (16,500 – 2,800 years ago) using their own technique of identifying the subtle traces of organisms in and on earthenware and clay pottery. So far, they have found vestiges of plants like soybeans, azuki beans and perilla, which are thought to have been brought indoors for storage, processing, and cooking. They also found many traces of insects in the pottery including food pests like the maize weevil and lesser grain borer and the leather & textile-damaging skin beetle. In 2016, the team published their discovery of cockroach egg casing impressions on the surface of Jomon pottery at the Motonobaru archaeological site in Miyazaki Prefecture.

Humans and cockroaches have cohabited since ancient times. Out of the approximately 50 known species of cockroaches in Japan, about ten regularly enter homes and buildings. The Yamato cockroach (Periplaneta japonica) is considered native to the country because its likeness appears in documents from the Heian period (793–1185). Most other species are thought to be non-native, mostly originating from Africa.

To make the identifications, the researchers used a scanning electronic microscope and other tools to measure the morphology of earthenware impressions of cockroach egg casings found at multiple archaeological sites around the country and compared them to the egg casings of present-day cockroaches. They were able to determine that casing impressions excavated from the sites in western Japan belonged to the smokybrown cockroach (Periplaneta fuliginosa) and those from sites in eastern Japan were from the Yamato cockroach. The smokybrown cockroach was previously thought to have originated in southern China and entered Japan during the Edo period (18th-19th century) through sea trade. However, its discovery at the Motonobaru site has led Professor Obata and colleagues to speculate that the smokybrown cockroach is, in fact, a species native to Japan that was thriving on the archipelago in the Jomon period.

The work also indicates that the current geographical distribution of major cockroach species in modern Japan was already established 5300-4000 years ago, with smokybrown cockroach in western Japan and the Yamato cockroach in eastern Japan. The research team believes this is an important discovery that takes aim at the conventional entomological theories on the history of Japanese domestic cockroaches were established.

“Cockroaches have received little attention in the past due to a lack of necessary archaeological data,” says Professor Obata. “This is partly because insects are easily decomposed as adults, making it difficult for them to become fossilized. This study, which focuses on cockroach egg casings, is extremely pioneering."

Professor Obata and his colleagues have been working on a research project entitled "Excavating Earthenware" through the Grant-in-Aid for Transformative Research Areas (A) fund from Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) since the fall of 2020. This work is one of the outcomes of this project.

CAPTION

Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images and illustrations of cast cockroach egg case impressions from Japanese archaeological sites. a: SEM images, a’: illustrations of SEM images, b: locations of impressions, c: illustration of the inner part of the modern smokybrown cockroach (Periplanata fuliginosa) egg casing. ※White bars without numbers indicate 1 mm.

CREDIT

Dr. Hiroki Obata

JOURNAL

Journal of Archaeological Science Reports

DOI

10.1016/j.jasrep.2022.103599 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

The Jomon people cohabitated with cockroaches – The prehistoric pottery impressions reveal the existence of sanitary pests

Bees active in woodland tree-tops, research shows

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF EAST ANGLIA

 

IMAGE: RESEARCHER GUTHRIE ALLEN AT WORK TAKING SAMPLES IN THE CANOPY, CREDIT UNIVERSITY OF EAST ANGLIA. view more 

CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF EAST ANGLIA

Wild bees may be just as happy visiting the high canopy of woodlands as they are among the flowers at ground level, according to new research from the University of East Anglia.

The shaded interiors of woodlands are generally considered a poor habitat for sun-loving bees.

But a new study published today reveals that a diverse community of wild bees are active high up above the shade - among the trees’ branches and foliage in the sunlit woodland canopy.

The team say that woodland canopies may play a more significant role in bee conservation than previously thought, with nectar and pollen-rich Sycamore trees proving particularly attractive to bees.

Dr Richard Davies, from UEA’s School of Biological Sciences, said: “Wild bees are a major contributor to crop pollination services, but to thrive in agricultural landscapes they also need non-crop habitats to provide places to nest and flowers to feed on.

“Shaded woodland interiors are often considered poor foraging habitat for bees, but until now, bee activity in the sunlit woodland canopy has scarcely been investigated.”

Lead researcher Guthrie Allen, also from UEA’s School of Biological Sciences, said: “We wanted to find out more about the potential for the woodland canopy to support wild bee communities.”

The team investigated bee communities across 15 woodland sites in a farmed landscape in Norfolk in late spring.

They examined levels of bee activity in four habitats - in the canopy (at heights of up to 20 metres) and understory of both woodland interiors and exposed woodland edges.

Allen said: “We found that a diverse community of wild bees are active in the woodland canopy – by which we mean high up among the trees’ branches and foliage.

“Activity levels were particularly high near flowering Sycamore trees.

“We also found that bee communities differ between the woodland canopy and understory – the layer of vegetation growing close to the woodland floor.

“And we were surprised to find that most bee species were just as abundant in the understories of woodland interiors as they were at the sun-exposed edges bordering farmland.

“Our findings show that wild bees have the potential to exploit the plentiful sources of nectar and pollen available in woodland canopies.

“Nectar producing trees, such as Sycamore, are likely to represent a significant food source for many bee species, while some may even collect pollen from wind-pollinated trees, such as Oak.

“Our findings also show the potential for the understory of managed woodlands to support bee communities.

“Further investigation is needed to understand why communities differ between the canopy and understory, but overall, our work suggests that woodlands play a more significant role in supporting farmland bee communities than previously thought.”

‘Canopy sampling reveals hidden potential value of woodland trees for wild bee assemblages’ is published in the journalInsect Conservation and Diversityon October 13, 2022.

  

CAPTION

A sample site high in the woodland canopy, credit University of East Anglia

CREDIT

University of East Anglia

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JOURNAL

Insect Conservation and Diversity

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

‘Canopy sampling reveals hidden potential value of woodland trees for wild bee assemblages’

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

13-Oct-2022

As the 2022 UN climate change conference (COP27) approaches, this week’s special issue of The BMJ focuses on the climate emergency, its impact on health, and the power of hope as a driver to achieve change

Peer-Reviewed Publication

BMJ

In an editorial to launch the issue, editors Kamran Abbasi, Sophie Cook, and Juliet Dobson argue that hope is “a powerful driver to achieve change” in the face of government and corporate inaction to mitigate the climate crisis.

They warn that the climate crisis threatens not only physical health but mental health and wellbeing too, particularly among young people, often promoting a sense of despair, hopelessness, and sealed fate.

Yet there is longstanding evidence that hope is “an important tool to protect wellbeing and foster activism in the face of adversity” and they suggest taking inspiration from young activists “who are harnessing hope to drive positive change.”

And while they recognise that hope will not solve the deep seated problems or realities that humans face, they say it is “an indispensable asset in tackling the climate crisis.”

Also in this issue:

No need for a trade-off between sustainability and the cost-of-living crisis

The cost-of-living crisis should not be an alibi for dropping measures to achieve net zero, argues Professor Michael Marmot.

He says government action in four key areas - housing, food, work, and transport - will not only address the fuel poverty crisis, but will also help tackle the longer term issues of sustainability and health equity.

“Sustainability, achieving net zero carbon emissions, and advancement of health equity can, and must, go together,” he writes. 

Electric cars alone are not the answer to a healthier, zero carbon world

A rapid transition to electric vehicles is needed but will not on its own solve transport related health problems or achieve zero greenhouse gas emissions fast enough, argue James Woodcock and colleagues.

They say a holistic approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions due to transportation is required, and that there is an urgent need to imagine a future where the car, as a privately owned, one-size-fits-all mobility solution does not exist.

Time for a global economic reset with planetary health at its core

Kent Buse and colleagues say a wellbeing economy focused on planetary health should be top of the COP27 agenda.

They argue that the use of gross domestic product (GDP) as a metric of successful governance is “problematic as it doesn’t account for the depreciation of the biosphere and the harmful impacts of economic activities, nor does it take account of insecurity, lack of social cohesion, and inequality.”

Instead, they call for a global economic reset with alternative metrics of progress that assess policy and investment against criteria concerned with the holistic wellbeing of people and planet.

Addressing the challenges of climate related migration and displacement

We must prepare health systems for rising numbers of people on the move, argue Kristie Ebi and Robert McLeman.

They say all forms of climate related migration will present challenges in coming decades, and call for greater investment in disaster risk management, response, and prevention across all nations and communities.

“Climate change is amplifying the drivers of migration and displacement, negatively affecting population health and putting additional strain on health systems,” they warn. “Additional investment is needed now to support these vulnerable populations and communities.”

Happiness that doesn’t cost the Earth

It’s time to ask what really makes us happy, and whether that needs to cost the Earth, says Stuart Capstick at the Centre for Climate Change Research.

Wellbeing has conventionally been pursued through increasing income and greater consumption of goods and services. Yet higher levels of income and consumption aren’t necessarily associated with greater happiness - and are among the strongest drivers of greenhouse gas emissions.

As such, he argues that some of the most valuable uses to which energy and consumption can be put are to meet people’s needs, quality of life, and personal happiness efficiently and equitably.

 

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JOURNAL

The BMJ