Jessica Klein, research assistant at the Developmental Disabilities and Mental Health Lab, speaks to Verywell Health about how masking behaviours to avoid uncomfortable social situations and stigma leads to long-term burnout for many autistic women. “A pretty consistent finding across the board is that many ," says Klein.

Federal and provincial politicians across Canada are discussing ramping up policies that would allow the detention and treatment of addicted and mentally ill people against their will in psychiatric institutions. Professor Marina Morrow, who has , speaks to The Globe and Mail about her findings.

Professor Valerio de Stefano talks to Financial Post about how AI is poised to change the way job vacancies are filled. The main goal of using AI as part of a hiring process is to cut costs. “Removing bias is a secondary objective," says De Stefano. “.” It can't be easily removed because software is developed based on past practices. "In order to build any of these programs, you have to have a database and a benchmark that informs how they are going to work," he says. "If that database or data set includes discrimination — and, historically, we have discrimination in many jobs — it's not so easy to root out." De Stefano doesn't believe companies are intentionally seeking to discriminate against candidates but says that even with a concerted efffort, removing biases from algorithms can't be done. "The idea that we can use technology as a magic wand to eliminate discrimination is just delusional," he says. "Tech is a reflection of what we do and value."

Discrimination is always going to creep into the ways you build the algorithm

de Stefano speaking to Financial Post

Professor Thomas Klassen speaks with a Toronto Star columnist about how baby boomers benefited — and were shaped by — their generation's good timing and vast numbers. “” says Klassen.

After seasons of forest fires, floods and heat waves, there’s a real need to build resilient food systems that can withstand the impacts of climate change and extreme weather events. But puts all our apples in one basket, Sheila Colla tells The Narwhal. “Where did the disconnect happen — why do we all of a sudden value the honeybee as our main pollinator?” Colla asks.

Do you have a new research study or an academic achievement to share? Contact media@yorku.ca with details. For daily York in the News highlights, follow on X.

The post York experts discuss masking behaviours, involuntary psychiatric care, AI in hiring, baby boomers, bees and more appeared first on News@York.

Weekly roundup highlighting �첥��Ƶ faculty offering their academic expertise in the news

Since the contested election on July 28, Venezuelans have taken to the streets demanding that President Nicolás Maduro acknowledge he lost to an opposition that is claiming a landslide victory. Following a protest in Montreal last weekend, , saying the country could face more unrest and violence in the near future if Maduro remains in power. “Maduro doesn’t represent change, he represents continuity,” says Bohn, noting that the results he announced are not “evidence-based.” In another article examining the international reaction to the election, with China and Russia endorsing the incumbent Maduro while the U.S. supports the opposition. “China prefers a stable Venezuela, and what they identify as [a] credible source of stability at the moment is Nicolas Maduro,” explains Rosales to Voice of America.

[Pierre Poilievre] can't not talk to lobbyists, he can't not talk to industry groups. He has to — that's his job as a potential prime minister, to understand how to make the economy go in the right direction, how to create jobs, how to get industry to want to come to Canada.

Professor Ian Stedman

Professor Ian Stedman comments on The Narwhal’s findings that federal Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre and his staff were communicating with lobbyists, including those in oil and gas, while Poilievre was publicly denouncing interest groups. Stedman says Poilievre’s anti-lobby remarks go against what the job requires. “That’s his job as a potential prime minister, to understand how to make the economy go in the right direction, how to create jobs, how to get industry to want to come to Canada.”

in National Parks Traveler. Reasons for the decline range from increasing land use, agricultural controls, a changing climate, disease, and the influx of non-native species. In the case of the rusty patched bumble bee, a focus of Colla’s research, she believes that diseases introduced by honeybees are to blame, with hives trucked back and forth across the country: “Honeybees are brought to California to pollinate almonds, then [head] northeast for apples. Bees are being moved all over, they’re stressed out, and it’s not natural.” 

Professor Eric B. Kennedy shares his perspective on with CityNews, emphasizing its crucial role in understanding virus prevalence.

“Disaster movies remain an important popular culture phenomenon,” writes Professor Jack Rozdilsky about the movie Twisters. , he explores what this genre of film can teach audiences, and what it often gets wrong: “Disaster studies scholars have considered disaster movies from many perspectives including their value for teaching people about disaster management and how these films shape the meaning and experience of disasters.”

Professor Gail Fraser weighs in on the noise cannons and netting successfully keeping seagulls from nesting on a TTC facility that houses streetcars. Due to health and safety concerns caused by a large amount of bird droppings, the Toronto Transit Commission installed the deterrence devices in March at Leslie Barns, near Leslie Street and Lake Shore Boulevard E. She says it’s unlikely the birds will return to nest on the roof next spring because they’ll remember the failed previous attempts with the deterrence measures in place.

Elliott Rae, who coaches fencers at York, comments on in Toronto Star. It will go into the record books as Canada’s first Olympic medal in fencing, bringing national attention to the sport.

Do you have a new research study or an academic achievement to share? Contact media@yorku.ca with details. For daily York in the News highlights, follow on X.

The post York experts weigh in on global and local issues: from the Venezuelan election to the TTC's battle with birds appeared first on News@York.

�첥��Ƶ researchers examined the early and late life stages of small developing carpenter bees in the presence and absence of maternal care and were surprised by the results.

TORONTO, Sept. 14, 2023 – Most wild bees are solitary, but one tiny species of carpenter bees fastidiously cares for and raises their offspring, an act that translates into huge benefits to the developing bee’s microbiome, development and health, found �첥��Ƶ researchers.

Not unlike the positive effect human mothers can have on their offspring, the maternal care of these carpenter bees (Ceratina calcarata) staves off an overabundance of harmful fungi, bacteria, viruses and parasites in the earliest stage of development.

Without maternal care the pathogen load of these developing bees ballooned – 85 per cent of were fungi, while eight per cent were bacteria – which can impact their microbiome, a critical component of bee health, as well as their development, immune system and gene expression. This can lead, for example, to changes in brain and eye development, and even behaviour. The biggest single fungus found was Aspergillus, known to induce stonebrood disease in honey bees, which mummifies the offspring. In later stages, the lack of care can lead to a reduced microbiome, increasing susceptibility to diseases and poor overall health.

The researchers looked at four overall developmental stages in the life of these carpenter bees starting with the larvae stage both in the presence and absence of maternal care.

“There are fitness affects resulting from these fungal infections. We are documenting the shifts in development, the shifts in disease loads, and it is a big deal because in wild bees there is a lot less known about their disease loads. We are highlighting all of these factors for the first time,” says senior author Sandra Rehan, a professor in York’s Faculty of Science.

The developmental changes sparked by which genes were expressed or supressed, upregulated or downregulated, along with disease loads, depending on the presence or lack of maternal care, created knock-on effects on the microbiome and bee health. These single mothers build one nest a year in the pith of dead plant stems where they give birth and tend to their offspring from spring to as late as fall. Anything that prevents the mother from caring for her young, increases risks of nest predation and parasitism, including excessive pruning of spring and fall stems, and can have huge consequences on their young.

The paper, , was published today in the journal Communications Biology. Lead author Katherine Chau of �첥��Ƶ is a Mitacs Elevate and Weston Family Foundation Microbiome Initiative postdoctoral fellow.

“We found really striking shifts in the earliest stages, which was surprising as we did not expect that stage to be the most significantly changed,” says Chau. “Looking at gene expression of these bees you can see how the slightest dysregulation early in development cascades through their whole formation. It is all interconnected and shows how vital maternal care is in early childhood development.”

This study provides metatranscriptomic insights on the impact of maternal care on developing offspring and a foundational framework for tracking the development of the microbiome. “It is a complex paper that provides layers of data and shows the power of genomics as a tool,” says Rehan. “It allows us to document the interactions between host and environment. I think that is the power of this approach and the new technologies and techniques that we are developing.”

She also hopes it will give people more insight into the hidden life of bees and their vast differences, but also similarities. “Often people see bees as a monolith, but when you understand the complexity of bees and that there are wild bees and managed bees, people are more likely to care about bee diversity,” says Rehan.

Additional authors on the paper are Mariam Shamekh, a former honors thesis student and a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Undergrad Student Research Award recipient and Jesse Huisken, a PhD candidate and a NSERC Postgraduate scholarship recipient.

The post Lack of maternal care effects development, microbiome and health of wild bees appeared first on News@York.

TORONTO, June 17, 2022 – The local environment plays a pivotal role in the health and diversity of the gut microbiome of wild bees which could help detect invisible stressors and early indicators of potential threats, say �첥��Ƶ scientists in a new study.

Piloting a new frontier of metagenomics, the researchers sequenced whole genomes of three species of carpenter bees, a type of wild bee, in North America, Asia and Australia. This analysis allowed them to gain insights into the bee’s gut microbiome (bacteria and fungi), diet and viral load, as well as their environmental DNA.

Unlike social bees (like honeybees and bumblebees), the researchers found solitary bees get their microbiome, which is important for health, from their environment where they forge for food, rather than inheriting it from their nest mates. Carpenter bees burrow into woody plant stalks to lay eggs rather than in hives.

“This may make them better bio-indicators as they are much more sensitive to their environment,” says Faculty of Science Associate Professor , corresponding author of the research, , published today in the journal Communications Biology.

In Australia, the local populations had highly distinctive metagenomes and microbiomes; so much so that machine learning tools were able to reliably predict from which population each bee was drawn.

The research team also discovered crop pathogens in the microbiomes of carpenter bees which were previously only found in honeybees.

“These pathogens are not necessarily harmful to bees, but these wild bees could potentially be vectoring diseases that might have negative effects on agriculture,” says Rehan. Finding out how these pathogens are spreading in wild bees is important as bees contribute to ecological and agricultural health worldwide in addition to more than $200 billion in annual agricultural services.

Establishing a baseline of what a healthy microbiome looks like in wild bees allows scientists to compare species across continents and populations, and to figure out how diseases and harmful microbiota are being introduced and transmitted.

“We can really dissect bee health in a very systematic way looking at population genetics and parasite pathogen loads, healthy microbiomes and deviations,” says Rehan, whose Postdoctoral Research Associate, Wyatt Shell, led the study. “The long-term goal is really to be able to use these tools to be able to also detect early signatures of stress and habitats in need of restoration or conservation. To develop it almost like a diagnostic tool for bee health.”

Researchers believe they have captured the core microbiome of carpenter bees for the first time. They found beneficial bacteria in all three carpenter bee species which helped with metabolic and genetic functions. They also detected species of Lactobacillus, which is an essential beneficial bacteria group, imperative for good gut health and found across most bee lineages. Lactobacillus may protect against prevalent fungal pathogens, boost the immune system, and facilitate nutrient uptake.

However, a recently published paper in the journal Environmental DNA by Rehan and her graduate student Phuong Nguyen, , which studied the microbiome in brood and adult carpenter bees in cities, found they were lacking Lactobacillus.

“This raises red flags,” says Rehan. “We are continuing those studies to look at more nuanced urban, rural comparisons and long-term data to really understand these environmental stressors. Anytime we characterize a microbiome and see deviations from what we know to be normal, it can give us an indication of a population or species in threat.”

Overall, the results show metagenomic methods could provide important insights into wild bee ecology and health going forward.

“We've been piloting this research approach in a few species, but we're aiming to study dozens of wild bee species and broader comparisons are coming. These two studies are really establishing the foundation," she says. “The long-term goal is really to be able to use these tools to detect early signatures of stress in wild bees and thereby identify habitats in need of restoration or preservation. We are excited to be building the tools for a new era of wild bee research and conservation.”

The work was funded by NSERC Discovery Grants, Weston Family Foundation Microbiome Initiative funds, and the NSERC E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship to Rehan.

PHOTOS: Small carpenter bee - /news/wp-content/uploads/sites/242/2022/06/860-header-Small-carpenter-bee.jpg

Male carpenter bee (certina calcarata) - /news/wp-content/uploads/sites/242/2022/06/Male-ceratina-calcarata-side-copy-scaled.jpg

Carpenter bee (ceratina australensis) nest - /news/wp-content/uploads/sites/242/2022/06/Ceratina_australensis_nest.jpg

Carpenter bee (ceratina japonica) - /news/wp-content/uploads/sites/242/2022/06/Ceratina-japonica.jpg

-30-

�첥��Ƶ is a modern, multi-campus, urban university located in Toronto, Ontario. Backed by a diverse group of students, faculty, staff, alumni and partners, we bring a uniquely global perspective to help solve societal challenges, drive positive change and prepare our students for success. York's fully bilingual Glendon Campus is home to Southern Ontario's Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education. York’s campuses in Costa Rica and India offer students exceptional transnational learning opportunities and innovative programs. Together, we can make things right for our communities, our planet, and our future.

Media Contact:
Sandra McLean, �첥��Ƶ Media Relations, 416-272-6317, sandramc@yorku.ca

The post Clues to bee health found in their gut microbiome appeared first on News@York.

The post CBC News - World Bee Day a chance to remind people how important, and how threatened, the insects are appeared first on News@York.

TORONTO, May 18, 2022 – It’s no secret that pollinators are in trouble – and it could affect that morning coffee, fruit and even, bowl of cereal.  

The theme of on May 20 is Bee Engaged: Celebrating the diversity of bees and beekeeping systems, and it’s a good time to learn how creating bee-friendly habitats in the garden, on a balcony or in a community garden can help. There are some 350 species of native bees in Ontario, more than 850 in Canada and 20,000 worldwide.

�첥��Ƶ is home to the recently established Centre for Bee Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation where bee scientists and modellers work to foster collaborative expertise and further innovative and cutting-edge research to better understand bees and the risks to their health. Want to know more about bee habitats, behaviour, genetics and diseases, just ask the experts listed below.

And, tune in to York’s Scholar’s Hub @ Home: Bee the Change on May 19 at noon to learn about saving declining pollinators from two of York’s bee experts, Associate Professor of the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change and Professor of the Faculty of Science. Register .

Sheila Colla, co-author of the forthcoming book (June 11) – , can discuss the following:

• What to plant on balconies, in yards and community gardens across Ontario (See )

• Connection between native plants and native pollinators

• Importance of citizen science – how people can help scientists keep track of bees and their habitats

• What happened to the Rusty-patched bumblebee and why it’s a tale of what could happen to other bees

• Other bees on the endangered list

• Beyond honey bees and bumble bees. What are sweat bees, carpenter bees and mining bees, and what role do they play?

, an expert in wild bee genomics, behaviour and conservation and an associate professor in the Faculty of Science, can talk about:

• Loss of plant-pollinator networks and how some plants will now bloom too soon or too late for bees that rely on them

• Are the gut microbiomes of city bees missing key beneficial bacteria?

• Biodiversity conservation and why it’s important

• How maternal care of bee offspring has expanded the social life of bees

• Population and behavioural genomics

• Climate change, land use change and the effects on bees

Amro Zayed, an expert in honey bee biology and genomics, can talk aboutthe following:

• How bee genes can determine how bees behave, including how good they are at keeping their hive clean and how well they can survive cold winters

• Did western honey bees originate in Asia and why is that important to know?

• How the urban environment can help or hinder bees – think concrete versus green spaces, trees and gardens

• What’s stressing bumblebees? How scientists are using a conservation genomic approach and next generation sequencing to look inside for pathogens and pesticides

• Why are African hybrid honey bees (known as killer honey bees) highly defensive and aggressive?

• Bee health diagnostic tools, what they do and what’s being developed

-30-

�첥��Ƶ is a modern, multi-campus, urban university located in Toronto, Ontario. Backed by a diverse group of students, faculty, staff, alumni and partners, we bring a uniquely global perspective to help solve societal challenges, drive positive change and prepare our students for success. York's fully bilingual Glendon Campus is home to Southern Ontario's Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education. York’s campuses in Costa Rica and India offer students exceptional transnational learning opportunities and innovative programs. Together, we can make things right for our communities, our planet, and our future.

Media Contact:
Sandra McLean, �첥��Ƶ Media Relations, 416-272-6317, sandramc@yorku.ca

The post On World Bee Day, everyone can help save the bees appeared first on News@York.

TORONTO, Dec. 3, 2021 – For decades, scientists have hotly debated the origin of the western honey bee. Now, new research led by �첥��Ƶ has discovered these popular honey-producing bees most likely originated in Asia.

From there, the western honey bee (Apis mellifera) expanded independently into Africa and Europe creating seven separate geographically and genetically distinct evolutionary lineages traceable back to Western Asia.

The western honey bee is used for crop pollination and honey production throughout most of the world, and has a remarkable capacity for surviving in vastly different environments – from tropical rainforest, to arid environments, to temperate regions with cold winters. It is native to Africa, Europe and Asia, and was recently believed to have originated in Africa.

The research team sequenced 251 genomes from 18 subspecies from the honey bee’s native range and used this data to reconstruct the origin and pattern of dispersal of honey bees. The team found that an Asian origin – likely Western Asia – was strongly supported by the genetic data.

“As one of the world’s most important pollinators, it’s essential to know the origin of the western honey bee to understand its evolution, genetics and how it adapted as it spread,” says corresponding author Professor of �첥��Ƶ’s Faculty of Science.

The study also highlights that the bee genome has several “hot spots” that allowed honey bees to adapt to new geographic areas. While the bee genome has more than 12,000 genes, only 145 of them had repeated signatures of adaptation associated with the formation of all major honey bee lineages found today.

“Our research suggests that a core-set of genes allowed the honey bee to adapt to a diverse set of environmental conditions across its native range by regulating worker and colony behaviour,” says �첥��Ƶ PhD student Kathleen Dogantzis of the Faculty of Science, who led the research.

This adaptation also allowed for the development of some 27 different subspecies of honey bees.

“It’s important to understand how locally adapted subspecies and colony-level selection on worker bees, contributes to the fitness and diversity of managed colonies,” says Dogantzis.

The sequencing of these bees also led to the discovery of two distinct lineages, one in Egypt and another in Madagascar.

The researchers hope their study finally lays to the rest the question of where the western honey bee came from so future research can further explore how they adapted to different climates and geographic areas.

The paper, Thrice out of Asia and the adaptive radiation of the western honey bee, was published today in the journal .

-30-

�첥��Ƶ is a modern, multi-campus, urban university located in Toronto, Ontario. Backed by a diverse group of students, faculty, staff, alumni and partners, we bring a uniquely global perspective to help solve societal challenges, drive positive change and prepare our students for success. York's fully bilingual Glendon Campus is home to Southern Ontario's Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education. York’s campuses in Costa Rica and India offer students exceptional transnational learning opportunities and innovative programs. Together, we can make things right for our communities, our planet, and our future. 

Media Contact:
Sandra McLean, �첥��Ƶ Media Relations, 416-272-6317, sandramc@yorku.ca

The post Where did western honey bees come from? New research finds the sweet spot appeared first on News@York.

TORONTO, Dec. 3, 2021 – For decades, scientists have hotly debated the origin of the western honey bee. Now, new research led by �첥��Ƶ has discovered these popular honey-producing bees most likely originated in Asia.

From there, the western honey bee (Apis mellifera) expanded independently into Africa and Europe creating seven separate geographically and genetically distinct evolutionary lineages traceable back to Western Asia.

The western honey bee is used for crop pollination and honey production throughout most of the world, and has a remarkable capacity for surviving in vastly different environments – from tropical rainforest, to arid environments, to temperate regions with cold winters. It is native to Africa, Europe and Asia, and was recently believed to have originated in Africa.

The research team sequenced 251 genomes from 18 subspecies from the honey bee’s native range and used this data to reconstruct the origin and pattern of dispersal of honey bees. The team found that an Asian origin – likely Western Asia – was strongly supported by the genetic data.

“As one of the world’s most important pollinators, it’s essential to know the origin of the western honey bee to understand its evolution, genetics and how it adapted as it spread,” says corresponding author Professor of �첥��Ƶ’s Faculty of Science.

The study also highlights that the bee genome has several “hot spots” that allowed honey bees to adapt to new geographic areas. While the bee genome has more than 12,000 genes, only 145 of them had repeated signatures of adaptation associated with the formation of all major honey bee lineages found today.

“Our research suggests that a core-set of genes allowed the honey bee to adapt to a diverse set of environmental conditions across its native range by regulating worker and colony behaviour,” says �첥��Ƶ PhD student Kathleen Dogantzis of the Faculty of Science, who led the research.

This adaptation also allowed for the development of some 27 different subspecies of honey bees.

“It’s important to understand how locally adapted subspecies and colony-level selection on worker bees, contributes to the fitness and diversity of managed colonies,” says Dogantzis.

The sequencing of these bees also led to the discovery of two distinct lineages, one in Egypt and another in Madagascar.

The researchers hope their study finally lays to the rest the question of where the western honey bee came from so future research can further explore how they adapted to different climates and geographic areas.

The paper, Thrice out of Asia and the adaptive radiation of the western honey bee, was published today in the journal .

-30-

�첥��Ƶ is a modern, multi-campus, urban university located in Toronto, Ontario. Backed by a diverse group of students, faculty, staff, alumni and partners, we bring a uniquely global perspective to help solve societal challenges, drive positive change and prepare our students for success. York's fully bilingual Glendon Campus is home to Southern Ontario's Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education. York’s campuses in Costa Rica and India offer students exceptional transnational learning opportunities and innovative programs. Together, we can make things right for our communities, our planet, and our future. 

Media Contact:
Sandra McLean, �첥��Ƶ Media Relations, 416-272-6317, sandramc@yorku.ca

The post Where did western honey bees come from? New research finds the sweet spot appeared first on News@York.

TORONTO, Nov. 17, 2021 – Wild bees have a critical role to play in climate change resilience, which makes finding out why they are declining more important. As a winner of this year’s NSERC , �첥��Ƶ Associate Professor is tackling this issue through her work in bee genomics, molecular ecology and behavioural genetics.

The Steacie Fellowships are awarded annually to early-stage academic researchers in natural sciences and engineering through the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. The prestigious two-year fellowship comes with $250,000 towards research support.

The Fellowship will help Rehan expand her research on novel genomic methods to help identify challenges and opportunities to conserve and increase diverse bee populations in cities. Rehan is a leader in research areas, including the nutritional and habitat needs of wild bees, how land use changes affect their habitats, the important of urban planning approaches, the diversity of their microbiomes, and the role of disease and pathogens.

“This award is a terrific recognition of Sandra’s trailblazing research into the genetics and ecology of wild bees, all to understand how to protect them. She is most deserving of this award,” said Rui Wang, dean of the Faculty of Science.

An international leader in the behavioural genetics and molecular ecology of bees, Rehan is advancing several long-standing questions about wild bee health and to develop new policies to help protect them.

She has already developed critical insights into social evolution and pollinator health. Her work on sociogenomics – the study of genomic and epigenomic factors that influence and are influenced by social behaviour – is at the forefront of evolutionary and comparative animal biology.

“The Steacie Memorial Fellowship is a wonderful opportunity, and I am very excited about the additional resources to expand the scope and impact of my research,” said Rehan of the Department of Biology, Faculty of Science. “Not only does the Fellowship elevate the profile of this critical research, but it also increases the ability to expand my team, train additional postdocs and students, and develop new collaborations. This award will also help in my work as an advocate for woman in science and advancing wild bee conservation.”

Watch the NSERC E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship ceremony live via and at 1:30 p.m. EST.

Previous research has yielded several important discoveries. Rehan’s study of social behaviour in bees found that it evolved from an accumulation of pro-social traits starting in solitary bees. It began first as bees took care of their young and evolved to include group associations and social life. Her team has also led bee genomic studies including advances in wild bee metagenomics and microbiome research.

Rehan also identified the core genes underlying bee aggression through a comprehensive cross-species comparison and is advancing functional genomics to understand key candidate genes for aggression and maternal care. Her work on North American small carpenter bee, Ceratina calcarata, is now used widely in the study of social insects. Her team has produced numerous genomic tools and cutting-edge experiments to elevate this as a model system for the study of social evolution and pollinator health.

In addition, she is an international leader in the field of maternal manipulation of worker-like daughter bees. Through her work varying the amount of pollen these daughter bees are fed, she has developed a model for studying maternal investment, sex allocation, and inclusive fitness of worker production.

To date, Rehan has authored more than 80 publications in journals such as Nature Communications, PNAS and Molecular Ecology.

-30-

�첥��Ƶ is a modern, multi-campus, urban university located in Toronto, Ontario. Backed by a diverse group of students, faculty, staff, alumni and partners, we bring a uniquely global perspective to help solve societal challenges, drive positive change and prepare our students for success. York's fully bilingual Glendon Campus is home to Southern Ontario's Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education. York’s campuses in Costa Rica and India offer students exceptional transnational learning opportunities and innovative programs. Together, we can make things right for our communities, our planet, and our future.

Media Contact:

Sandra McLean, �첥��Ƶ Media Relations, 416-272-6317, sandramc@yorku.ca

The post �첥��Ƶ researcher wins prestigious E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship for work with bees appeared first on News@York.

TORONTO, Oct. 12, 2021 – This year’s BeeCon will explore the effects of human-driven landscape disturbance on wild bee communities, the development of diagnostic tools for neonicotinoid exposure, altruistic and selfish aggression in honey bees and more.

BeeCon is a free, annual, now virtual, bee conference from Oct. 15 to 16 that brings local, national and international bee biologists together to discuss bees, their behaviour, taxonomy, genomics, ecology, and conservation, hosted by the Centre for Bee Ecology, Evolution and Conservation at �첥��Ƶ.

The two-day event will feature a keynote at 11am on Oct. 15 by Associate Professor of the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of Texas, Austin, discussing plant-pollinator interactions and ecosystem services in the face of global change.

Below is a selection of some of the many symposium talks, each 15 minutes in length:

Oct. 15:

9:30 a.m. – Can green roofs compensate for the loss of (Hymenopteran) biodiversity in cities? –

Jeffrey Jacobs of Hasselt University, Belgium

12 p.m. – Assessing the impacts of urban beehives on wild bees using individual, population-level, and community level metrics – Hadil Elsayed of �첥��Ƶ

2:45 p.m. - Effects of Social Status on Aggression in a Facultatively Social Bee Species (Xylocopa virginica) – James Mesich of Brock University

3:45 p.m. – Social environment and sibling cooperation in a small carpenter bee –

Jesse Huisken of �첥��Ƶ

Oct. 16:

9 a.m. – Holocene population expansion of a tropical bee coincides with early human colonisation of Fiji rather than climate change – James Dorey of Yale University

9:30 a.m. – The risks of crop exposure to honey bee colonies – Sarah French of �첥��Ƶ

9:45 a.m. – The blueberries & the bees: assessing honey bee health stressors using proteomics – Rhonda Thygesen of the University of British Columbia

10:15 a.m. – Corpse management in bumblebee colonies – Victoria Blanchard of Royal Holloway, University of London

11:15 a.m. – Assessment of habitat use & ecology of native bee communities in tallgrass prairie and oak savanna in Southern Ontario – Janean Sharkey of the University of Guelph

Click here for the schedule of speakers.

To register for Oct. 15, click and to register for Oct. 16, click .

-30-

�첥��Ƶ is a modern, multi-campus, urban university located in Toronto, Ontario. Backed by a diverse group of students, faculty, staff, alumni and partners, we bring a uniquely global perspective to help solve societal challenges, drive positive change and prepare our students for success. York's fully bilingual Glendon Campus is home to Southern Ontario's Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education. York’s campuses in Costa Rica and India offer students exceptional transnational learning opportunities and innovative programs. Together, we can make things right for our communities, our planet, and our future.

Media Contact:

Sandra McLean, �첥��Ƶ Media Relations, 416-272-6317, sandramc@yorku.ca

The post Virtual conference buzzes with sweet bee insights appeared first on News@York.