Denise Ellsworth: So i'm very excited to have Gerardo Camilo this morning, as our presenter I was just saying that he and I.
Denise Ellsworth: met in person at the urban pollinators conference in traverse city, a few years ago and he's he has the ability, can be lab there at the St Louis university.
Denise Ellsworth: They have a lot of exciting projects going on, including an inventory of the bees in St Louis in St Louis working on identifying the role of bees and other pollinators in urban orchards.
Denise Ellsworth: And he just presented a summary of some of his research work, working with Homeowners and householders in St Louis who are certified and audubon's backyard landscape.
Denise Ellsworth: habitat wildlife habitat program kind of looking at does that change the increase in habitat and biodiversity.
Denise Ellsworth: What effect does it have on those folks as being engaged for wildlife and pollinators so some really exciting projects really glad to have him here today, he has lab.
Denise Ellsworth: is out there, doing research in the city and also has a great labs facility, they have an outstanding be course that it's just about filled for 22 but if you're.
Denise Ellsworth: An aspiring researcher or graduate students or other who's really looking to look at the details of be identification, I encourage you to follow up and try to get on that list to attend that that session really great great work.
Denise Ellsworth: So her otter at this point, I will attempt to turn the.
Denise Ellsworth: podium over to you thanks so much for being with us.
Gerardo Camilo: Oh it's it's my pleasure, thank you, Nice it's always excellent when I get to share, you know, whatever little we have learned about these in urban environments, with the public in general, so I will.
Gerardo Camilo: I will try to me see share my screen.
Gerardo Camilo: get the ball rolling on my end.
Gerardo Camilo: whoops wrong this one very good.
Gerardo Camilo: We got the right one, there we go so.
Gerardo Camilo: What i'm going to try to do each give you an overview of what we have learned in the past about pollinators in urban environments in general and from there we'll try to drill out to the specifics of what drives pollinators and everyone environments based upon our research in St Louis.
Gerardo Camilo: So they overall.
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Gerardo Camilo: When we try it again.
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Gerardo Camilo: Now, it should work.
Gerardo Camilo: So the brief outline of how we're going to proceed the here is i'll give a short overview of pollinators and specifically in these because these will be relevant later on in the talk then.
Gerardo Camilo: Their relevance or the importance of the so called pollinator crisis and why that matters for urban environments and then we'll get to the actual research of first vc in the city and then, more specifically, the beast in St Louis city.
Gerardo Camilo: So.
Gerardo Camilo: pollination, is the way that plants have sex, you know you is basically you know changing male gametes are moving male gametes in general towards female gametes so in this case pollen towards plants.
Gerardo Camilo: eggs or ova and there are a whole host of doing this there's wind pollination there's water driven pollination.
Gerardo Camilo: So we call those passive pollination and then there is of course animal pollination and there are of course vertebrates that are pollinators you know BATs in tropical systems are important pollinators and then there, of course, in virtually pollinators.
Gerardo Camilo: In.
Gerardo Camilo: Any general of all those pollinators.
Gerardo Camilo: The only group that intentionally collects pollen are the bees, they all the other ones that you're actually going after the nectar and essentially getting covered in pollen.
Gerardo Camilo: and moving that pollen somewhere else, as they go for further metrics collection in the next flower.
Gerardo Camilo: But, of all those you know virtually just in victory, as I mentioned, these are the only ones that actually go after the pollen and intentionally shake the on thurs of the flowers were deploying these leads phone and therefore extracting pollen in a intentional fashion.
Gerardo Camilo: These has resulted in a core evolution between flowering plants and bees that have led to a tremendous diversification, you know tremendous diversity or.
Gerardo Camilo: Both flowers and bees and, as you can see here from this picture there's a whole range of sizes and colors and shapes and behaviors that go along with that range of beasts.
Gerardo Camilo: And today worldwide, there are over 24,000 species of beings that have been scientifically described and about 4200 of those occur in North America.
Gerardo Camilo: And they're found in, and especially in cities, there are five families that are very prevalent that that's the sweat be family that includes you know the metallic sweat beast Then there are the collective's we charge the.
Gerardo Camilo: The cellophane or polyester bees in DC is the you know the native cellophane be then we have the plaster bees are Mesa means the leaf cutter bees, and of course the Bumblebee family, where the honeybee These containers contained.
Gerardo Camilo: And, along with that functional, as well as.
Gerardo Camilo: phylogenetic or you know evolutionary university calm salsa tremendous diversity in sizes and morphology us.
Gerardo Camilo: And what you see here is the most of you hold recognize that that's you know the face, or the head of the the eastern column carpenter bees, I will call.
Gerardo Camilo: virginica which, if you have a deck or any kind of wooden structure in your yard you're probably familiar with, as well as a fairy me, which is the so we have the largest being North America and the smallest be in North America.
Gerardo Camilo: So.
Gerardo Camilo: when most of the time when people think about bees, they think about the honeybee, and that is that completely wrong species to represent bees in general.
Gerardo Camilo: honey bees are a domesticated animal so when you ask a a bird expert, you know what is a bird to represent all birds, you know they never answer chickens.
Gerardo Camilo: Because chickens are domesticated animals, they really are not representative of birds in general, because of that domestication process.
Gerardo Camilo: The same occurs with bees, the honeybee is not really a good example, a good representative because, just like chickens are cattles or pigs, he said domesticated organism.
Gerardo Camilo: So on like honeybees most bees are solitary there is not queen worker case system, there is no colony is usually a single female and they either have one generation per year, or maybe two generations per year.
Gerardo Camilo: Many are you know they.
Gerardo Camilo: dig a hole into the ground and that's where they lay their eggs, so that our ground Nestor they are twig Nestor so where they nest is a very important aspect of.
Gerardo Camilo: Be ecology and, furthermore, you know the honeybee is the ultimate jack of all trades know you see, therefore, he said very lousy.
Gerardo Camilo: pollinator but, in general, he can visit a large number of species many bees that we study our specialist or if they're not strict specially as they are, what have you let collect illegal activity, they have a very narrow range of plants, the desert.
Gerardo Camilo: And why is that because, why is this important because these, as I mentioned earlier are on importing group of pollinators these bees represents the broadest and most efficient kind of pollinators we have a nature.
Gerardo Camilo: And, by the same token, they pollinate the bulk of our fruits nuts and veggies are our plan be pollinated.
Gerardo Camilo: Furthermore, you know.
Gerardo Camilo: About a third, you said, one in three bites of food that we consume is be pollinated and, furthermore, you know when it comes to actual nutrition, then nice about 70% of our nutrition is come from the pollinated plants.
Gerardo Camilo: And finally honeybees can pollinate a lot of plants, for example, tomatoes, you know, so there are a lot of plants that require what he's called boss pollination in scientific term is suffocation so we know that, essentially, you know bees can only pollinate about 30 to 40% of.
Gerardo Camilo: All the plans that I and.
Gerardo Camilo: fruits that we consume.
Gerardo Camilo: And therefore, is important that we have a broad range of pollinators available in our plans for our crops, as you can see here deasy's a squash me and a single squash be female can be the equivalent of about 30 to 60 honeybees when it comes to squash.
Gerardo Camilo: So let's talk a little bit about the the so called pollinator crisis, and this is something we are all very aware, or at least have heard that some time on on other in you know eats it's important that we understand what eds watered the clauses in how it's actually affecting.
Gerardo Camilo: The overall ecosystem.
Gerardo Camilo: And, as my colleague damon whole has mentioned, you know just like honeybees that you know, are suffering or are actually feeling the consequences of the changes in our environment.
Gerardo Camilo: Our native bees are also feeling the consequences of that changing environment, their big differences that honeybees when eats domesticated organism, therefore, we can provide them with medicine when they get sick, we can provide them, we can supplement them we.
Gerardo Camilo: Foot one foot resources are low and by the same token, we were providing them with the House we built heights for them and we manage those hives.
Gerardo Camilo: nobody's doing that we've made a piece, so the increase expansion of the industrialized agriculture, you know that the greater accurate Oh, you know commodity crops like soybeans like corn is contributing to that decline, there is less and less room for native habitat for our native bees.
Gerardo Camilo: Added to that East the expansion of pesticides us, especially the so called neo nick's in the United States and, as you can see that were colony collapse disorder started being documented in the early 2000s coincides also with the expansion of the annex use the butcher.
Gerardo Camilo: And the increase use, you know that as as colony collapse disorder started taking off that meant they use a greater demand to replace the bees, the hives that are being lost, so there is an increase expansion on the manage honeybee business that leads them.
Gerardo Camilo: To increase exchange of parasites and DCS agents from honeybees to native bees population, a while the population, so, as you said, this is a death by 1000 cuts.
Gerardo Camilo: And when you put all those elements together and you see where is that.
Gerardo Camilo: We have a great decline in a bee populations and at the same time, you have the greatest demand for pollination services.
Gerardo Camilo: list will say ends up being in the big agricultural areas in the nation, which includes, of course, the central valley of California, you know the sovereign high plains, the Mississippi river Valley, as well as the breadbasket.
Gerardo Camilo: So it's really not a great.
Gerardo Camilo: story when you realize that the bulk of the organisms that pollinate your plans are going down exactly in the same places where you're growing your food.
Gerardo Camilo: and
Gerardo Camilo: Nothing, absolutely nothing will be stabilized a government faster than people going hungry.
Gerardo Camilo: In back in 2015.
Gerardo Camilo: Congress passed in a unanimous fashion, you know the national strategy for pollinator health.
Gerardo Camilo: which was you know very rare, you can see that you can actually everybody put differences apart, and this was instantly past.
Gerardo Camilo: And in order to address you know, food security in the United States but he's, not only in the United States when this was occurring but worldwide, so we now we suspect that worldwide.
Gerardo Camilo: At least 60% of the pollinator species are important for pollination of all crops, not just the ones that are growing, the United States but worldwide, and not just bs but also you know BATs birds and and flies are in some way, shape or form declining in their abundances.
Gerardo Camilo: So we see them that the pollinators are decreasing the number environments, I mean in in agricultural environments are decreasing emitting natural environments.
Gerardo Camilo: So about a decade ago, as we were going as my lab was starting to sample bees in green urban spaces.
Gerardo Camilo: I started noticing a trend in the literature that a lot of other people who are also looking at BC in urban environments.
Gerardo Camilo: So we know that there's been a tremendous impetus for understanding the ecology of urban cities, and the reason for that is that the urban population growth is occurring at a much faster rate than the total world population.
Gerardo Camilo: So we already know that by you know, a decade ago over a decade ago already 50% of the human population lived in an urban environment, you know city.
Gerardo Camilo: And, by which is only you know 29 years away.
Gerardo Camilo: is expected that over 9 billion people will leave in the planet and two out of every three of those will be living in a city so DC is a migration at the scale that the human population have never seen before.
Gerardo Camilo: So when you look at that distribution, you see that it's really not evenly distributed across the world, we have currently about 100 cities worldwide that have a population of 5 million people, or more, and at least you know, a dozen of those have about 10 million people, or more.
Gerardo Camilo: So when you put all that combined It means that the total urban infrastructure has to double in about 30 years in order to accommodate that many people.
Gerardo Camilo: So as that was you know we were coming to that reality station.
Gerardo Camilo: My colleague damon hollow myself and Dr Rebecca tornado who's now at Michigan was a postdoc offline other time, we were serving the literature and realize that a lot of people were reporting the same kind of results, we were getting you know throughout Europe.
Gerardo Camilo: Canada Central America, the United States and the relevant point that we were observing was that not only were cities hosting large be diversity.
Gerardo Camilo: But also, when you compare many of those sides we nearby I Jason agricultural and rural landscape, they be diversity in the city was greater than that of rural landscapes.
Gerardo Camilo: And I don't know about you, but I rather have my have my bees, where i'm growing my food, not necessarily when people are growing lawns or or you know our cement he just he doesn't mesh very well.
Gerardo Camilo: So, at the time we Polish this paper, which is where we take the.
Gerardo Camilo: The title of the presentation and so damon took the lead with me, you know assisting and becky tornado and Jeff are done in Europe to delete.
Gerardo Camilo: Gordon frankie out West and, as you can see a lot of other very relevant links in that list people working in urban environments, we all agreed that, yes, this is a pattern that he's observed using our data it's repeatable.
Gerardo Camilo: But we have no idea really what was going on, so we know that cities host very large diversity, especially compared to urban and rural areas in a times comparable to have natural environments.
Gerardo Camilo: But at the same time, there is, you know a lot of synthesis going on looking at you know vertebrates species, you know birds mammals trees so on and so forth.
Gerardo Camilo: And the overall pattern that everybody observed was that the number of species really takes a nosedive as you get from natural to urban environments and this this pieces that you find are very generalist speeds, that they can tolerate a lot.
Gerardo Camilo: What we were proposing in that paper was that, when it comes to be that that is not the pattern we're observing bees that bees can actually that they don't feel the same level of filtering effect that older groups of animals and plants are perceiving at the same time.
Gerardo Camilo: So with that pattern described, we wanted to drill into the specifics of how is that bees are distributed within the city on what mechanisms are leading to the distribution to try to explain the broader pattern of distribution.
Gerardo Camilo: So we have been sampling, as I mentioned, for a decade in the city of St Louis.
Gerardo Camilo: In on, like the other CDs that we mentioned in the previous slide worldwide.
Gerardo Camilo: St Louis belongs to a sisterhood of so called shrinking CDs, of which, as you can see, there is a broad array of large number of them, you know how yo including Cleveland which Mary will be talking about it tomorrow.
Gerardo Camilo: And these are CDs, that in order for you to join the sisterhood you need to have lost at least 1% of your core of your actual inner core or inner urban population one person for at least 10 consecutive years.
Gerardo Camilo: So St Louis, as you can see here in the decade from 2000 to 2010 lost over 8% of its population and all the cities, of course, Detroit represents the poster child of the shrimp and see they change in New Orleans.
Gerardo Camilo: Was do mostly to Katrina all those things stand now has been consistent losing specie losing population in the urban core so it's really not really a true.
Gerardo Camilo: shrinking city.
Gerardo Camilo: So here's an example of Detroit many of you, you know are familiar with being so close so decent Detroit in the heyday of the.
Gerardo Camilo: Both the car industry.
Gerardo Camilo: And here's the same area, you know, in the early 2000s, so you can see there's a lot of vacancy there is a lot of green space or open space.
Gerardo Camilo: And these causes very serious problems for seeding managers because they're you know the tax bases not there, and yet you still need to provide services to the few houses that are left behind.
Gerardo Camilo: The few people that are leaving their Cleveland have the same kinds of issues so NASA say St Louis is not really that far behind.
Gerardo Camilo: So city planners and decision makers are left with a very serious problem, you see, you know what to do with all these vacant lots and open spaces.
Gerardo Camilo: and part of the answer, especially here in St Louis is that these have been converted to areas to grow food or have been converted into some kind of party in order to provide you know at some environmental or open air, many.
Gerardo Camilo: So these are just an example of one of our urban farms very near the university, so you can see here the very top of our MED school he uses one of my Grad students at the time.
Gerardo Camilo: And this is what you know the.
Gerardo Camilo: Urban farm looks like and they we have a bunch of them across the city.
Gerardo Camilo: And once we started sampling, you know all these you know urban green spaces day, and so you know this month, we have identified 209 species of bs in the city of St Louis.
Gerardo Camilo: Which is 47% of all the species founding the state we are 49 genera and we have five families and especially where photo came from.
Gerardo Camilo: We have a well established and thriving colony of bumbles fraternity, which is one of the most threatened and endangered species of bumblebees in North America.
Gerardo Camilo: So these first study what we did we divided the CD he based on and locations within the city based upon you know the type of management.
Gerardo Camilo: That that location was under and there were three kinds of management, these were pretty buckets Mary will probably talk about those a lot tomorrow we had Community gardens So these are.
Gerardo Camilo: bacon laws that have been turned into to grow food for the local residents, and then we have urban farm So these are logs that are much more intense the entire lot use us and usually eat in order, not just to provide food for the local families, but also they sell it at.
Gerardo Camilo: The local.
Gerardo Camilo: Market Okay, and all the sampling took place between 2014 and 2016.
Gerardo Camilo: By the same token, we divided the city in based upon area, but really it's because you know when you look at the north side of St Louis is mostly African American.
Gerardo Camilo: is very poor and there's a large number of bacon lot lots over 80% of all the vacant lots in the city ours are found in the north side.
Gerardo Camilo: Then we have to Center core door, this is where a lot of changes taking place, we have a new Ikea there's new target.
Gerardo Camilo: This is where the university is located, so there is a lot of change in this area, but also there's a large diversity or ethnic and cultural backgrounds of people in these area.
Gerardo Camilo: And they're still a significant number of bacon lots in the central corridor and, finally, the South side of the city, which is very stable these neighborhoods there are very few.
Gerardo Camilo: bacon locks.
Gerardo Camilo: The income is significantly higher and the population is over 70% white educated and then we don't income ease in the 60 thousands or so so as you can see, geography, then correspond to other variables like ethnicity and income.
Gerardo Camilo: So the way we sample we did all the sampling bureau area netting at a very specific rate of one person per hour per quarter hector.
Gerardo Camilo: These allows them to compare you know, so now we have equal effort across all sites okay all the sampling was aerial netting would pin identify sorted by location on identified two species.
Gerardo Camilo: So, because not all management types are found in all parts of the city, we cannot do a full comparison contrast but.
Gerardo Camilo: will show you, you know results are consistent across this all sides, so if we're all these various Barry pockets So these are sites that have been abandoned and then now you have need some native vegetation.
Gerardo Camilo: And you see, then, how our effort you know, the number of times we sample those sites versus the number of species, we identify.
Gerardo Camilo: There are two important piece of information from these kind of analysis, the first one is the slope, how are you approaching the asymptote, which is an indication of you know that you basically have collected the bulk of the species present.
Gerardo Camilo: And second is the point of inflection so telling you are we are really approaching that point so for prayed pockets.
Gerardo Camilo: This slope is 0.46 and other way, you can interpret these is that you will take you know tool sampling efforts in order to find a new species, I should take a little bit more than two.
Gerardo Camilo: To efforts and then the inflection point saying that by the time between these 11th and 12th sampling time the curve, the line started curvy.
Gerardo Camilo: Is a that's for prairie pockets.
Gerardo Camilo: For Community gardens.
Gerardo Camilo: As you can see here the slope is lot steeper that is going much faster and there was no effective inflection point, so this is saying that we have not sample.
Gerardo Camilo: You know enough in terms of Community gardens, in order to identify species to be every time you go back you tend to find one new species, and this was even worse for urban farms.
Gerardo Camilo: You never farmed every time you go and re sample again we are getting you know, almost two new species in our sample from our urban farms, so when it comes to management urban farms seemed to gain new species at a faster rate than any other kind of monitoring.
Gerardo Camilo: Then, when it comes to location, so when you look at the south side of the species, again, there was no significant inflection point what this look was about you know you're gaining about two thirds of a be so you would take three samples to gain two new species.
Gerardo Camilo: When it comes to the central corridor where you have a lot more vacancy you have a lot of different people that have different kinds of plants.
Gerardo Camilo: You know, in their yard or in their Community gardens the slope was significantly higher and, again, there was no inflection no significant inflection point, meaning that you're gaining species really fast.
Gerardo Camilo: And these was even steeper or it was more in equal intense, not more in the north side of the city.
Gerardo Camilo: Again, where you have a greater range of you know, making lots and you have a greater number of people.
Gerardo Camilo: Putting in Community gardens in working in urban farms.
Gerardo Camilo: So what the hell is happening here and, as I mentioned, you know it's the way that people perceive the environment and the way they manage the environment.
Gerardo Camilo: In areas where there's a lot of aesthetic value in the way that the Environment look and the perception that you're messy or that your own kept.
Gerardo Camilo: result that, in a significant decrease in the diversity of the species i'll turn up deeply in those gardens in the Center corridor.
Gerardo Camilo: As well at the north side, where that expectation of tidiness and being perceived as an on kept people don't care about it.
Gerardo Camilo: We we observe a significant increase in the diversity of the species present so definitely the way that people manage the environment so function of their.
Gerardo Camilo: perception as well as their aesthetic values seems to contribute to the total abundance and diversity of bees in the city of St Louis.
Gerardo Camilo: Okay, another way, we can then look at these so we can see how species are distributed so we're going to look at bumblebees which are.
Gerardo Camilo: You know unimportant group of pollinators because these is the main group of boss pollinators that things like tomatoes and eggplants and peppers you know Members of the solid AC you know potato tobacco.
Gerardo Camilo: Like to be bus pollinated you know they perceive that busing and they release the pollen so when you go to the south side of the city.
Gerardo Camilo: Okay, so i'm in the south side of to see I will only find two species of Bumblebee the brown belt that and the common Eastern Bumblebee are the only two that I found in the south side okay so as I move from the south side to the Center corridor.
Gerardo Camilo: Okay, I not only I get those two I also add that to spot it I got the American Bumblebee almost Pennsylvania, because.
Gerardo Camilo: Which is one of the species that has been decreasing, you know at a fast rate throughout Eastern North America, we also we got the golden Brown.
Gerardo Camilo: The golden black Bumblebee one was her commerce and, as I mentioned, we add one of the most threatening bumblebees in North America bumbles fairness.
Gerardo Camilo: And not only do I find all those in the Center corridor I also find them in the north side, and we can add bomb was forgiveness, you know the to this bcc North in the north side Okay, so we see there's a gradient of species diversity spaces regions, as you move from the South to the north.
Gerardo Camilo: and other super important group or bees are so cool collected parasitic bees or these are also cuckoo bees, they lay their eggs in the nest of order bees So these are nest parasites and they're super important because.
Gerardo Camilo: In order for you to have an s parasite you know, having a consistent population, you need to have the host or host pieces they lay their eggs.
Gerardo Camilo: Usually in one or two or maybe three different species of bees and those bees have to be present, and they have to be large enough numbers that can tolerate.
Gerardo Camilo: The parasitism of the cuckoo cuckoo beans Okay, so when I go to the south side there are only five pieces of cookies in the south side.
Gerardo Camilo: There are 12 in the Center corridor under 18 in the north side, once more, there is a significant gradient oh species richness, as you go from the South to the north side of the city.
Gerardo Camilo: So we see that the distribution of be diversity in the city is not.
Gerardo Camilo: Is not even you know, there is specific grading and the gradient seems to be correlated with the way that people keep and maintain.
Gerardo Camilo: Their immediate surroundings, you know do do I have a messy yard dwight let the weeds grow etc, etc, etc, and yes, that seems to correlate with that.
Gerardo Camilo: issue but remember that the that space is a space that, in general, people don't like seeing don't cities don't like that kind of space, because he disrupt the tax base, he disrupt the way that we provide services.
Gerardo Camilo: and is the result of a lot of inequities and a lot of issues dealing with in St Louis is directly correlated with red lining issues from back in the 60s and 70s.
Gerardo Camilo: And so we wanted to drill even further down, we want it to go to specific individual Homeowners, and this is important because, depending on the city, you know private Homeowners.
Gerardo Camilo: Are accounting for anywhere between 40 to 70% of the green space in a city, depending on the state and the city that you are located.
Gerardo Camilo: And, as I said, these East why we call Nobel ecosystems that are human built, of course, called macabre we'll talk a lot more about these on Thursday.
Gerardo Camilo: But for our purposes, we look at these sacred deviation for Michael very intentional Novell ecosystem, so you have grasses and you have trees.
Gerardo Camilo: That you know did not occur in these plays you know they're brought from somewhere else they're established there.
Gerardo Camilo: They bring their own bogs they bring their own microbes so on and so forth, and these requires a lot of energy and nutrients to keep a single species of grass, you know occurring in that environment.
Gerardo Camilo: Of course, these These, then, be kind of, on the other end of the spectrum and Mary will talk about these a lot more tomorrow.
Gerardo Camilo: What we call on intentional Novell ecosystem, so what happens once you remove or do not have any of that energy and nutrient inputs.
Gerardo Camilo: you end up with you know much greater plan diversity that leads to greater insect and be diversity and birth diversity so on and so forth, it has much more greater persistence, so you don't need the inputs of nutrients and energy body has fairly low appeal.
Gerardo Camilo: So the question that we're trying to ask here can we strike a balance, you know between these two you know, an environment that has greater appeal, but you know lower inputs and that's then where the concept of human facilitation comes into play.
Gerardo Camilo: And if you have enough human facilitation across a city, you may be able to change the dynamics or be diversity across the entire city.
Gerardo Camilo: And this is something that tallamy has been you know, promoting and champion for you know, for over three decades now, and it seems that some of these efforts are really you know, taking root.
Gerardo Camilo: And when you look at not only he is large nationwide program you know you actually can see that there is a large diversity of these home conservation programs across the nation, so our national song our statewide some are citywide.
Gerardo Camilo: In this case, we're going to be looking at this specific program called bring conservation home, which is a program run by de St Louis chapter of the audubon society.
Gerardo Camilo: Okay, and the idea of all these performances basically to go from something like these, of course, to something like these.
Gerardo Camilo: In which you have much greater.
Gerardo Camilo: plant and floral diversity much lower inputs in can then come back, year after year after year.
Gerardo Camilo: So when we look at the audubon spring conservation home, he said tremendously successful program in St Louis and they actually have a sister program in portland Oregon and they are about to launch a similar one in baltimore.
Gerardo Camilo: At the time we have over 1700 homes i've been enroll spanning you know over 150 kilometers east, west and over 120 kilometers north to south, so we encompass a whole range of.
Gerardo Camilo: You know, rural exurban suburban very urban mentioned it, we probably have it here and not only that, but also we have areas.
Gerardo Camilo: Five at least equal regions that were contained within these expanse.
Gerardo Camilo: They really important part, the what set this program apart from a lot of other programs eat that actually you get certified.
Gerardo Camilo: It personal from the audubon society will come inspect your program and tell you what you need to do in order to achieve different levels of certification.
Gerardo Camilo: And the ones that are important for our study is that you know you are given this consultation you're given the result, the summary of the consultation and you're saying Okay, so you can achieve one on three levels of certification in silver.
Gerardo Camilo: You said that at least you're going to add 10% of your area will be in terms of native plants you're going to remove at least 50% of invasive plants and have at least to kind of be layers and you can go all the way to platinum certified in which half of the area of your.
Gerardo Camilo: of your yard will be converted to native plantings you will remove 100% of the invasive plants and you will have four layers in your canopy.
Gerardo Camilo: So, as you can see these then represents an excellent experiment in which we can then compare the levels are to vacation Plus we have a group of people that get the consultation, but they've not decided not to achieve any layer level certification, so we also have a control.
Gerardo Camilo: So.
Gerardo Camilo: All of those 1700 homes for these one specific aspect that we're looking at bs.
Gerardo Camilo: We selected a subset of 45 homes.
Gerardo Camilo: And we divided between certification level, and we have three levels, in which there are those that did not decided not to be certified so they manage their home just the same way, the rest of the neighbors.
Gerardo Camilo: Those are silver certified and we found that when it comes to be is the gold and platinum really did not matter he was the same thing for them.
Gerardo Camilo: And we have a full set of of non silver gold platinum houses in the urban, suburban and the exercise right, so you can we have five for each of those nine combinations so throw 45 homes.
Gerardo Camilo: Those were visited you know, once a month again aerial sampling using nets with the same rate of you know, one person our for water hector.
Gerardo Camilo: So now we can actually compare how many bees are in your backyard literally okay so.
Gerardo Camilo: As you can see here So here we are in the urban environment.
Gerardo Camilo: And we have those that are not certified those are silver and those that are gold or platinum.
Gerardo Camilo: So you can see that that total abundance really doesn't change much as a function of certification level within the urban environment.
Gerardo Camilo: The platinum probably expensive little bit, but in general, not he doesn't.
Gerardo Camilo: When it comes to the suburban environment we noticed that.
Gerardo Camilo: Both the non as well as the silver are significantly decrease compared to the URBAN is only the gold and platinum that actually compares.
Gerardo Camilo: To the urban environment in terms of being diversity but notice that ease in the suburban that you really get the spread in terms of how many bees, you have the total number of the beast not not the species.
Gerardo Camilo: And finally, when you get to the X urban environment.
Gerardo Camilo: Then the silver really then increases.
Gerardo Camilo: So night that he's only in the suburban and the exurban that the lack of certification, you know, has an effect.
Gerardo Camilo: or giveaway you can think about it, you know within the CD or no bees flying around that we do not detect a significant difference, you know when it comes to a lack of certification.
Gerardo Camilo: So now let's look at the number of species present not there abundances Okay, so when it comes to overall certification level, regardless of where you are in urban, suburban or exurban.
Gerardo Camilo: You use the golden platinum that actually gains the most PCs So yes, there is a certification level effect.
Gerardo Camilo: Now notice over here that, instead of the number of samples we're looking at the number of individuals, so when he comes the difference between the the non certified and then the silver the effect is not a function of.
Gerardo Camilo: species, but a function of individuals, so we.
Gerardo Camilo: Indeed, you provide more flowers these flowers allowed then for the bees to have more babies, so you have you know, a greater number of individuals there.
Gerardo Camilo: but not necessarily a greater number of species.
Gerardo Camilo: When it comes to the urbanization level, this is the one that completely florida's we found no significant effect between the.
Gerardo Camilo: type of urban or suburban or urban environment that these houses were located are like oh my God these these incredible the interesting part of course happens at the interaction so when you look at the urban environment.
Gerardo Camilo: Just like with abundances there was no significant difference in the effect of the certification level, so you have more flowers, you have less flowers he doesn't matter you have to say number of species obese.
Gerardo Camilo: When you look at the suburban environment that's where things get really, really interesting in which then the gold and platinum have a much greater number of individuals and also you have greater diversity.
Gerardo Camilo: And finally.
Gerardo Camilo: In the exurban environment, then this bread is even bigger than once more notice that the non is totally flat the silver is in the middle and the gold and platinum it's where it's happening.
Gerardo Camilo: So yes, the kind of management that you axert upon your property, you know, the number of plants that you have the diversity of plants, I do have.
Gerardo Camilo: The removal of natives of invasive so on and software does matter a lot to our bees, but he's very context dependent extremely context dependent.
Gerardo Camilo: Okay, and when you look at the total bs pieces diversity so he's now we're looking at in the, what are the totality of species present.
Gerardo Camilo: We see that the urban and has you know significantly greater number of total species compared to be excellent suburban compare to the exurban, which is exactly what our hypotheses was predicting.
Gerardo Camilo: mean wage their ease a filtering effect for bs and that filtering effect, you know is then in the suburban so that original idea that there was no filtering effect.
Gerardo Camilo: Is is basically were rejecting that idea in favor of a filtering effect associated with the suburban environment.
Gerardo Camilo: And he has to deal with the way that floor resources, the diversity of our resources, the way these floor resources are distributed across the environment as well as a total amount of impervious surface.
Gerardo Camilo: And this has led to ever vision of how we see you know CDs you, we know that seniors are not the biodiversity deserts that people have thought.
Gerardo Camilo: But that they contribute a lot more to regional biodiversity and that that contribution, maybe important, especially when nearby agricultural environments may have depleted pollinator.
Gerardo Camilo: Species cool good So what can we say, well, a cities host or at least some cities host a large diversity of bs you know in but that diversity is not evenly distributed.
Gerardo Camilo: We know that there's correlation with the way that we'd be past history of the series, at least in St Louis it's highly correlated with you know the history of the housing discrimination.
Gerardo Camilo: And the way that cities in best in our green infrastructure.
Gerardo Camilo: And that not only do Homeowners must take into account by diversity as a possible objective or the way we manage our lawns and our yard what also.
Gerardo Camilo: city managers decision makers, you know very rarely taking to account by diversity as an objective of their management goals, and we think that, at least in the CS Lewis, that is changing dramatically.
Gerardo Camilo: So how where do we go next well again conservation is really not much of a biological or ecological problem is a people problem.
Gerardo Camilo: And we are collaborating with colleagues with the University of Missouri St Louis the pillars are on always in the department of communication in order to understand how social network how our personal interactions.
Gerardo Camilo: lead to decision making and the transmission of information.
Gerardo Camilo: And we are then applying that to determine how much facilitation, you know how much we need to convert these you know green infrastructure to have it, that that he is welcoming to our native bees.
Gerardo Camilo: And we're testing, you know these did that these various social structures that people have i'd work and in your backyard than with your neighbors.
Gerardo Camilo: and so on and so forth clung treatment to the spread of these facilitation programs his home conservation programs and we're testing them against a range of.
Gerardo Camilo: Statistical and mathematical theories that can tell us if these facilitation is best driven by direct communication or you see a perception that.
Gerardo Camilo: You know doesn't matter how much you tell me it's really more a matter of how we see the environment or if there are issues of wealth associated with these kind of structuring.
Gerardo Camilo: So with that said.
Gerardo Camilo: This is a very large program is fear and I tried to get there, a lot of people and love of organization that contributed to these first and foremost Mitch leachman recently retired from the St Louis out of one society.
Gerardo Camilo: In the living earth collaborative has also contributed to our work in as well as dismiss fellows.
Gerardo Camilo: Controlled into becky tornadoes foster.
Gerardo Camilo: The SSA a lot of people had led us calm and best around under yards and in their gardens and in their farms and there's a lot of the owners and managers that have graciously tolerated us for all these years.
Gerardo Camilo: As well as the people behind the scenes that have contributed to either the identification or the providing both.
Gerardo Camilo: specimens in order to have references.
Gerardo Camilo: So with that said i'm going to stop sharing and thank you very much.
Denise Ellsworth: hey Thank you so much right a really fascinating research and so many dimensions to it, there were a few questions that I.
Denise Ellsworth: had to do with the sampling methodology and I thought i'd ask those kind of together so folks were interested in what time of year, and also what time of day, the sampling was done.
Gerardo Camilo: Oh right, yes, yes, yes, so so for the first part, the very first part we're looking at city parks and we're looking at urban farms.
Gerardo Camilo: And Community garden that one we would start in April, because you know flowering trees and so on and so forth, those are emerging actually.
Gerardo Camilo: Last year, they started emerging March, but in general, we would start around you know tax day was our starting and we would go until early October.
Gerardo Camilo: And those were done every other week so that was there were a time that we have you know thousands upon thousands of bees, you know, in the lab.
Gerardo Camilo: Being process this second part that one for audubon society.
Gerardo Camilo: That one was dawn you know starting early May, all the way to early October, and those were done once a month and, as always, these are the great advantage of working with bees.
Gerardo Camilo: You know.
Gerardo Camilo: The term vcs at be EA it's a horrible term because these are about the laziest organisms on earth.
Gerardo Camilo: They don't start till 10 in the morning, and you know by three o'clock they're done Okay, they gave doctors hours about name.
Gerardo Camilo: Okay, they the the these individuals are Lacey every time I was cloudy or too windy or we're not going out okay so most of the sampling was done, of course, during sunny days that were not terribly windy.
Gerardo Camilo: And between 10 o'clock and usually you want o'clock in the afternoon.
Denise Ellsworth: Okay, great.
Denise Ellsworth: Come on, excuse me folks we are at the top of the hour, so if you have to hop off feel free to do that, but I did open the chat box again if you'd like to say thank you for a great talk this morning but we'll keep going with questions and those will be on the recording.
Denise Ellsworth: So there.
Denise Ellsworth: The question at the very top was about mosquitoes and I know that's something that you've explored as well, so I wonder if you can say a little bit about mosquitoes your work and effects of methods of controlling mosquitoes.
Gerardo Camilo: Okay, so what we have found.
Gerardo Camilo: The big urban myth that has been built a lot into Homeowners association rules and even into some municipalities ordinances is that dude you should not, you cannot have.
Gerardo Camilo: A messy yard, you cannot have overgrown vegetation, because that leads to greater mosquito abundance is, which leads to of course increase DCS risk.
Gerardo Camilo: What we have found is that that is not true at all that having a platinum or gold certified yard that has a lot of.
Gerardo Camilo: me a lot of bs a lot of you know your large reputation has the exact same amount of mosquitoes as the one that is completely mode and kept tight, we found zero difference in terms of mosquitoes.
Gerardo Camilo: The second thing we in terms of control was that did the main thing that matters.
Gerardo Camilo: Is not spraying it's not that the town comes later, but none of that matters at all, the only thing that matter was that you did not have water stack than water sources in your yard.
Gerardo Camilo: Those that the only thing that matter, so if you make sure you know you're in your yard you're looking at flowers, make sure that your tip.
Gerardo Camilo: That water from the from the planters you know that those are empty all the time that the one thing you know spraying, and the that none of that matters at all.
Denise Ellsworth: Right several people were interested in.
Denise Ellsworth: Promoting this idea of unintentional wild type landscapes close to home, so can you offer is there a website some resources some help.
Denise Ellsworth: Getting this happening.
Gerardo Camilo: Definitely, there are a whole host of those.
Gerardo Camilo: As I mentioned Doc tallamy us probably you know he's he's the the lead even evangelist to induce movement.
Gerardo Camilo: There you know there's website from there's one called wild ones that you know we see these nationwide use recommend that.
Gerardo Camilo: Their ease.
Gerardo Camilo: I want to say you know the while.
Gerardo Camilo: My wild yard something like that that is also so basically it's like yeah you you you you go hands off in I think Mary can talk a lot more about this, she will talk about these a lot more tomorrow in which basically you, you will see bomb the area and then you let it go, you know.
Gerardo Camilo: So, so I would I would refer to her expertise in that area.
Denise Ellsworth: And my meetup several people asked about whether you looked at the neighbors or other surrounding landscapes, when you pulled your your data together and how that might affect abundance and diversity.
Gerardo Camilo: Right right, I mean we have a limited time here, yes, we we we actually besides.
Gerardo Camilo: Bees and mosquitoes we're also looking at, of course, plants and we're looking at birds in and people associate is a fairly large project in one of the things we're doing basically we're using.
Gerardo Camilo: we're driving up and down this tree using a geostationary camera on top of the car to take pictures of the front yards of the houses.
Gerardo Camilo: And, and then we're putting that through you know, an algorithm to determine, you know, the amount of time complexity in the front yards and seeing how that influences and and surprise, surprise, he does, you know how the oh love that coffee mug.
Gerardo Camilo: yeah.
Gerardo Camilo: How many how your neighbors keep your yard and an even more more equally important, how much how many weeds are growing this bacon loads really influence, you know how many how many bees, you have in your yard and that that's but that's really, really relevant inside the CD.
Denise Ellsworth: Another question that got lots of up folks is about vegetable gardening and whether those practices to keep a vegetable garden going might interfere with the cycles and ground nesting needs.
Gerardo Camilo: A know we in general, we did not find that and and reason being is that we also have advise the so the main urban agriculture NGO in St Louis it's called.
Gerardo Camilo: used to be called gateway greening is now seats for St Louis.
Gerardo Camilo: And we always advise them to leave.
Gerardo Camilo: bare ground exposed bare ground for an area and even you know twigs and bramble and whatnot in a corner for the bees and plan natives in most of the places have done so, but we found that in gardens were.
Gerardo Camilo: that people have a very specific aesthetic value or what ma n yard any space, have to be mold and cover with dress.
Gerardo Camilo: And in those sites, we make the recommendations we provided the plans and and people said no we're not following you they they take they did not feel comfortable following that so I mean they say you can lead a horse to water.
Denise Ellsworth: So, and that kind of goes with the question that Diego asked besides crops are there ornamental plants, besides crops and weeds perhaps are there ornamental plants that you would advise I mean this palette is growing to better nourish speeds.
Gerardo Camilo: Yes, in in, so this is a can be a little bit thorny issue pardon the pun.
Gerardo Camilo: Because.
it's.
Gerardo Camilo: A lot of plans have are called ICO types they they are adapted to the very local conditions so let's say that you have a purple clover.
Gerardo Camilo: You know purple clover is to be that is a plan that only you know, like a read mentioned yesterday on me it's leftover well lots of bees love clover, but you know you want to plant, the clover that ease better adopted to your specific location.
Gerardo Camilo: So there are a whole host of species that are available, they are native species that provide you know nectar.
Gerardo Camilo: and pollen and so Mr Mosley Paul in summer muscle nectar and you need flowers meaning plants that are flowering the spring in the summer into the fall, you need flowers that you know.
Gerardo Camilo: provide very specific needs, you know, as I mentioned, St Louis he's also kind of like a different you know unique city in the fact that we have a lot of specialist bees inside the city.
Gerardo Camilo: So, not only do we have a lot of diversity, there are a lot of specialty so we have just like we have to squash me that the females only going to squash.
Gerardo Camilo: We got things like hibiscus tea that only go to hibiscus we have various you know sunflower bees that only go to some flowers blah blah blah blah blah.
Gerardo Camilo: So, in order, you want to make sure that when you're selecting plans, he to maintain you know some kind of a pollinator garden, you want to make sure that those two that not only provide generalist but also you provide.
Gerardo Camilo: Plants and flower resources for specialist.
Denise Ellsworth: Great.
Gerardo Camilo: ones well once will be a great resource for that.
Denise Ellsworth: Okay, a nice time for me to plug are attending nature series which starts in January will will have Doug tallamy will have.
Denise Ellsworth: Brian danforth talking about specials bees heather home and plants for Bumblebee so really focused on native plants and.
Denise Ellsworth: Specifically, what they offer will have Lisa olson from wild ones as well, so she should have all gotten an email from me when that you wanted this time about that tending nature program and i'll have that link to register going out in a follow up email.
Denise Ellsworth: let's end with a question that stephanie asked wondering if audubon is planning to expand the bring conservation home project be beyond St Louis.
Gerardo Camilo: Yes, so, as I mentioned.
Gerardo Camilo: He portland Oregon already have it they're running full full force.
Gerardo Camilo: These DC is tremendously successful program baltimore was supposed to have started.
Gerardo Camilo: And because of the pandemic they had to put on hold, I want to say Pittsburgh is also thinking about it.
Gerardo Camilo: So yeah they're they're really doing that because I mean a lot of the other programs use what I call a participation trophy you basically you write a check to the organization they sent you.
Gerardo Camilo: a sign that you have on your on your yard in, and this is important because my colleague, a communication quality have found that feelings of you know pride and joy are super important.
Gerardo Camilo: In terms of involvement in self efficacy, in order to change that green lawn into it pretty high with that or meadow you know you need to have that that drive, you need to have that that interest.
Gerardo Camilo: And that's important, but the big difference here is that no.
Gerardo Camilo: Many times you put that sign and then they change he.
Gerardo Camilo: can be very minimal.
Gerardo Camilo: Or can be non you know you you decided today to do it, and then you got to your plants apply and then you know you got your new shovel and, in time, you do that first shovel you know your gifts and.
Gerardo Camilo: let's grab a beer and watch some football.
Gerardo Camilo: So, so the great thing about bring conservation home is that they come back.
Gerardo Camilo: You know, after they give you that first assessment they come back a second time and said oh yeah you'll meet silver or you did meet platinum or you know they tell you exactly what it is.
Gerardo Camilo: And the last you know and we went back to make sure that that was happening and we make sure of that in order to select the House so so you that's the great different so free conservation home.
Denise Ellsworth: And, and having your powerful research behind it, then, to show those results to show what's really happening all nighters rather than you know the field good gets people motivated but what's really happening on the ground it's really.
Gerardo Camilo: I said.
Gerardo Camilo: Alan Moore mentioned that we just got certified by baltimore audubon and we leave in Bowie Maryland excellent.
Gerardo Camilo: So yeah so so we're.
Gerardo Camilo: we're starting to talk to audubon in portland because we wanted, then repeat the experiment in portland and he Maryland is going, you know.
Gerardo Camilo: He may see me in baltimore in the near future, you know, so you see a big brown guy you know walking around with the butterfly net.
Denise Ellsworth: Great so let's let's in there geraldo Thank you so much really wonderful session appreciate your expertise and the way you broke it down for us.
Denise Ellsworth: folks lots of thank yous in the chat box really appreciate that I will be back here tomorrow with Mary Gardner talking about vacant lots in Cleveland or really exciting pairing pocket prairie research up there, and thanks again berto and poke SIA see you next time.
Gerardo Camilo: I have.
Gerardo Camilo: One here this from rubicam my MAC MAC in New York City oh yeah gallon gelato has been working and in New York City So yes.
Gerardo Camilo: Okay excellent.
Denise Ellsworth: Okay, so.