Bee It Known: Biodiversity Is Critical to Ecosystems

Bumble Bee on Virginia Bluebells. Photo: Matt Drews

A Rutgers-led study on bees shows how different species pollinate the same plants over time. Rutgers has conducted the first study showing how many more species of bees are needed to maintain crop yields when a longer-term time frame is considered. In the paper, which was recently published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, scientists said biodiversity of the bee population is …

Bee Diversity is Important for Maintaining Healthy Ecosystems and Life on Earth

A bee of the genus Ceratina on a plant of hte genus Ipomoea (morning glory). Photo: Joe Zientek.

Rutgers scientists assessing the level of diversity among bee species necessary for sustaining populations of wild plants have concluded that ecosystems rely on many bee species to flourish, not just a few dominant ones. The report, published in The Proceedings of the Royal Society B, supports the fundamental idea that biodiversity is key to sustaining life on Earth, notably in an era …

Why You Should Care About Biodiversity

hand holding globe

Government biodiversity experts from around the world will meet in China at the UN Conference on Biodiversity to discuss global goals that could have a positive impact on climate change, deforestation and population growth and prevent the extinction of many plant and animal species. Rachael Winfree, a professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources, and a widely published, renowned …