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The public defense of the EMU Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences doctoral student Isabel Margareta Diaz Forero´s PhD thesis «Influence of Abiotic and Biotic Factors at Patch and Landscape Scale on Bumblebees (Bombus spp.) in Semi-natural Meadows» takes place on December 16.

According to Diaz, Estonia is quite unique for researching bumblebees. "In Estonia, there is almost no research on bumblebees and the factors affecting their abundance and diversity. Plus you have more species of bumblebees in this country and some species that are very common in Estonia, are very rare in most places."

She developed her study in 22 semi-natural meadows and researched the abundance and diversity of bumblebees there. This study confirms that the presence of a high diversity and abundance of flowering plants in semi-natural meadows may benefit bumblebees, also human settlements may favour bumblebee species richness and abundance, particularly when these areas include gardens and a high percentage of natural and semi-natural habitats in the landscape.

This thesis is mainly important as bumblebees have an important role in the ecological environment. They are beneficial to humans as well, increasing the harvests of agricultural areas. During the recent years, the decline in the abundance of bumblebees has been noticed. The thesis revealed that in bumblebee conservation, not only the availability of food resources at patch level is important, but also the quality and diversity of the surrounding landscape.

The supervisors of the thesis are professors Valdo Kuusemets and Marika Mänd. The opponent of the thesis is Prof. Dave Goulson (Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Stirling, Stirling, Scotland). The thesis is available in the EMU and TU Libraries.

Read the thesis here: 

http://dspace.emu.ee/xmlui/handle/10492/149