Farmers Help Create 'Virtual Safe Space' to Save Bumblebees

Land-management strategies to save bumblebees can be tested in a "virtual safe space" developed by scientists at the U.K.'s University of Exeter in collaboration with farmers and landowners.

The freely available Bee-Steward decision-support tool offers a computer model of bumblebee colony survival in a given landscape.

The Bumblebee Conservation Trust is using Bee-Steward to test and direct land management to help bumblebees and farm businesses prosper in Cornwall county.

The Trust's Richard Comont said, "The Bee-Steward model will be fantastic for conservation planning—it lets us time-travel to see the long-term results of changing management and compare all the possible options to see which one will work out best for bumblebees."

From University of Exeter (U.K.)
View Full Article

Abstracts Copyright © 2021 SmithBucklin, Washington, DC, USA