In Honor of Casper Bauhin (1560-1624)

 By Richard B. Primack  

 

“A man is wise with the wisdom of his time only & ignorant with its ignorance.”  Henry David Thoreau in his Journal. 

 

In September, the University of Basel in Switzerland celebrated the life of the famous botanist Casper Bauhin with a special international symposium, “400 years of Botanical Collection: Implications for Present-Day Research.” 

 

Participants in the symposium.

Among his many contributions, Bauhin established the university’s botanical garden, was a pioneer in developing the concept of the genus, described many plant species for the first time, and completed a flora of Basel. 

A portrait of Bauhin.

Bauhin’s Flora of Basel from 1622.

Bauhin’s herbarium contains many of the oldest specimens of important cultivated plants, such as potato. 

A herbarium specimen of potato prepared by Bauhin.

As part of the symposium, I presented a keynote talk on the use of botanical gardens and plant collections in climate change research. 

Primack presents a talk at the symposium.

 

Are Pollinators Being Supported in Newton?

By Richard B. Primack  

 

“The effect of a good government is to make life more valuable – of a bad government to make it less valuable.”  Henry David Thoreau in his Journal. 

 

 

Is Newton -- replete with public open spaces, private landscapes, and ever more pollinator gardens -- adequately supporting its native pollinators? Are non-native European honeybees competing with or harming our native insect pollinators? The City of Newton is asking these questions as it considers new regulations that would restrict honeybee numbers on public and private land.  

Honeybees and bumblebees on ornamental onions in a private garden.

To investigate this topic, from June to October 2022 Selby Vaughn, Katia Landauer, and I systematically visited Newton’s natural areas and gardens to determine what flowers native insects and honeybees are visiting. 

 

Giant black wasp visiting swamp milkweed flowers in Wellington Park.

Most pollinators were found on the biggest displays of flowers, primarily non-native cultivated plants on private and public property. Pollinators also visited native and non-native plants flowering in Newton’s forests, wetland meadows, and fields. 

 

Carpenter bees visiting coast pepperbush flowers in Webster Woods.

We saw surprisingly few native butterfly species visiting flowers, perhaps due to dearth of appropriate nectar sources and the effects of the drought.  

 

Tiger swallowtail butterfly visiting Joe Pye weed flowers in a pollinator garden. 

Our observations of mixtures of honeybees, bumblebees, and solitary bees on flowers throughout Newton suggests that native pollinator populations and honeybees can co-exist. It remains unknown how native pollinator populations would change if the number of honeybee hives increased or decreased.  

Introduced cabbage butterflies and honeybees visiting non-native purple loosestrife flowers in the Webster Woods.

In addition to regulating honeybee hives,  Newton residents and the City should also consider protecting, managing, and expanding flower and habitat resources, including larger and more diverse pollinator gardens, that native pollinators need in order to thrive.  

 

Bumblebee visiting mountain mint flowers at the City Hall pollinator garden. 

See the following for a longer treatment of this topic: 

 

https://newtonconservators.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Newsletter-2022-Fall-.pdf 

 

Will climate change cause disorder in phenology?

By Richard B. Primack  

 

“Can I not by expectation affect the revolutions of nature – make a day to bring forth something new?”  Henry David Thoreau in his Journal. 

 

There is concern that climate change will affect the phenology of plant and animal species in unpredictable ways, leading to ecological mismatches. This was examined in a recent paper in the journal Ecology using 10,000 time series of phenology from 1000 species across the Northern Hemisphere. 

 

Study sites are concentrated in Northern Hemisphere locations.

In examining this enormous set, the authors found that insect first occurrence, plant flowering, and leaf out times were more sensitive to temperature than bird arrival times. Early season species are more sensitive than later season species. This confirms the results of earlier studies.  

 

a. Hundreds of time series show that all four phenological events occur earlier with warmer temperatures, with bird arrival dates being the least sensitive. b. Phenological variability is not sensitive to temperature. Cross-hatched regions are not statistically significant.

 

There was no evidence for changing variability in response to warming temperatures. However, there was a significant trend for flowering and leafing out times to be less variable over time.   

 

The results suggest that while climate change is not fundamentally altering phenological variability, phenological patterns are changing. Perhaps this is due to changing species abundances or novel environmental constraints leading to non-linear responses.  

 

Stemkovski, M, JR Bell, ER Ellwood, BD Inouye, H Kobori, SD Lee, T Lloyd-Evans, RB Primack, B Templ, WD Pearse. 2022. Disorder or a new order: How climate change affects phenological variability. Ecology. DOI: 10.1002/ecy.3846