Articles
PS Update
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From Our ArcHIVES - Part 1: Un-Bee-Lievable Facts About The Honeybee (Apis Mellifera)
Join us for a new trilogy delving into cognition and other cool facts about highly social insects. It’s no surprise that here at PlantingSeeds we are simply buzzing about bees and all that they do for us. The team is constantly surprised and excited about their impact on biodiversity and food security. We have always regarded honeybees as social insects that pollinate flowers. And yes, they are super important in this regard, however, they are not just little pollinator machines. Their teeny-tiny brains are capable of impressive things such as telling the time, understanding the concept of zero and counting…
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Plastics In A Pandemic
This plastic-free July, we have one big question: how have our sustainability efforts been impacted by the global Covid-19 pandemic? Patrício Silva, A.L. (et.al. 2020) argues that “with public health now being of utmost priority, along with close monitoring of economic and social impacts, the implications of COVID-19 in the environment remains largely undervalued” (pg.2). This issue is complex, with our frontline health workers needing single use plastic face masks, face guards, gloves, and aprons to protect themselves, their families and the wider community. We can’t ask them to stop. So what personal action can we take to try to…
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Unlocking Nature In Lockdown
With COVID-19 lockdowns meaning more limited access to nature, it is important to find ways to encourage children, teens – in fact, all of us – to reconnect to biodiversity and all it offers. PlantingSeeds’ B&B Highway’s new citizen science session and resources, developed in collaboration with the CSIRO’s Atlas of Living Australia, is focusing on doing just this. Recognising the incredible potential of urban dwellers’ observations captured via Smart device photos, PlantingSeeds and the CSIRO are encouraging students and parents to upload images of pollinators to the national biobank via the iNaturalist website and app. The B&B Highway’s new…
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Hoverflies: The Underrated Winter Pollinator
Considered the most important pollinators in the world (LaSalle & Gauld, 1993), bees tend to take most of the pollinator limelight. However, there are dozens of other pollinators that don’t always get the attention they deserve. Such is the case of the hover flies - the small, underrated pollinators with a little quirk. Hoverflies are insects that belong to the Syrphidae family, within the Diptera group. To some they are considered the second most important pollinator, after wild bees (Larsson, 2005). This is certainly the case in Australia, with our temperate and subtropical climate - the hoverflies work hard on…
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It’s Not Easy Being Greener – Or Is It?
Green technology has been in the headlines a bit lately. Some, thanks to the recent G7 meeting held in Cornwall, UK to specifically showcase them as a leader in Green technologies and others because there’s some brilliant developments. One of the G7 agenda items was also global action on climate change. So, with commitments being made to reduce the amount of government investment in coal power and pledging that money towards sustainable technology, we here at PlantingSeeds got a little (read little) excited by the prospect. Technology is vital to how we live our lives and is also impacting how…
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Ryde'ing The B&B Highway
In June, PlantingSeeds Projects launched an exciting new initiative in collaboration with the CSIRO’s Atlas of Living Australia. Citizen science, through data collection and pollinator and plant identifications, is now a key part of the B&B Highway initiative and this launch reflects that move. Utilising the 12 Ryde locations with B&B Highway regenerative habitat, we hosted the launch with the support of the City of Ryde through their community grants program. With 7 of the 12 locations represented, PlantingSeeds’ founder Dr Judy Friedlander, alongside CSIRO citizen science lead Dr Erin Roger and Ryde Mayor Jerome Laxale welcomed and informed guests…