As we celebrate World Bee Day on Monday 20 May, it’s important we recognise important role of bees and other pollinators for the ecosystem. Here, Monash University experts explain how new technologies can support the preservation of native bee populations.
Dr Scarlett Howard, School of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, says there is still much to learn from the intelligence of miniature bee brains.
“There are about 20,000 bee species across the globe,” Dr Scarlett Howard says. “Australia hosts approximately 10 per cent of global bee diversity. Despite the importance of bees, we understand so little about the behaviour, ecology, and habitat of many of our native species in Australia.
“By exploring the world of understudied and lesser-known Australian bee species, we have uncovered a wealth of knowledge regarding their roles in ecosystems, their intelligence, and their value in pollination. There is still so much more to learn about these fascinating and important pollinators.
“Traditionally, insects have been underestimated for their intelligence. Despite having miniature and seemingly simple brains, bees have shown a vast array of complex behaviours. Bees have shown intelligence in the form of face recognition, basic arithmetic, rudimentary tool use, problem-solving, rule-learning, and more. We continue to be amazed by the cognitive feats of different bee species from studies around the world.”
How we can learn from buzzy brains
Associate Professor Adrian Dyer, Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences is excited about what we can learn from the miniature brains of bees.
“For over 100 million years bees have been successfully foraging in highly complex, and frequently changing, natural environments,” says Professor Dyer. “All this is achieved with a miniaturised brain containing less than a million neurons (we have more neurons in the retina for each of our eyes), and the bee brain operates with a tiny energy budget for cognitive-like information processing.
“At Monash University we currently investigate the bio-inspired design principles that can be learnt from bees and applied to the next generation of technology for both information processing, and the efficient management of food resources that frequently rely on bees for pollination.”
AI Is One of the technologies being used to track the health of bees
Associate Professor Alan Dorin, Head of NativeBee+Tech Facility, Faculty of Information Technology, warns that Australia’s native bees are at ‘potentially at risk of extinction’. However, he says, we can now use AI to track insect movements and the health of bees.
“As our climate becomes increasingly unstable, and land-clearing for urban expansion and industrial agriculture continues in Australia, we must rapidly learn all we can about our native bees. They are potentially at risk of extinction,” says Associate Professor Alan Dorin. “New technologies from artificial intelligence (AI) and computer science can help us understand their abundance and habits.
“We know very little about Australia’s 1600+ native bee species. They are certainly key pollinators of our native ecosystems and food crops. Learning to monitor and manage them is an important application for new technologies that can help us sustain our unique ecosystems and improve food security.
“Honeybee hives are increasingly monitored remotely using new technologies. This is especially important to allow proper management under climate change and the stress of pests, pathogens and even chemical pesticides. Uniquely, we are developing monitoring technologies for Australia’s native stingless bee hives. These bees are important crop and wildflower pollinators and are not directly susceptible to Varroa mite which is spreading amongst our introduced European honeybee population.
“Remote digital insect monitoring stations allow us to identify insect species visiting crops and wildflowers. These new technologies assist us to be good custodians of Australia’s biodiversity, and to monitor pests and pathogens amongst introduced species such as the European honeybee we depend on for managed crop pollination.”