Prof. Jeff Ollerton – ecological scientist and author, is part of Butterfly’s team at University of Sussex and has a blog about pollinators and pollination where he regularly writes about project Butterfly’s research and related topics. Below are the most recent blog-posts.
- The ProPollSoil project officially got underway on 1st October, and this week (16th–20th November) our consortium gathered in Freising, Germany, for the kick-off meeting hosted by the Technical University of Munich. It was an inspiring start: dozens of experts from across Europe coming together to explore two big questions: How does the health of our […]
- Last week I returned from a 14 day visit to China to colleagues at the Kunming Institute of Botany in Yunnan, part of a three-year commitment to working there that I documented on the blog last year, starting here. Some of my recent trip involved a long weekend in the city of Nantong, just north […]
- When it comes to the statistical analysis of data, I know my limits. Maths was never my strong point at school or university, and my approach has always been to keep analyses as simple and straightforward as possible*, or to rely on colleagues with fancier statistical chops to do the heavy lifting. I wish that […]
- It’s five years to the day since I left the University of Northampton. On that day, encouraged by Karin, I wrote two letters. One was “To the past” and the other was “To my future”. Once I’d written them they were sealed and tied up with a length of twine that we’d used as a […]
- Earlier this year I received an unexpected invitation from Bloomsbury Publishing to attend a book launch at Philip Mould’s gallery in London. Looking at the details I immediately said yes, because it combined three of my passions: natural history, art, and books! Not only that, but the topic of the book was one very close […]
- The Golden Lotus (Musella lasiocarpa) is one of China’s most iconic plants — a striking member of the banana family (Musaceae) that seems to bloom forever. Its brilliant yellow, lotus-like bracts have long made it a favourite of subtropical gardeners, though it also has utility as a food and fibre crop, and is associated with […]
- Pollinators need more space and 10% habitat is not enough says a new study just published in SciencePollinators such as wild bees, butterflies, and hoverflies are in trouble worldwide. A major new study, published in Science and led by Gabriella Bishop and other scientists at Wageningen University & Research, shows that the oft-quoted figure of 10% semi-natural habitat in farmland landscapes is far too little to safeguard pollinators. Instead, the evidence points […]
- On Thursday, October 2 at 6:30pm, I’m running an online webinar on the theme of Surveying for Pollinators. Follow that link for more details and to book a ticket. Here’s an overview of what I’ll be covering: Pollinators like bees, butterflies, hoverflies and even beetles play a vital role in keeping our ecosystems thriving. They […]
- If you’ve read my book Birds & Flowers: An Intimate 50 Million Year Relationship, you’ll know that I spend a few pages discussing the long-standing paradigm of how interactions between plants and their pollinators evolve and result in the formation of new plant species. This is referred to as the Stebbins (or Grant-Stebbins) Most Effective […]
- If you are in or around Cambridge next week, I’m giving a talk on Friday 12th September at the Cambridgeshire Bird Club about my recent book Birds & Flowers: An Intimate 50 Million Year Relationship. The event takes place in the Wilkinson Room, St. John’s Church, Hills Road. Doors open at 7pm and the talk […]