Green Friday: Tales of Bees

California is home to many species of native bees as well as introduced species such as the European honey bee. They are amazing creatures and important pollinators in natural, agricultural and urban landscapes.  Dr. Hafernik will introduce the natural history of bee species in the Bay Area and discuss threats to both native bees and honey bees.  He will also highlight how citizen science can play an important role in tracking threats to bees and in documenting their changing patterns of geographic distribution.  Along with other colleagues from SF State and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County he founded the ZomBee Watch citizen science project to find out where in the United States and Canada the zombie fly is parasitizing honey bees and whether it contributes to hive losses. ZomBee Watch has been featured in Scientific American, the Discovery Channel, Science Friday, the New York Times, and many other worldwide media outlets.  In January 2016, SciStarter and Discover Magazine ranked ZomBee Watch among the top 10 Citizen Science projects for 2015.

 

Speaker: Dr. John Hafernik, SF State Univ, Emeritus