Bee Girls.

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Author: Weir, Kirsten

Miro and Tommasi set out to learn how many different bee species call Vancouver home and how common each species is. They also wanted to determine which habitats the bees prefer. A habitat is the area or natural environment in which an animal or a plant normally lives. They named their study the Once Upon a Bee Project, wrote up a proposal, and were awarded $70,000 in grant money to carry out their study â€" before they'd even finished high school!

Miro and Tommasi caught bees all over Vancouver, in many different habitats â€" yards with natural plants and wildflowers, yards with mowed grass, community gardens, roadside weed patches. At each site, they mapped out an area and recorded the number of bees they found there during a 30-minute hunt. After chasing down bees and catching them in what Tommasi calls "giant ice cream cone-shaped nets," they recorded the species of each bee as well as the type of flower each one was visiting.

If they had trouble identifying an individual bee, the young women put the bee on ice until it passed out and carried it back to the lab to examine it under a microscope. When the bee warmed up, the pair set it free.

Miro and Tommasi found that Vancouver is buzzing with 56 bee species, nearly all solitary bees. Unlike the familiar honeybees that live together in colonies, most of the world's bee species live and work alone.

As they had expected, Miro and Tommasi found that Vancouver's bees prefer wild areas to household lawns and ornamental flower beds. Abandoned lots and weedy roadside patches are filled with native plants, which bees visit in search of pollen and nectar to eat. Pollen is the powdery grains that contain a plant's male reproductive cells, and nectar is a sweet liquid produced by plants to tempt pollinators. Pollinators, such as bees and birds, are animals that inadvertently transfer pollen grains from flower to flower as they look for food.

For bees, a typical yard is not a hospitable place. Many people apply pesticides and herbicides to their lawns. Pesticides are compounds that kill insects and other pest species. Herbicides are compounds that kill unwanted weeds. Those "weeds" are often native plants that naturally attract bees and other creatures. Most of the ornamental flowers in fancy flower beds leave bees hungry, they are often sterile â€" they don't produce pollen.

Biologists have observed that many bees once found in the country have fled to the city. Why do cities please bees? Modern cities have a diversity of plant life, even in small habitats like vacant lots or patches of weeds. By contrast, modern farmland is doused with pesticides and most farms are monocultures, in which huge stretches of land are used for raising a single crop. Many bee species are now better adapted to urban environments. "Where there is even the smallest blade of grass," said Miro, "there is an ecosystem."

Still, not all bees are thriving. Human development of once-wild spaces has sent many species of both city bees and country bees into decline. In a study done in 1981, scientists found that the species Bombus occidentalis was one of the most abundant bee species in the Vancouver area. During their two years of research, Miro and Tommasi found just two individual B. occidentalis.

The pair encourages people, in cities or outside of them, to plant bee-friendly native plants around homes, schools, and commercial areas. As for themselves, the young researchers are moving beyond bees toward broader goals. Tommasi, now 21, is studying environmental science at Simon Fraser University. Miro, 22, has nearly completed dual degrees in ecology and economics at the University of British Columbia and hopes to become an urban planner, designing cities and neighborhoods that charm both humans and bees.

Wherever their career paths take them, Tommasi and Miro hope their work has illustrated the need to protect wild bees. Bees need flowers to survive, but flowers need bees just as much. After all, said Miro, "Bees are the best pollinators in the world!"

PHOTO (COLOR): Desiree Tommasi (left) searches for bees buzzing among the flowers in Momiji Gardens, in Vancouver.

PHOTO (COLOR): Most of the city's bees, such as the familiar bumblebee (far left), live on their own, not in hives.

PHOTO (COLOR): Bees can fly, but they can't escape from Alice Miro and her big buy net.

PHOTO (COLOR): Miro and Tommasi have found that Vancouver's natural spaces, such as Stanley Park (above), are good refuges for urban bees.

PHOTO (COLOR): Many bee species have fled heavily cultivated rural areas for cities such as Vancouver that have lots of green space.

PHOTO (COLOR): Tommasi teaches visitors about bees during a summertime festival.

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By Kirsten Weir