Start meeting of flax Living Lab Zeeland of project @butterfly-project.bsky.social today #pollinators

🧵1/5 🌱 The Secret Behind Your Chocolate Bar 🍫 Every piece of chocolate owes its existence to the cacao tree (Theobroma cacao). This rainforest plant underpins a $100 billion industry, yet its fate rests with one tiny pollinator: the chocolate midge (Ceratopogonidae). 🦟

Today, the website of our Horizon Europe project on #pollinator stewardship, www.butterfly-europe.eu has reached 50 clicks from google search in the past 28 days. Please link to our wonderful website to help make it even better findable + follow our BlueSky account @butterfly-project.bsky.social

🧵1/4 ☕️ Your morning coffee depends on pollinators more than you might think. Every day, the world savours more than 2 billion cups of coffee. Yet this daily ritual relies on a hidden workforce: pollinators. Bees, butterflies and countless others ensure that coffee blossoms fulfil their potential.

Pollinators such as wild #bees, #butterflies, and #hoverflies are in trouble worldwide. A major new study, published in Science, shows that the oft-quoted figure of 10% semi-natural habitat in farmland landscapes is far too little to safeguard pollinators jeffollerton.co.uk/2025/09/26/p...

🐛🧵1/4 ✨ Fireflies are lighting the way—literally ✨ Scientists have drawn inspiration from the firefly’s glow to create a new kind of LED lightbulb—one that shines brighter while wasting far less energy. ⬇️ Firefly photograph by @yb_woodstock; source: www.flickr.com/.../yellow_b...

🐛🧵(1/5) 🌿✨ The Silkworm: An Ancient Ally ✨🕸️ Long before factories or fibre optics, humans relied on a humble insect for one of the world’s most extraordinary materials: silk. The silkworm moth (Bombyx mori) is unusual—adults do not feed, and unlike most moths, they are not pollinators.

🧵1/4 🦋✨ Yet another pollinator-inspired innovation: keeping cool with butterfly wings ✨ The striking blue of the Morpho butterfly is not pigment, but microscopic wing structures that bend and scatter light. Inspired by this, researchers have created an ultra-thin film with the same optical effect.

🧵1/4 🐝✨ It’s no secret that honeybees have an extraordinary sense of smell. But did you know scientists are now exploring how this ability could help detect lung cancer? 👇 #ScienceForAll #BiodiversityMatters

🐛🧵1/4 From Bees to Bots 🐝🤖✨ Honeybees, despite tiny brains, excel at communication & group decisions. Their famous “waggle dance” inspired researchers at the University of Barcelona to design a decision-making system for Kilobots. #FutureForPollinators #BiodiversityMatters

🧵1/4 🐛🔍 Join us for a new Wednesday series on amazing pollinators that benefit and inspire us. Are you curious? Of course you are! 😄 ⬇️🧵 #AmazingPollinators #ProjectButterfly #ButterflyEffect #NatureIsConnected #Pollinators #PlantsForPollinators #SaveTheBees #ScienceForAll #BiodiversityMatters

(1/3) Offcontinental locations 3/3 📍 Martinique We are wrapping up our project location series with two exciting studies in Martinique! 🐝🐦 Guava: a case study on this little-studied economically important tropical crop that depends on animal pollination in collaboration with FREDON Martinique.

📣ℹ️ The Zeeland Living Lab has published a Dutch-language press release: 🔗 clm-onderzoek-en-advies.email-provider.eu/web/kiienyak... and launched the Dutch-language Butterfly Living Lab website: 🔗 zeeland.butterfly-europe.eu 🐛🦋 Enjoy!

(1/2) Offcontinental locations 2/3: 📍Curaçao. We will be teaming up with Carmabi. Very little research has been done on pollinators in this region, so this is a great chance for us to gather valuable data and learn more about the diversity and importance of pollinators.

🦋 Amid the growing controversy over pesticide-heavy lily farming in the Netherlands, @jeroenvandersluijs.bsky.social sat down with @dvhn.nl for an in-depth interview. The conversation goes far beyond lilies – touching on wider environmental issues 🐛 👉 butterfly-europe.eu/interview-wi...

Offcontinental locations: 1/3📍#Greenland Rock cranberry, crowberry, cloudberry, and blueberry🫐 = important food sources for wildlife🦊 and the Indigenous communities in Greenland. Building on earlier work on pollination networks in eastern Greenland, we will expand to more populated areas in the west

We have a vacancy for a PhD. Topic: "Economic evaluation of pollination services among European citizens" Location: Toulouse (FR) Supervisors: Nicola Gallai and Lorraine Balaine Application deadline: August 15, 2025 See link: butterfly-europe.eu/vacancies/

🦋 This week, we're spotlighting the final Living Lab in the #ButterflyEUProject : Milano. In & around Milan, pollinators face pressures from urban sprawl, pesticides & habitat loss in both recreational & agricultural zones. Awareness is also critically low. #LivingLabs #PollinatorsMatter

(1/2) #LivingLabs focus on 📍 Southern Norway! In Landøy, abandoned coastal heathlands are being restored after decades of neglect following the 1960s fisheries collapse. Restoration supports pollinators, carbon storage, and cultural heritage. #ButterflyEUProject #PollinatorsMatter #SouthernNorway

In a new study jointly led by Steffani Queiroz and Marsal Amorim — and part of my ongoing collaboration with a brilliant team of Brazilian #hummingbird researchers — we explored how plant – #pollinator interactions shift over time. Read more here: jeffollerton.co.uk/2025/07/02/f... #biodiversity

@valor-project.eu - our (little 😜) sister project has also just launched a website. Take a look! 🌐 valor-project.eu Go VALOR! #FutureForPollinators

Reddingsaksjon for kystlyng og insekter @butterfly-project.bsky.social Butterfly's Norwegian Living Lab butterflylivinglabs.no, coordinated by @mayb-on.bsky.social, covered by Vi Menn, Norway's largest weekly lifestyle magazine for men. @unibergen.bsky.social @vitenskapsteori.bsky.social

Butterfly is a 24 partner Horizon Europe RIA project, coordinated by me. It aims to enhance society’s capacity to appraise, foresee, and respond to the threats posed by cascading impacts of pollinator decline. Our website is now live: butterfly-europe.eu Follow us: @butterfly-project.bsky.social

(1/2) #LivingLabs focus on 📍 Île-de-France! In this patchwork region of farms, forests & gardens, land use is shifting—organic farming has tripled in 5 yrs, and 1 in 3 households grow their own food. But what does this mean for pollinators? 🐝🌾 #ButterflyEUProject #SmallScaleFarming

🧵1/10 🌿🐝 It’s Saturday — and we’re closing out #PollinatorWeek with a final deep dive into the wondrous diversity of #pollinators. Most people think of bees, but the story is much bigger… #PollinatorsWeaveConnections

🧵1/7 🐝🌱 #PollinatorWeek continues! Today we’re heading to @jagiellonskiuni.bsky.social  @ioes-ju.bsky.social , where @michalfilipiak.bsky.social  & @filipiakzuza.bsky.social  are looking at bees through a different lens — not just pollination, but nutrient cycling. ♻️🌍 #PollinatorsWeaveConnections

🧵1/10 🌍🐝 #PollinatorWeek continues! We've explored how #PollinatorsWeaveConnections and uncovered amazing facts about their ecology. But let’s take a step back. 👉 What’s driving #PollinatorDecline? And why should we care? #ProjectButterfly #ButterflyEffect #SaveTheBees #BeeyondHoneybees

🧵1/n 🦋✨ Welcome back to #PollinatorWeek! We explore how #PollinatorsWeaveConnections across ecosystems, economies, and our everyday lives. Spoiler: the links are deeper than you think! 🌍🐝💚 #FutureForPollinators #ProjectButterfly #pollinators

🧵1/9 🌍💫🐝💐 #PollinatorsWeaveConnections We kicked off #PollinatorWeek by exploring how pollinators connect with people and ecosystems. Today, let’s flip the lens: how can science help protect these vital creatures and the services they provide? 🧠🦋 #FutureForPollinators #ProjectButterfly #pollinators

🧵1/6 #PollinatorsWeaveConnections 🌍💫🦋💐 We kicked off #PollinatorWeek by exploring how global pollinator stewardship supports human wellbeing — a wonderful web of life that connects us all to pollinators. 💚🌸 Ready for more? Let's zoom in on the #pollinator biology! 🔬

🧵1/6 We’re kicking off our #PollinatorWeek series with a bang 💥 — straight from our very own project coordinator @jeroenvandersluijs.bsky.social  @vitenskapsteori.bsky.social 🚀🔥 👇 #PollinatorsWeaveConnections #ProjectButterfly #ButterflyEffect #NatureIsConnected #SaveTheBees #BiodiversityMatters

🌼✨ #PollinatorWeek is here! thx @pollinatororg.bsky.social   16–22 June #PollinatorsWeaveConnections 🦋 Join Butterfly this week! Each day, we’re dropping science-packed snippets from our brilliant researchers! 💡🔬 Curious? You should be. Let’s build a #FutureForPollinators — one post at a time 🦋 🌍💫

(1/2) #LivingLabs focus on 📍 Northern Jutland 🌿🐝 What if bioenergy could boost pollinators too? In #NorthernJutland, agroforestry meets organic pig farming—producing both premium pork 🐖 and willow for bioenergy.

Woodlands play multiple roles in supporting farmland populations of wild bees. Deciduous woods provide floral resources, and open woodlands extend availability of understory floral resources respite from hot weather resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

🐛🦋An evidence-based approach for selecting and testing suitable plants to use in annual seed mixes to attract insect pollinators 👇 (seed mixes for bees and hoverflies were considered in the study) 🐝🪰

What Are The Best Wildflowers To Attract Bees? a study published by Plants, People, Planet #SciComm by @grrlscientist.bsky.social #bees #pollinators #insects #wildflowers #ecology www.forbes.com/sites/grrlsc...

#LivingLabs focus on 📍 Zeeland (Netherlands) Farmers in Zeeland grow a variety of crops: onions, wheat, legumes, sugar beets, and flax! Flax has been grown for textile production since the Middle Ages. Now, flax fibers are exported, and rest products are processed into building materials🏘️ (1/2)

🗑️🐛Plastic pollution is a pollinator crisis — clogging nesting sites, contaminating flowers, and disrupting entire food chains. This #WorldEnvironmentDay, rethink plastic, protect #pollinators, and choose action to safeguard life. #BeatPlasticPollution 👇Links to further info in the post below.

Some ideas on what flowers to grow to help bees cope with hot weather from @The_Buzz_Club "Bees & Heatwaves" citizen science project, download report from link below: www.thebuzzclub.uk/bees-heatwaves @yanetsepulveda

🐝 #Pollinators are responsible for much more than food-crops. From biofuels to medicines, we rely on pollinators in much of our daily lives.🧪 Check out a few facts about pollinators from the IPBES #PollinationAssessment 🌏 Read the Report here: https://www.ipbes.net/assessment-reports/pollinators

Sometimes working in the field is hard 🥵

In a new study just published, I teamed up with some Brazilian colleagues to explore how the different features of garden flowers help sustain #pollinators throughout the year in a subtropical urban garden. Read more about it here: jeffollerton.co.uk/2025/05/30/a... #biodiversity #ecology #bees

If you think the seasons are feeling… different, you may be right. Our new review in Science (@science.org) shows that Earth’s changing rhythms could have major and underestimated consequences for life on Earth. 🌍🧵 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

🌍 We are taking you on a journey across our diverse research sites! First stop: 📍 #LivingLabs – #Murcia @pdelarua.bsky.social 🌸 Did you know 38% of organic crops in Murcia are almond trees? These trees support rural life & heritage—but rising demand brings challenges (1/2).

📄 We just enriched our library with a new resource titled Crop Diversification for Pollinator Conservation. 🌿 It looks at the mechanisms and current evidence base of how increasing the diversity of crops can benefit pollinator biodiversity. Check it out here: wildposh.eu/library #WildPoshResources

🌸 Happy #BiodiversityDay! @ipbes.net defines living in harmony with nature as living peacefully alongside all organisms, recognizing our interdependence while ensuring sustainability. 💫🧪 Together, let's conserve, restore & sustainably use life on Earth! 🌍

Join our #VirtualRoadshow on #Biodiversity! 🌿 Explore findings from our innovation hubs across Europe on how biodiversity underpins resilient agroecological systems. 📅 9 July ⏰ 10:00–12:00 CET www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/agroecolog... Free, interactive, and packed with insights! #Agroecology

🐛🦋🎶Hey there @restpoll.bsky.social , how are you? We're here until 4 pm today, together with the Plant-Insect Interactions Team, at TUM Campus Weihenstephan in Freising. We'd love to see all of you! #WorldBeeDay for #pollinators

Today, on #WorldBeeDay I want to challenge everyone to leave half their garden to pollinators this summer! www.un.org/en/observanc... @butterfly-project.bsky.social @valor-project.eu @uniuef.bsky.social

Thank you @mimiet.bsky.social ! Have a look at this text. All you need to do is use the translation option in your favourite browser and you're good to go! #WorlBeeDAy for #pollinators 🐛🦋