This episode I’m speaking to Professor Jeff Ollerton, author of the brilliant new book ‘Pollinators and Pollination’, another must-have to add to your ever burgeoning reading pile I’m afraid! I loved the book and as you’ll hear during the interview, it threw up all sorts of interesting questions about pollinators, their role in our lives and gardens and how much we need them. 

Dr Ian Bedford’s Bug of the Week: Queen Bumblebees

This episode is sponsored by gardencourses.com

What we talk about:

What is a pollinator? 

Apart from being nice to look at, why should gardeners want pollinators to visit? 

How pollinators navigate via linear features in a landscape and what this means for plants situated near these features

Would it be fair to say the increase in pollinators since older times has gone hand in hand with that of humans? Did our populations increase in tandem? 

Now we seem to have the upper hand and are disregarding the pollinators, will we ultimately be damaging ourselves, at least from a food growing point of view? 

How useful is it to measure the number of species of pollinators that visit a garden? Are species over-represented in gardens due to the garden’s value as a food source?

Top tips for inviting pollinators into the garden

About Jeff Ollerton

“During a career spanning more than 30 years, Professor Jeff Ollerton has established himself as one of the world’s leading experts on pollinators and pollination. The author of more than 120 articles and book chapters, his highly-cited, ground-breaking research has been used by national and international agencies to support efforts to conserve pollinators and their pollination services. Jeff is also in demand as an advisor and consultant to governments, local authorities, printed and broadcast media, and funding organisations. 

Although he is based in the UK, Jeff’s field work in support of his research and advisory activities has been conducted across Europe, Africa, Asia, South America and Australia.  He received his PhD in pollination ecology in 1993 from Oxford Brookes University, and holds Visiting Professor positions at the University of Northampton in the UK and Kunming Institute of Botany in China. Jeff has previously held visiting researcher positions at the University of Campinas (UNICAMP) in Brazil and the University of New South Wales in Australia.” - https://jeffollerton.co.uk/about/

Links

www.jeffollerton.co.uk 

Order a copy of Jeff’s book and get 30% off with the offer code ROOTS30

Episode 74: Wasps with Richard Jones