Jane Memmott

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Jane Memmott

OBE FRS
Alma mater University of Leeds (BSc, PhD)
Scientific career
Institutions University of Bristol

Jane Memmott OBE FRS is an ecologist and entomologist from the United Kingdom. She is professor of ecology at the University of Bristol. Her research focuses on community ecology and she is an expert on the interactions between insect pollinators and plants. [1]

Contents

Education and career

Memmott attended the University of Leeds where she studied zoology in the early 1980s. She continued her studies at Leeds, where she eventually obtained her PhD. She also worked on the community ecology of phlebotomine sandflies, doing fieldwork in Costa Rica. As a postdoctoral researcher she constructed the first food webs in tropical ecosystems, looking at plants, leaf-miners, and parasitoids, [2] working with Charles Godfray. [3] She furthermore did research of invasive plants in New Zealand.

In 1996 Memmott transferred to the University of Bristol as a lecturer. In 2012 she was appointed Head of the School of Biological Sciences where she oversaw the school's transition to a new Life Sciences building. [4]

Research

Memmott's studies a wide range of areas in ecology including pollination ecology, invasion ecology, agro-ecology, biological control, urban ecology, and restoration ecology. [1]

Her work in urban habitats includes the urban pollinators project (part of the Insect Pollinators Initiative [5] ). In this project, Memmott and her team sample insect pollinators in 1 km long transects in urban areas. [6] They found that private residential gardens, allotments, and community gardens had a higher abundance of insect pollinators than public amenity gardens, such as parks and road verges. [7]

Memmott is an advocate of providing resources in urban habitats to sustain pollinators. [8] In particular she advocates for growing areas of wildflowers, which have plants with more nectar and pollen than many cultivated plant varieties. Memmott found that these areas of wildflowers can provide more foraging resources for pollinators. [9]

She has also studied the way in which resources available to insect pollinators have changed over the past century as well as the changes that occur over a one-year period. In her research of long-term vegetation surveys she found that nectar resources in the UK declined up to the 1970s, during agricultural intensification, but since then resources have increased. [10] On a smaller timescale, Memmott found a potential for mismatch in the timing between flowering plants and the flight times of pollinators that visit them through the year. [11]

Memmott also researches agroecosystems. Her research has shown that there are significant gaps seasonally in resources for pollinators from plants, such as pollen and nectar, in early spring and late summer; this knowledge could be used to alter the species mix of wildflower strips as part of agri-environment schemes. [12]

Honours and awards

Memmott is a reviewing editor on Science Magazine . [13]

She was awarded the Marsh Ecology Award by the Marsh Christian Trust and the British Ecological Society in 2015. [14]

In 2018 she gave the Sir John Burnett Memorial Lecture at the National Biodiversity Network annual conference. [15]

Memmott was made President Elect of the British Ecological Society in 2019, [16] and became President at the beginning of 2020. [17]

Memmott was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2021 Birthday Honours for services to insect pollinators and ecology. [18]

She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2023. [19]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pollinator</span> Animal that moves pollen from the male anther of a flower to the female stigma

A pollinator is an animal that moves pollen from the male anther of a flower to the female stigma of a flower. This helps to bring about fertilization of the ovules in the flower by the male gametes from the pollen grains.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hover fly</span> Family of insects

Hover flies, also called flower flies or syrphid flies, make up the insect family Syrphidae. As their common name suggests, they are often seen hovering or nectaring at flowers; the adults of many species feed mainly on nectar and pollen, while the larvae (maggots) eat a wide range of foods. In some species, the larvae are saprotrophs, eating decaying plant and animal matter in the soil or in ponds and streams. In other species, the larvae are insectivores and prey on aphids, thrips, and other plant-sucking insects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coevolution</span> Two or more species influencing each others evolution

In biology, coevolution occurs when two or more species reciprocally affect each other's evolution through the process of natural selection. The term sometimes is used for two traits in the same species affecting each other's evolution, as well as gene-culture coevolution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wildlife garden</span>

A wildlife garden is an environment created with the purpose to serve as a sustainable haven for surrounding wildlife. Wildlife gardens contain a variety of habitats that cater to native and local plants, birds, amphibians, reptiles, insects, mammals and so on, and are meant to sustain locally native flora and fauna. Other names this type of gardening goes by can vary, prominent ones being habitat, ecology, and conservation gardening.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pollination</span> Biological process occurring in plants

Pollination is the transfer of pollen from an anther of a plant to the stigma of a plant, later enabling fertilisation and the production of seeds, most often by an animal or by wind. Pollinating agents can be animals such as insects, birds, and bats; water; wind; and even plants themselves, when self-pollination occurs within a closed flower. Pollination often occurs within a species. When pollination occurs between species, it can produce hybrid offspring in nature and in plant breeding work.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pollinator decline</span> Reduction in abundance of insect and other animal pollinators

Pollinator decline is the reduction in abundance of insect and other animal pollinators in many ecosystems worldwide that began being recorded at the end of the 20th century. Multiple lines of evidence exist for the reduction of wild pollinator populations at the regional level, especially within Europe and North America. Similar findings from studies in South America, China and Japan make it reasonable to suggest that declines are occurring around the globe. The majority of studies focus on bees, particularly honeybee and bumblebee species, with a smaller number involving hoverflies and lepidopterans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beneficial insect</span>

Beneficial insects are any of a number of species of insects that perform valued services like pollination and pest control. The concept of beneficial is subjective and only arises in light of desired outcomes from a human perspective. In agriculture, where the goal is to raise selected crops, insects that hinder the production process are classified as pests, while insects that assist production are considered beneficial. In horticulture and gardening, beneficial insects are often considered those that contribute to pest control and native habitat integration.

<i>Asclepias</i> Genus of flowering plants

Asclepias is a genus of herbaceous, perennial, flowering plants known as milkweeds, named for their latex, a milky substance containing cardiac glycosides termed cardenolides, exuded where cells are damaged. Most species are toxic to humans and many other species, primarily due to the presence of cardenolides. However, as with many such plants, some species feed upon them or from them. The most notable of them is the monarch butterfly, which uses and requires certain milkweeds as host plants for their larvae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Entomophily</span> Form of pollination by insects

Entomophily or insect pollination is a form of pollination whereby pollen of plants, especially but not only of flowering plants, is distributed by insects. Flowers pollinated by insects typically advertise themselves with bright colours, sometimes with conspicuous patterns leading to rewards of pollen and nectar; they may also have an attractive scent which in some cases mimics insect pheromones. Insect pollinators such as bees have adaptations for their role, such as lapping or sucking mouthparts to take in nectar, and in some species also pollen baskets on their hind legs. This required the coevolution of insects and flowering plants in the development of pollination behaviour by the insects and pollination mechanisms by the flowers, benefiting both groups. Both the size and the density of a population are known to affect pollination and subsequent reproductive performance.

<i>Gentiana andrewsii</i> Species of plant

Gentiana andrewsii, the bottle gentian, closed gentian, or closed bottle gentian, is an herbaceous species of flowering plant in the gentian family Gentianaceae. Gentiana andrewsii is native to northeastern North America, from the Dakotas to the East Coast and through eastern Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Native species</span> Species indigenous to a given area in geologic time

In biogeography, a native species is indigenous to a given region or ecosystem if its presence in that region is the result of only local natural evolution during history. The term is equivalent to the concept of indigenous or autochthonous species. A wild organism is known as an introduced species within the regions where it was anthropogenically introduced. If an introduced species causes substantial ecological, environmental, and/or economic damage, it may be regarded more specifically as an invasive species.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">May Berenbaum</span> American entomologist

May Roberta Berenbaum is an American entomologist whose research focuses on the chemical interactions between herbivorous insects and their host plants, and the implications of these interactions on the organization of natural communities and the evolution of species. She is particularly interested in nectar, plant phytochemicals, honey and bees, and her research has important implications for beekeeping.

<i>Chamaecrista fasciculata</i> Species of plant

Chamaecrista fasciculata, the partridge pea, is a species of legume native to most of the eastern United States. It is an annual which grows to approximately 0.5 meters tall. It has bright yellow flowers from early summer until first frost, with flowers through the entire flowering season if rainfall is sufficient.

Christina Grozinger is an American entomologist, the Publius Vergilius Maro Professor of Entomology at Pennsylvania State University and the director at its Center for Pollinator Research.

Lynn Dicks is a conservation scientist and ecologist in the UK. She is Professor of Zoology at the University of Cambridge, and Honorary Reader at the University of East Anglia, and an expert in sustainable farming and insect conservation.

Juliet Osborne is an entomologist and ecologist in the UK. She is professor of applied ecology at the University of Exeter and she looks at the health of social insects and how they pollinate plants.

Patricia 'Pat' Gillian Willmer is an entomologist and ecologist in the UK. She is emeritus professor of zoology at the University of St Andrews and is an expert in pollination.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Raguso</span>

Robert A. Raguso is an American biologist and professor at Cornell University in the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior. He has expanded the field of chemical ecology by introducing and pioneering floral scent as a key component of plant-pollinator communication, with special focus on hawkmoths and Clarkia plants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wildflower strip</span> Planting scheme

A wildflower strip is a section of land set aside to grow wildflowers. These may be at the edge of a crop field to mitigate agricultural intensification and monoculture; along road medians and verges; or in parkland or other open spaces such as the Coronation Meadows. Such strips are an attractive amenity and may also improve biodiversity, conserving birds, insects and other wildlife.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pollinator garden</span> Type of garden

A pollinator garden is a type of garden designed with the intent of growing specific nectar and pollen-producing plants, in a way that attracts pollinating insects known as pollinators. Pollinators aid in the production of one out of every three bites of food consumed by humans, and pollinator gardens are a way to offer support for these species. In order for a garden to be considered a pollinator garden, it should provide various nectar producing flowers, shelter or shelter-providing plants for pollinators, and avoid the use of pesticides.

References

  1. 1 2 Bristol, University of. "Professor Jane Memmott - School of Biological Sciences". www.bristol.ac.uk. Retrieved 20 December 2019.
  2. ↑ Bristol, University of. "2019: A Biography of Professor Jane Memmott | School of Biological Sciences | University of Bristol". www.bristol.ac.uk. Retrieved 20 December 2019.
  3. ↑ Grieves, Chris (6 March 2017). "Influential Women in Ecological Network Research". methods.blog. Retrieved 20 December 2019.
  4. ↑ Bristol, University of (6 October 2014). "October: Life Sciences opening | News | University of Bristol". www.bristol.ac.uk. Retrieved 20 December 2019.
  5. ↑ "NERC - Insect Pollinators Initiative". nerc.ukri.org. Retrieved 20 December 2019.
  6. ↑ Morelle, Rebecca (2 August 2011). "Insects and the city". BBC News. Retrieved 20 December 2019.
  7. ↑ Press Association, New Scientist & (14 January 2019). "Rich people's gardens are better for bees and other pollinators". New Scientist. Retrieved 20 December 2019.
  8. ↑ Fowler, Alys (9 August 2013). "Gardens: how to attract pollinators to your plot". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 20 December 2019.
  9. ↑ Perrone, Jane (24 July 2014). "Poppy fields forever: meadows take root amid Britain's urban sprawl". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 20 December 2019.
  10. ↑ Bristol, University of. "February: Loss of wild flowers matches pollinator decline | News | University of Bristol". www.bristol.ac.uk. Retrieved 20 December 2019.
  11. ↑ Koumoundouros, Tessa (11 July 2018). "It's Not Just Sea Levels. Here's The Devastating Impact Climate Change Is Already Having on The Web of Life". ScienceAlert. Retrieved 20 December 2019.
  12. ↑ "The hunger gaps: How flowering times affect farmland bees: Seasonal gaps in the supply of nectar from wildflowers could be leaving bees hungry at times when food is needed most". ScienceDaily. 1 May 2019. Retrieved 20 December 2019.
  13. ↑ "Editors and Advisory Boards". Science | AAAS. 31 January 2018. Retrieved 20 December 2019.
  14. ↑ "Marsh Christian Trust – Marsh Ecology Award". www.marshchristiantrust.org. Retrieved 20 December 2019.
  15. ↑ "Professor Jane Memmott - NBN Conference 2018". National Biodiversity Network. Retrieved 20 December 2019.
  16. ↑ "Jane Memmott voted President Elect of the BES in first online ballot". British Ecological Society. 10 January 2019. Retrieved 20 December 2019.
  17. ↑ Weston, Phoebe (1 February 2020). "Help bees by not mowing dandelions, gardeners told". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 3 February 2020.
  18. ↑ "No. 63377". The London Gazette (Supplement). 12 June 2021. p. B13.
  19. ↑ "Jane Memmott". royalsociety.org. Retrieved 24 May 2023.
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