There’s no place
like home,” declared Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. But for Hawai‘i’s
yellow-faced bees, artificial nest boxes—not necessarily home but a good
facsimile— may be their best hope for survival. This is where Jason Graham
comes in.
Dr. Graham, a
post-doctoral researcher in the department of Plant and Environmental Protection
Sciences, is researching the native bees, seven species of which have just been
placed on the endangered species list, for clues as to how to save them from
extinction. Although they were first identified in the Islands a century ago,
little is known about them, he explains. But while people weren’t studying the
bees, they were nevertheless directly and indirectly impacting their
environment—so severely that when researchers started looking for them a few
years ago, they were shocked at how few remained.
The bees, Hylaeus
sp., live and nest in coastal areas, often in holes in pieces of coral that
have washed ashore or in the hollow stems of coastal plants. This habitat makes
them especially vulnerable to climate change, since an increase in storm surge
can decimate a population. They’re also outcompeted by introduced bee species
and preyed upon by invasive ants, which eat their larvae—and because the bees
are solitary, rather than hive dwelling, like honeybees, they hatch and rear
many fewer offspring.
Dr. Graham is
monitoring populations at Mokuleia, Kahuku, Sandy Beach, and along the Ka Iwi
shoreline; another population at Ko Olina was wiped out by a rogue storm that
washed their nests away. After analyzing their dwelling places, he’s created
nest boxes that are inviting to the yellow-faced bees but inaccessible to ants
and protected from the waves. Using these he’s hoping to reestablish bee
colonies in places they’re disappearing from. He also envisions rearing the
bees in captivity for later release into areas where they once were found.
Another important
component of Dr. Graham’s work is raising awareness. His findings have been
featured in an array of local and national publications, including National
Geographic. He’s given presentations at the Hawai‘i Conservation Congress, the
Smithsonian Botanical Symposium in Washington, D.C., and the World Conservation
Congress held in Honolulu in 2016. He was instrumental in getting Hylaeus
classified as endangered, the first bees to gain this protection. “It was
crucial to get them on the list,” he points out. “But now we’re working to
increase their abundance so they don’t have to be on it.”