FLOWer Lab 🌸🍒 🐝 🪰🔬🧬

It was also wonderful to meet with @wilosterman.bsky.social during some periods and to know more about the @wildposh.eu goals and achievements!

We were delighted to host @juliaosterman.bsky.social over the past three weeks. 🐝🌸 This week, she gave the talk “Improving our understanding of pollinators’ pesticide risk”. Thank you, Julia, for the inspiring exchange and collaboration. We hope to welcome you back! Next time with some sunshine ☀️!

Coimbra hosted the BeeConnected SUDOE participatory workshop 🐝

Stakeholders worked in groups to identify threats to pollinators, prioritize actions and co-create solutions for urban biodiversity.

Thank you to all participants for your engagement and valuable contributions. 🌼

#BeeConnectedSUDOE

Até já Carolina! Foi um gosto enorme aprendermos contigo ao longo destes dois últimos anos! Estamos sempre aqui para o que necessitares! Muito obrigado por tudo!

Boa sorte e muito sucesso para esta nova etapa!

Dia Internacional das Mulheres e Meninas na Ciência #WomenInScience

Jantar de Rainhas e Reis do FLOWer Lab na boa companhia de muitas das caras-metade dos membros do FLOWer Lab! Um 2026 cheio de ação, biodiversidade e interações planta-polinizador!

Queens and Kings Dinner, wishing for a 2026 full of action, biodiversity, and plant–pollinator interactions!

[1/3] We’re closing out the year with THREE new tools for pollinator identification. 1) Bee image database: Explore over 8,000 macro images covering more than 2,000 European Wild Bee species. Search by family, genus, or country to see diagnostic features in vivid detail 🐝 pollinatoracademy.eu/images

Happy holidays and a 2026 full of nature! 🎄

From the FLOWer Lab we wish you happy days, many discoveries and time to appreciate the plants, pollinators and the whole natural world around us. 🌸🐝

Super excited to see the EU Delegation Act to monitor pollinators finally published: eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg_del/...

Better monitoring to support restoration of EU pollinators The Commission has adopted a new Pollinator Monitoring Scheme to help reverse the decline of pollinator populations by 2030.

The @ec.europa.eu approved the EU-PoMS, the new pollinator scheme that harmonises monitoring across the EU. The first period runs from 2027 to 2030. The PT-PoMS proposal developed in PolinizAÇÃO and submitted to ICNF is fully aligned with the Delegated Act. 🐝💛

📃 eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-conten...

Better monitoring to support restoration of EU pollinators The Commission has adopted a new Pollinator Monitoring Scheme to help reverse the decline of pollinator populations by 2030.

A Comissão Europeia aprovou o EU-PoMS, o novo esquema que harmoniza a monitorização de polinizadores na UE. O primeiro período abrange 2027 a 2030. A proposta de PT-PoMS desenvolvida no PolinizAÇÃO e entregue ao ICNF está alinhada com o Ato Delegado aprovado. 🐝💛

📃 eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-conten...

Magusto 2025!

Bonfire chestnut celebration 2025!

Pollinator contribution to crop production: a temporal and economic assessment in Portugal - Regional Environmental Change Pollination is a key ecosystem service that supports agriculture and food security, with significant economic relevance. Yet, national-scale assessments remain scarce, despite their critical role in i...

🐝 Os polinizadores valem milhões... Um novo estudo do FLOWer Lab revela que garantem mais de 2 mil milhões de €/ano à agricultura PT, sendo 1,1 mil milhões assegurados por polinizadores selvagens. Protegê-los é vital para a nossa alimentação, economia e futuro.

Notícia: www.uc.pt/fctuc/notici...

Pollinator contribution to crop production: a temporal and economic assessment in Portugal - Regional Environmental Change Pollination is a key ecosystem service that supports agriculture and food security, with significant economic relevance. Yet, national-scale assessments remain scarce, despite their critical role in i...

🐝 Pollinators are worth billions. A new study from the FLOWer Lab shows they secure over €2B/year for PT agriculture, with €1.1B coming from wild pollinators. Protecting them is essential for our food, economy and future.

Read it: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

News: www.uc.pt/fctuc/notici...

SUPERBICHOS! Incríveis por Natureza - Inauguração A exposição

O suspense acabou… 🤭 Já podemos revelar a data e o programa de inauguração da nova exposição do #PavilhaodoConhecimento: “SUPERBICHOS! Incríveis por Natureza”.

📢 Marquem na agenda: 24 de outubro, sexta-feira, a partir das 18.30. Entrada livre.

Programa: www.pavconhecimento.pt/exposicoes/s...

Flowering synchrony and cultivar compatibility as key factors for optimising sweet cherry pollination and production Effective pollination is crucial for sweet cherry production, as 82% of its yield depends on animal pollination. However, factors like flower phenology and cultivar compatibility are often overlooked...

#OpenAccess
Flowering synchrony and cultivar compatibility as key factors for optimising sweet cherry pollination and production
🍒 doi.org/10.1111/aab....

🌸 It's essential to include compatibility & regional flower phenology in orchard design 🌸

@catarinasiopa.bsky.social @jloureiro13.bsky.social

Very proud to hear this wonderful talk by #SilviaCastro from @pollinet.bsky.social. 👏 #SPECO has been very well represented at @sibecol.bsky.social #congress

The Dutch Grassland Butterfly indicator (www.clo.nl/indicatoren/...) shows a decline of more than 70%. It will be hard to achieve an increasing trend in 2030, as required in art 11 in the Nature Restoration Regulation (eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-conten...).

Las moscas florícolas (Syrphidae) son insectos altamente beneficiosos: mientras que los adultos polinizan, sus larvas contribuyen al reciclaje de la materia orgánica 🍂 o al control de plagas agrícolas.

Os dejo aquí una lámina genial con las especies del género Eristalis de la península ibérica 😉👇

Here’s how to create a more nature-literate society Nature literacy has inspired creativity and innovation for thousands of years.

How to create a #nature-literate society.
My latest article @theconversation.com

Revaluing naturalists' skills is essential for a future where we work with, not against, nature.
Notice
Name
Nurture
#GreenJobs

theconversation.com/heres-how-to...
@uclnews.bsky.social @curlewaction.bsky.social

Ontem foi um dia muito bonito! Obrigado a todos os envolvidos!

Visitem a exposição Pequenos Gigantes - Guardiões da Biodiversidade para ficarem a conhecer melhor alguns da diversidade de polinizadores que podem encontrar em Portugal através do olho e da lente do Albano Soares!

🌿 New publication with FLOWer Lab’s contribution!

With Sílvia Castro, led by Catarina Gomes from Madeira Botanical Group, this study on Musschia wollastonii reveals its mixed reproductive system—self-pollination and insect pollinators, mostly hoverflies and butterflies. Many act as pollen robbers!

Taxonomy of European Apoidea Anthophila While taxonomy in general is not often widely considered a thriving scientific subject, European bee taxonomy is living in an exciting era, pushed by a new generation of taxonomists who are creating r...

🐝 New publication!

The chapter "Taxonomy of European Apoidea: Anthophila", by Hugo Gaspar (FLOWer Lab) & Simone Flaminio (Univ. of Mons), provides a practical guide to bee diversity & identification in Europe.

📖 Part of "Hidden and Wild: An Integrated Study of European Wild Bees". Read it 👇

Congratulations to Tiago Laranjo for successfully defending his MSc thesis in Ecology at UC! 🎓🌱

His research, "Contributions to the conservation of threatened plant species and their habitats in Serra do Caramulo", was supervised by Mariana Castro & António Gouveia!

Wishing you all the best! 🚀

Congratulations Andrés!!!!!!! Enjoy the moment!!!!

Congratulations Rafael Matos for the successful defense of your MSc in Ecology! His work "Reassessing changes in reproductive strategies and population structure of Oxalis pes-caprae in the invaded range" supervised by Sílvia Castro & Mariana Castro, brings new insights into invasive plant dynamics.

It's a match! Six-spot Burnet moth and Common Bird's-foot Trefoil have liked each other. Profile photos for each species with a pink heart icon between them. Pink 'Start planting' button below.

It's a match! Merveille du Jour and Oak have liked each other. Profile photos for each species with a pink heart icon between them. Pink 'Start planting' button below.

It's a match! Humming-bird Hawk-moth and Bedstraw have liked each other. Profile photos for each species with a pink heart icon between them. Pink 'Start planting' button below.

It's a match! Elephant Hawk-moth and Fuchsia have liked each other. Profile photos for each species with a pink heart icon between them. Pink 'Start planting' button below.

You complete my life-cycle 💕

One of the best ways to help moths thrive is by growing their favourite food plants.

#MoonMeadows #MothsMatter

The ecology of polyploid establishment and exclusion, with implications for polyploid biogeography The relationship between polyploid formation, triploid fitness and plant reproduction has been studied for over a century, and uniparental reproduction has long been recognized to play a crucial role...

Huge congratulations @wilosterman.bsky.social for a very good viewpoint paper on @newphyt.bsky.social!

🎉 Dive into "The ecology of polyploid establishment and exclusion, with implications for polyploid biogeography" for a great read! 🔬📚👏

#polyploidy #plantsarefascinating

Sílvia Castro, co-PI of FLOWer Lab, participated yesterday in the round table organised by the Biology students association on the role of women in science, during the celebration of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science! 👩‍🔬

#internationaldayofwomenandgirlsinscience

Thanks @curromolina.bsky.social for the nice words!