A new study by postdoctoral researcher Briann Dorin illustrates how agricultural landscapes can support wild bees, and continues the conservation science research legacy of the late Professor Sheila Colla.
When Dorin was a doctoral student in the Faculty of Environmental & Urban Change and began discussing potential PhD research projects with Colla, her supervisor and one of Canada's leading pollinator conservation scientists, she already knew the questions she wanted to pursue.
With a background in wildlife biology, Dorin had followed growing concern about bee declines and understood the significance of the issue given the critical role pollinators play in maintaining healthy ecosystems and supporting food production.
“Like many others, I was deeply concerned about the declines we were seeing,” Dorin says. She considered such question as: “What does effective pollinator conservation look like? How can we engage landowners in taking action to protect pollinators?”
For many doctoral students, refining broad interests into a focused dissertation project can be one of the most challenging parts of the process. Dorin says Colla’s guidance was instrumental in helping her navigate that challenge.
“She had an incredible ability to ask the right questions and encourage me to think more deeply about the science,” says Dorin.
With Colla's mentorship, those questions eventually led Dorin to explore what she saw as an overlooked area.
She explains that while a lot of research focuses on crops that depend on animal pollination, such as apples and blueberries, crops that do not require pollinators cover larger areas of agricultural land.
“If we assume those landscapes don't matter because the crops themselves don't need bees, we're overlooking millions of acres that pollinators may still use,” she says. “I wanted to understand what role these pollinator-independent crops play in supporting wild bee populations across agricultural landscapes.”
That realization led Dorin and Colla to take a closer look at vineyards. Although grapes do not require animal pollination, vineyards represent large agricultural infrastructure and could provide important habitat for wild bees.
To explore that possibility, Dorin and Colla studied wild bee communities in 26 commercial vineyards in Niagara Region over two growing seasons. In addition to sampling bees, they examined factors including vegetation between vineyard rows, surrounding land uses, soil characteristics and topography.
The approach reflected one of Dorin's guiding principles throughout the project.
“Bees don't recognize farm boundaries or distinguish between crop types,” she says. “They move freely across the landscape – nesting, foraging and dispersing where suitable habitat and resources exist.”
For Dorin, taking that broader perspective is essential to developing conservation strategies that reflect how pollinators experience the landscape. The findings, now published in , reinforce that outlook.
“Our research found a very high abundance and diversity of wild bees in vineyard agroecosystems, showing that these independent crops can support thriving bee communities,” says Dorin.
The study found that bee communities were shaped by a combination of local and landscape-level conditions. Bee abundance and diversity were typically higher in vineyards surrounded by semi-natural habitats such as forests and treed areas. Taller vegetation between vineyard rows was also linked to healthier bee communities.
Another finding involved nesting habitat. Soil conditions were linked to different types of bees, suggesting conservation efforts must consider not only where pollinators find food, but also where they live and reproduce.
The results were the culmination of years of work for both Dorin and Colla.
Finishing the project, however, was not without its challenges. Examining wild bee communities across vineyard environments from multiple angles was an ambitious undertaking. But Dorin says Colla never made anything feel impossible for her students.
“She genuinely believed we were capable of succeeding,” says Dorin. “She trusted her students with meaningful responsibility, but she was always there when we needed guidance.”
And because research rarely goes exactly as planned, she says, there were plenty of moments when that support was needed. Dorin recalls that whether challenges emerged during fieldwork, in the lab or during data analysis, Colla consistently offered advice, reassurance and a fresh perspective.
That commitment to her students remained unchanged, even as Colla faced significant health challenges.
By then, much of the project's fieldwork had been completed and the focus had shifted to data analysis and writing. Dorin says Colla remained actively involved throughout that stage of the research, continuing to meet with her to discuss results and provide feedback.
“Even during such a difficult time, she was still thinking about her students,” says Dorin. “That says a great deal about the kind of mentor she was.”
After Colla's death in 2025, finishing the project – even though much of the work had already been completed – was difficult for Dorin. She says it was impossible not to think about how much Colla would have enjoyed seeing the final dissertation and the resulting publications.
Dorin also believes Colla would have been especially excited by opportunities to share the findings with farmers, land managers and policymakers.
“She recognized that good science alone isn't enough,” says Dorin. “She believed that meaningful conservation requires research, but also policy, community engagement, education and action.”
That way of thinking continues to shape Dorin's own approach to conservation and her goals for this latest study. She hopes the findings will help bridge the gap between science and on-the-ground land management, and encourage new ways of thinking about how wild bees can be supported – even in landscapes not traditionally considered pollinator habitat.
The work also contributes to a more nuanced understanding of pollinator conservation. Ontario is home to hundreds of species of wild bees, each with different nesting and foraging requirements, making a one-size-fits-all solution for supporting pollinators unlikely. Instead, Dorin says, understanding how different habitats benefit different species can lead to more informed conservation decisions across agricultural ecosystems.
That includes, she says, thinking beyond individual farms. Pollinator conservation occurs at the landscape scale, meaning it is not only how a vineyard is managed that matters, but also how nearby forests, hedgerows, roadsides, neighbouring croplands and even soils are managed.
Dorin sees those ambitions as a continuation of Colla's influence.
“Throughout her career, she showed us that conservation is not something achieved in isolation. It requires connecting science with communities, research with action and people with the ecosystems they depend on,” says Dorin.
Dorin was among the many students, researchers and conservation advocates influenced by that philosophy. The vineyard study – and the hopes she has for its impact – reflect lessons Colla instilled throughout her career.
“Completing this project without her was bittersweet. I wish she could have been there for my defence and to celebrate these publications, but I feel incredibly grateful that I had her mentorship for so much of this journey,” she says. “Sheila was simply one of the best people I've ever known.”