Ice, ice, bees?
When he’s not researching how to protect Arctic sea ice, Jacob Pantling – a PhD student at the Centre for Climate Repair – can sometimes be found tending to a busy brood of bees.
“In theory, the bees shouldn’t need much from us – but in practice there’s always something strange going on,” he says. With Darwin College’s student beekeepers, he looks after one of Cambridge’s many hives.
Long before the Centre for Climate Repair came to be, bees were doing important work for the climate; not least pollinating grasslands and flowering plants, many of which have deep roots beneficial for storing carbon in the soil.
But they are also threatened by climate change and extreme weather events, and the loss of hives puts biodiversity and food security at risk. Beekeepers like Jacob are trying to help hives thrive despite the challenges.
“Sometimes they build strange structures or a queen will die unexpectedly and we have to introduce a new one,” says Jacob. “Usually a hive check consists of us just opening up the hive and checking the frames one by one to see if we can find the queen, check she has been laying eggs, check for disease, and assess how much brood (larva cells) and honey there is in the hive.”
From Cambridge...
...to Cambridge Bay.
The bees provide benefits to the keepers, too. “The most fun part is the honey harvest,” says Jacob. At this stage, they extract most of the honey frames from the hive, carefully remove the wax coating and put them in a centrifuge to spin the honey out of the frames.
According to Jacob, Cambridge honey is especially tasty because of all the “funky plants” in colleges and the botanical gardens from which the bees collect pollen. He would argue that Darwin College bees produce the best – but he may be biased.
From bees to ice
It’s not just for love of the bees – Jacob was the only person to be stung in his first year, and six times at that, so they’re not always on good terms – but also motivation to protect the planet we share.
Jacob’s PhD research is assessing whether Arctic sea ice can be thickened to protect it for longer from the summer melt. The rapid loss of this ice has global impact on the climate – due to the difference in albedo between ice and dark ocean – as well as the local communities. Warming temperatures also impact Arctic bees – which Jacob has sadly yet to meet.
In the lab at DAMTP, Jacob checks ice boxes to assess how water freezes on top of ice and answer core questions about ice thickening; he has also supported Real Ice’s field experiments in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, for a number of seasons. He explains that ice thickening could benefit locals whose livelihoods depend on the ice, as well as providing a way to protect the planet alongside decarbonisation. “It’s not ideal, but perhaps it can help,” he told BBC Radio 4 last year.
Another similarity...
...is making sure you are protected head to toe!
Coincidence? Possibly not
As it happens, Jacob isn’t the only sea ice thickening researcher interested in the creatures. Konrad Borowski, member of the Real Ice team, is also working to develop flood-resistant beehives.
“Flooding and extreme weather destroyed millions of beehives during the last year alone,” says Borowski on LinkedIn. “This growing reality threatens our pollinators, biodiversity, global food security, and life on this planet.” His company, Beekon, are developing flood-resistant hives that can help enable pollination in floodplains, mangroves, shorelines, and hurricane-affected regions.
Perhaps it’s not a coincidence that the two researchers share the interest; both the bees and the ice are doing vital work for the climate, both underpin the livelihoods and food security of the communities around them, and both need our attention as the world warms.
Jacob and Konrad worked together in Cambridge Bay last year.
Jacob's college source honey from the bees - supposedly the best in Cambridge!
Photo of researchers on ice by Elise Imbeau. Beekeeping photos by Zhenna Azimrayat-Andrews, another CCR student. Others supplied by Jacob Pantling.
