Subject Area
Biology
Description
Aidan Castricone ’24, Major: Environmental Biology
Courtney Caccamo ’23 Majors: Environmental Biology and Psychology
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Rachael Bonoan, Biology
It is well known that insect pollinator populations are declining and a lack of nutrients (i.e flowering plants) may be contributing to this decline. Insect pollinators forage for pollen and nectar, which provides proteins, fats, and carbohydrates, from flowering plants. Current research on pollinator foraging behavior focuses on pollinators that forage on the ground thus overlooking those that forage in trees. Trees such as Kousa dogwood (Cornus kousa) and crabapple (Malus sp.) bloom in early Spring, even before herbaceous perennials and forbs. Thus, trees are likely the only source for early flying pollinators to find food. On Providence College’s campus, we studied bees foraging in trees using traps strung up via a pulley system. We chose 14 tree species that are likely to be pollinator-friendly based on past research and flowering times. Each tree had traps strung up both in the canopy and at the base. Each week contents of traps were collected and bees were pinned and identified to genus and, when possible, species. Pinned specimens were added to the Providence Pollinators reference collection and inform on-campus tree management for pollinator conservation.
Publisher
Providence College
Date
4-26-2023
Type
Poster
Format
Text
Language
English
