REU Site: Ecology and Behavior of Honey Bees and Solitary Bees

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The University of Central Oklahoma REU Site will provide a research program for undergraduates during the summers of 2009-2012. Six students will be selected each year to participate in an intensive eight-week research program that involves collaboration by an international team of scientists from the United States, Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey. We pose behavioral and ecological hypotheses that use honey bees and solitary bees as model systems. The questions we address are basic in nature but have clear relevance to applied (agricultural) systems in the region where we work. Specifically, we address topics germane to invasive species in pollination systems, decision-making by foraging honey bees and learning patterns in honey bees as influenced by environmental factors. These investigations have direct application to crop pollination and the apicultural industry in Eurasia where honey bees and the solitary bees we study are native. Prior to departing for the field portion of the program, students will be immersed in a one-week course that focuses on experimental design and the history and nature of science; students also participate in the publication process and are supported in their development toward post-graduate studies. We intend to support a generation of scientists who understand the developing world and the relationship between the diversity of human culture and intellectual innovation. Students therefore participate in enrichment activities that include exposure to some of the most significant locations in human history that include archaeological sites along the Dardanelles (near Istanbul), the Aegean islands and throughout western Turkey. Since many large-scale ecological issues (including invasive species and associated pathogens) originate from outside the United States (a result of agricultural enterprise), the international and multicultural collaborations in the program represent a key ingredient in training our student participants to study biological systems in the modern world. This program is supported by funds from the National Science Foundation?s Directorate of Biological Sciences and Office of International Science and Engineering. Additional information can be found at http://cms.uco.edu/REU/, or by contacting the Principal Investigator, Dr. John F. Barthell, at 405-974-2481; jbarthell@uco.edu.