NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2020: Local adaptation of wild bees to human-dominated landscapes

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This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2020, Broadening Participation of Groups Under-represented in Biology. The fellowship supports a research and training plan for the Fellow that will increase the participation of groups underrepresented in biology. The world has experienced drastic human-driven changes to the landscape, which include mass conversion of natural habitats to agriculture. These changes are a primary driver of global biodiversity loss and altered ecosystem function. In the tropics, deforestation is largely a product of land conversion to pasture for cattle grazing and ranching. This landscape-level simplification has implications for the quantity and quality of the habitat available for wildlife. However, not all species are equally vulnerable to human disturbance and landscape simplification. Accounting for differences in how organisms respond to stressors enhances the effectiveness of management and conservation plans. This project asks how pasturelands versus natural areas affect how stingless bees, a key pollinator group of the Neo-tropics, respond to pesticides that are currently widespread in the environment. A foundational component of this research is capacity building and training for under-represented students both in the US and Colombia, with a focus on future Latinx researchers and leaders. This research will evaluate whether the stingless bee Tetragonisca angustula is locally adapted to different landscape contexts and whether this influences its response to an acute stressor. To address these questions, the fellow will conduct a fully factorial reciprocal-transplant of wild-caught bee colonies in Colombia from simplified landscapes, dominated by pastureland, and complex landscapes, characterized primarily by natural areas. Before deployment, bee colonies will be divided, with half experimentally exposed to pesticides at field-realistic concentrations, while the other half receive a pesticide-free control solution. The foraging patterns of each colony will be monitored in terms of what plants are being visited, the quality of the pollen they collect, and the concentration of additional pesticides they encounter in the field. Additionally, the fellow will evaluate whether the landscape context, both in terms of origin and destination, influences bee behavior and pollination services. These findings will inform policy makers about the impact of landscape simplification on bee health and pollination services, and determine the need for context-dependent management plans. Furthermore, the fellow will train underrepresented minority undergraduate researchers on experimental design and execution, as well as conduct a series of one-day workshops aimed at breaking down myths and misconceptions that frequently dissuade underrepresented minority students from pursuing graduate school in the sciences. Video footage from the workshops will be developed into a short publicly available video both in Spanish and English to further broaden participation in the sciences.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.