Determinants of pollination quality

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The research focuses on (1) bumble bees (and some other insects) as pollinators, (2) the services they provide to plants, (3) the evolutionary implications of those services to plants, and (4) threats to the conservation of pollination relationships. Specific bee-centred projects include: ***Surveys of shifting altitudinal distributions of bumble bee species in the Rocky Mountains, in the context of climate change over decades. We will compare existing datasets from 1974, 1998, 2007, 2014, and lay groundwork for future surveys at regular intervals. ***Investigation of bumble bee disease from gut pathogens as a possible contributor to observed population declines. We will rear rare species for infection trials, characterize their gut floras for fungal and trypanosome pathogens, RNA viruses, and especially for beneficial bacteria that may counteract the pathogens. This collaborative work will occur alongside the development of status reports and recovery plans for declining species. ***Use of newly miniaturized harmonic radar transponders to document how naïve bumble bees investigate, compare, and decide on locations in which to forage. ***Investigation of the possible interspecific transfer of social foraging cues between bumble bees and honey bees, with tests of new hypotheses based on interspecific competition for floral resources.***Placement of artificially-hibernated queens into emergence traps deployed in the field. By determining when queens actually wake up in the field, this work will clarify the effects of weather and the potential for climate change to disrupt the timing of plant-pollinator matches. ******Specific plant-centred projects include:***Continued long-term studies of (1) pollination services received by a long-lived perennial plant and (2) demographic costs of fruiting. Analyze over twenty years of data for about 220 plants in a transplant garden. Fit integral projection models. ***Use plants from transplant garden to examine costs of nectar production in terms of vegetative growth.***Use 3D printing to mass-produce artificial flowers that donate and receive powdered dye in lieu of pollen to estimate consequences of floral variation for "male" and "female reproductive success" (RS). Extend this technique to conduct "artificial evolution" experiments in which RS differentials in one generation determine phenotype distributions in the next. ***Test predictions that nectar replenishment schedules will differ consistently between related pairs of Penstemon species adapted to bee and bird pollination, as predicted by theory and in parallel with pollen presentation patterns. ********