The bees' needs: an eco-evo-devo approach to pollinator health and social evolution

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Bees are important not only for their unmatched pollination services but also for their wide range of social behaviours. In my lab, we study the interplay between maternal care and nutritional ecology. Our research focuses on the small carpenter bees as a model for the study of social evolution and pollinator health. We have developed a wide range of tools, techniques, and share open access data of broad relevance to both evolutionary ecologists and conservation biologists. The first part of our research focuses on maternal care and offspring development. We study the small carpenter bees because they are a solitary bee with many social tendencies, including prolonged maternal care, grooming and guarding of offspring, extensive mother-adult offspring interaction, and mutual tolerance of adults in the nest. Further, they are locally abundant and easily tractable in both field and lab settings. We are studying the role of maternal care and mother-offspring interaction on whether offspring develop into tolerant or aggressive individuals. Our studies involve observation colonies which allow us to track mother-offspring interaction and to experimentally modify their nutrition and social environment. We also use genomic methods to identify maternally collected pollen, socially transmitted microorganisms, as well as their effects on offspring gene expression to understand the role of maternal care on offspring nutrition and development. The second part of our research focuses on nutritional ecology and pollinator health. Not only do mothers play a critical role in offspring production and survival, but arguably environmental factors such as food availability, disease, and nesting habit have an overwhelming influence. Our studies demonstrate that bees are sensitive to floral availability not only in terms of the quantity, but also the quality of resources available. Further, there is growing appreciation that core nutrition is complemented by a core microbiome. Bees that are malnourished and combating pathogens have reduced survival and rarely reproduce. We aim to determine the core nutritional requirements and healthy microbiome of bees to inform landscape restoration and conservation practices. With data on nutritional requirements and their availability in the landscape we can better protect pollinator populations. Our research is significant to all Canadians, because our system is unique in permitting experimental assessments of all components that result in a healthy bee. On a practical side, our research also informs pollinator plantings, conservation status recommendations, and bee habitat across a wide range of farm, forest, and urban land use practices. We broadly disseminate information through public lectures, educational websites, school visits, and guided nature walks. The skills that students learn in our lab are directly translated into careers in teaching, research, environmental monitoring, industry, and science communication.