Context dependent flower choice in honey bees

该项目旨在发现蜜蜂在选择多种花朵时使用的策略。蜜蜂选择访问哪些花朵，避免哪些花朵，对作物产量，入侵杂草的传播和本地植物的保护有重大影响。该项目预计将通过结合实地实验和建模，在行为和授粉生态学领域产生新的知识。该项目的预期成果包括提高授粉生态学领域的能力，以及对世界上最重要的商业授粉者的花卉偏好的新认识。这将为粮食生产和安全带来重大利益，因为世界上三分之一的作物受益于昆虫授粉。

This project aims to discover the strategies honey bees use when choosing between multiple flowers. The choices that honey bees make about which flowers to visit and which to avoid has significant impacts on crop yields, the spread of invasive weeds, and the conservation of native plants. This project expects to generate new knowledge in the fields of behavioural and pollination ecology through a combination of field experiments and modelling. Expected outcomes of this project include enhanced capacity in the field of pollination ecology, and new insight into flower preferences in the world’s most important commercial pollinator. This should provide significant benefits to food production and security as one third of the world’s crops benefit from insect pollination.