Student 10-Minute Presentation
Plant-Insect Ecosystems
Student
Student Competition
Dante J. Centuori (he/him/his)
Graduate Student
The Ohio State University
Columbus, Ohio
Michelle Pham
The Ohio State University
Columbus, Ohio
Mary Margaret Gardiner (she/her/hers)
Professor
The Ohio State University
Columbus, Ohio
James P. Strange (he/him/his)
Professor and Chair
The Ohio State University
Columbus, Ohio
Legacy cities, commonly characterized by long term economic disinvestment, often experience high levels of vacancy. Vacant land has been demonstrated to provide abundant foraging and habitat resources for bees. In fact, 30% of Ohio’s bee fauna has been found foraging in vacant land in the legacy city of Cleveland, Ohio. While previous work has examined how bee diversity and richness are influenced by vacancy, it is unclear how vacancy affects bee health. Our objective is to determine the extent to which vacancy surrounding habitat patches affects bumble bee colony growth in Cleveland. We hypothesize that bumble bee colonies in areas of higher vacancy will show improved health compared to colonies in lower vacancy areas. In July 2024, 20 Bombus impatiens colonies were deployed across East Cleveland and Cleveland Heights in suburban landscapes with varying vacancy concentration. Bumble bees were collected from the field and returned to the laboratory after 40 days. The number of emerged non-reproductive cells were taken as measures of colony growth. Emergent gynes were counted and measured for wet-weight, head width, and radial wing cell length. Then, 10 gynes were randomly selected for lipid and carbohydrate analysis from each colony. Upon analysis of these data, we expect areas with higher vacancy concentrations to support gynes that are larger, with higher lipid and carbohydrate contents. This data will help us better predict how bumble bee health may vary across urban environments, especially in legacy cities.