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Student 10-Minute Presentation
Plant-Insect Ecosystems
Student
Student Competition
Emma Blake U'Ren
Mississippi State University, Mississippi
Claire Green
Mississippi State University
Starkville, Mississippi
Pierre Lau (he/him/his)
Research Ecologist
USDA-ARS
Stoneville, Mississippi
Priyadarshini Chakrabarti Basu
Assistant Professor • Biochem, MolBio, Entmology & Plant Path
Mississippi State University
Starkville, Mississippi
Beekeepers often choose habitat for bees without an understanding of the availability of floral resources that bees forage upon. Better understanding of floral resources would aid researchers in choosing the right habitat as they aim to strengthen bee populations, which are critical for agricultural production worldwide. The objective of this project is to create a database of pollen samples collected throughout the state of Mississippi that beekeepers and researchers can use to improve their knowledge of bee habitats. The database will show the phenology of numerous plant species. The project involves working with beekeepers as citizen scientists to obtain pollen samples from honeybee colonies every month. The samples are then color sorted and acetolyzed for plant identification. The long-term goal of the project is to capture the seasonal plant diversity across the region which can be good sources of pollen for all bee species.