Experimental Approaches to the Ecology and Conservation of Bees

There is widespread concern that pesticides, pathogens, and climate change are causing decline of bee pollinators, threatening both agriculture and ecosystem health. How exactly do these threats affect bees? Are there synergistic negative effects among threats, and does social behavior mitigate risks, or increase bees’ exposure to them? Using captive colonies of bumblebees, in this course we will design and conduct experiments to explore how bee biology and social behavior affect bee responses to environmental threats. Through lecture, readings, and discussion we will explore pollination and bee declines, and students will complete a paper describing their experimental work. This course counts as a Biology elective.