Submitted by Gordon Frankie on
Under the direction of Dr. Gordon Frankie, the UC Berkeley Urban Bee Lab is researching diversity and abundance of California native bee species (1600 species state-wide) and their plant preferences at stone fruit orchards in northern California and at avocado orchards in southern California. Collaborating with farmers at these orchards and UC Cooperative Extension researchers, we have been investigating whether installed pollinator habitat gardens in orchards increases diversity and abundance of native bee and other pollinator species that can supplement pollination of crops by honey bees.
In southern California, native bees and other pollinating insects will be monitored regularly at three avocado orchards in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. In northern California, six farms in Brentwood (conventional and organic) and nearby urban areas will be monitored for native bee diversity and abundance. Three of the orchards will have native bee habitat constructed by adding a variety of ornamental plants.
We are seeking 2 motivated undergraduate students with interests in entomology, botany, and ecology. Ideal student researchers will have an interest in being involved with different project aspects including field work data collection (if COVID safety precautions allow), insect specimen curation, plant and insect identification, and public outreach and education (most likely online and virtual education and outreach events for Fall semester). There will be opportunities to continue on with this project in the Spring semester.
For more information about the Urban Bee Lab's research, please visit helpabee.com.
(Undergraduate student roles listed below may change as necessary due to COVID to ensure safety of all researchers):
1) Students will analyze and curate native bee and other pollinating insect specimens collected from the orchards.
2) Students may participate in education and outreach events for the public or assist in teaching elementary school students about pollinators (possibly online video presentations).
3) Potential opportunities for field research, plant propagation and gardening to care for the bee-attractive plants used for research.
We seek students with a strong interest in the following:
1) Learning about insect biology, especially related to pollinators and native bees. A desire to learn to curate insect specimen collections, including insect pinning, labeling and databasing.
2) Learning about California native plants and pollinator-attractive horticultural plant varieties. Learning to identify plant species is highly desirable.
3) Learning about plant-insect interactions and research related to native bees and crop plant pollination.
4) Gardening, including planting, watering, weeding and plant propagation.
5) Participating in public education and outreach about bee-plant relationships and lab research. An interest in teaching elementary school students about pollinators.
6) Sharing research with the public through social media platforms.