Undergraduate Research Assistant, EEB
Research
My research is on why pollinators, more specifically native bees, are attracted to certain flowers. We had a control group of plants and a treatment group, flowers being fertilized. We focused on Fabacaea, Lamiacea, and the Asteraceae plant family, with one species per family. We collected around 650 insects actively pollinating the flowers to obtain pollinator abundance. We then collected the pollen to run a Bradford Protein Assay to find the protein concentration. We found as pollen protein concentration increases, so does the pollinator abundance. This means pollinators are attracted to higher pollen protein-rich flowers.
