In this project I'm identifying pollen from bodies and corbiculaes from field bean pollinators in fields with or without nearby flower strips. See below for project abstract:
Flower strips are planted in agricultural landscapes to support pollinators and their pollination services. However, recent studies reveal that although flower strips increase pollinator numbers, their effect on crop pollination varies. To disentangle how flower strips affect crop pollination, we need simultaneous studies on how they influence local pollinator densities, foraging behaviour and plant choice, and specifically, what type of pollen pollinators’ transport to crop stigmas. The latter requires pollen identification to species, which has severely constrained earlier research efforts. Fortunately, recent advances in DNA metabarcoding enable less labour-intensive high-resolution identification of mixed pollen samples. In this study, I will use metabarcoding to identify pollen sampled from both pollinators and crop stigmas, in settings with and without planted flower strips, to evaluate how flower strips affect pollinator floral usage and pollen deposition on crop stigmas.