Progress 05/15/18 to 10/01/21
Outputs
Target Audience:The food production needs of a growing population and changing natural landscape requires sustainable land development strategies that include pollinator conservation. As ~30% of crops rely on insect pollination, it is vital to understand how changing landscapes stress pollinators. Numerous anthropogenic stressors affect bee pollinators, including temperature, disease, nutrition, and chemical challenges, but integrative tools to diagnose bee health are lacking. This project will identify biochemical and genetic markers of stress in native bumble bees across urban-agricultural-natural gradients. I will collect Bombus impatiens in spring and summer from urban, urban garden, agricultural, and natural sites in two geographic regions. Samples will be analyzed for an array of morphological, biochemical/metabolic, and transcriptomic stress markers. Results will be analyzed in the context of land use and climate at multiple spatial scales to understand how landscape variables relate to stress physiology in native pollinators. Development and management of this project by Postdoctoral Researcher Meaghan Pimsler, with mentoring from Jeffrey Lozier (University of Alabama), will address benchmarks for developing skills required of an independent tenure-track researcher. Collaboration with K-12 students through development of an education module will strengthen outreach capabilities and encourage careers in STEM, cooperation with growers and community groups will provide experience in communicating research to stakeholders, and collaboration with undergraduate assistants will foster experiential learning at multiple levels. This Postdoctoral Research project addresses the "Plant health and production and plant products" priority area, specifically the "Pollinator Health: Research and Application" priority for basic research to promote healthy populations of animal pollinators. Changes/Problems:Additional genetic and biochemical work could not be completed due to the COVID19 outbreak as laboratories and facilities were closed for the remainder of the grant. Despite this setback, I have worked with researchers at North Carolina State University to procure funding to complete the genetic and biochemical research with the bees collected as part of this work, and we have also added an additional aspect: detection and quantification of common honey and bumble bee pathogens. We received word August of 2022 that our submission had been selected for funding and that the funds should be disbursed before the end of the fiscal year. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?A number of outreach activities to various public stakeholders, land owners, and relevant interest groups were completed, and a manuscript is in preparation for publication in a National Science Teacher's Association (NSTA) journal for a lesson plan developed as part of these outreach activities. The undergraduate assistant who participated in field collections in 2018 completed his undergraduate degree, and recently accepted a graduate student position at the University of Central Florida to study native pollinators of sunflowers beginning in Fall of 2022. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The decline of pollinators in North America is a challenge to United States (US) agriculture and a threat to national food security. The impact of human-caused landscape modifications on native bees can be immense, ranging from increased exposure to chemicals and diseases, high temperatures, especially in urban environments, and loss of nesting and/or foraging habitats, and may be a contributor to North American pollinator decline. This project aimed to develop a holistic model of pollinator physiological responses to anthropogenic stress and develop field-based genetic and biochemical markers of bumble bee health. Understanding the factors that affect bumble bee health is critical for the maintenance of the the vital ecosystem service provided by these animals. The results of this work could impact policy decisions by farmers, city planners, environmental agencies (both state and federal), and the specific scientific community working hard to address pollinator decline. A total of 2,474 bumble bees were collected from June to September in both 2018 and 2019 from a total of 35 sites in Alabama and the Washington, D.C. Metro Region with appropriate permiture and permissions from the relevant state, local, federal entities and private land owners. Temperature, humidity, and light data were also collected on-site at the beginning and end of collection bouts, as well as information about the flowers bees were collecting from, a site map, and floral density counts from ten arbitrary 1m2 sub-sampling locations. Additional genetic and biochemical work could not be completed due to the COVID19 outbreak however, as laboratories and facilities were closed for the remainder of the grant. Therefore, progress was not made on any of the other goals of the project, including: development of a 96-gene biomarker panel, high-throughput quantitativePCR to measure gene expression, or biochemical (sugar, fats, and proteins) measurement and comparisons.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Pimsler, M.L., Oyen, K.J., Herndon, J.D. et al. Biogeographic parallels in thermal tolerance and gene expression variation under temperature stress in a widespread bumble bee. Sci Rep 10, 17063 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-73391-8
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Progress 05/15/20 to 05/14/21
Outputs
Target Audience:
Nothing Reported
Changes/Problems:The biochemical assays were unsuccessful in test bees, and have been abandoned. I was diagnosed with severe clinical depression and started medication to manage symptoms and increase productivity. The university did not allow anyone into the lab for the final 6 months of my fellowship (February 2020 - August 2020), and so I was unable to complete the RNA extractions before I started a new job in another state (September 2020). I was unable to travel (due to COVID) for 6 months after starting this new job, and was only able to go back to Alabama to complete the RNA extractions in March 2021. I paid for my own travel and housing out of pocket, to save as much of the remaining grant monies as possible. I have been granted visiting scholar status at UA so that I may complete my work. Due to funding limitations, even with my mentor supplementing the remainder of the grant monies, it will not be possible to do all of the samples initially proposed, nor will it be possible to use the same platform. Therefore, we will be doing an amended experimental design, and will use TAGseq instead of Fluidigm multiplex qPCR. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?
Nothing Reported
How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?I will use the remainder of the funds, plus additional funds from my mentor, to get the RNAseq completed so that I can analyze the data and publish.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Samples were all collected and RNA extraction had begun. Then COVID caused the university to shut down, and I was not allowed into the lab for the last 6 months of my fellowship. I got an extension, but I also started a new job. I have finished all of my RNA extractions in March 2021, and gotten commitments from my mentor, Dr. Jeff Lozier, to use some of his lab's funds to help pay for the sequencing for the genetic portion of the sumitted goals.
Publications
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Progress 05/15/19 to 05/14/20
Outputs
Target Audience:I gave talks about my research to non-STEM individuals: The Jefferson County Beekeepers Association Visitors (K-12, adults) at the Birmingham Botanical Garden Research historians at the Dumbarton Oaks Museum in Washington, D.C. Staff at the United States Botanical Garden Changes/Problems:The biochemical assays were unsuccessful in test bees, and have been abandoned. I was diagnosed with severe clinical depression and started medication to manage symptoms and increase productivity. The university did not allow anyone into the lab for the final 6 months of my fellowship (February 2020 - August 2020), and so I was unable to complete the RNA extractions before I started a new job in another state (September 2020). I was unable to travel (due to COVID) for 6 months after starting this new job, and was only able to go back to Alabama to complete the RNA extractions in March 2021. I paid for my own travel and housing out of pocket, to save as much of the remaining grant monies as possible. I have been granted visiting scholar status at UA so that I may complete my work. Due to funding limitations, even with my mentor supplementing the remainder of the grant monies, it will not be possible to do all of the samples initially proposed, nor will it be possible to use the same platform. Therefore, we will be doing an amended experimental design, and will use TAGseq instead of Fluidigm multiplex qPCR. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?
Nothing Reported
How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?I will use the remainder of the funds, plus additional funds from my mentor, to get the RNAseq completed so that I can analyze the data and publish.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Samples were all collected and RNA extraction had begun. Then COVID caused the university to shut down, and I was not allowed into the lab for the last 6 months of my fellowship. I got an extension, but I also started a new job. I have finished all of my RNA extractions, and gotten commitments from my mentor, Dr. Jeff Lozier, to use some of his lab's funds to help pay for the sequencing for the genetic portion of the sumitted goals
Publications
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Progress 05/15/18 to 05/14/19
Outputs
Target Audience:I gave talks about my research to non-STEM individuals: The Jefferson County Beekeepers Association Visitors (K-12, adults) at the Birmingham Botanical Garden Research historians at the Dumbarton Oaks Museum in Washington, D.C. Staff at the United States Botanical Garden Changes/Problems:The biochemical assays were unsuccessful in test bees, and have been abandoned. I was diagnosed with severeclinical depression and started medication to manage symptoms and increase productivity. The university did not allow anyone into the lab for the final 6 months of my fellowship (February 2020 - August 2020), and so I was unable to complete the RNA extractions before I started a new job in another state (September 2020). I was unable to travel (due to COVID) for 6 months after starting this new job, and was only able to go back to Alabama to complete the RNA extractions in March 2021. I paid for my own travel and housing out of pocket, to save as much of the remaining grant monies as possible. I have been granted visiting scholar status at UA so that I may complete my work. Due to funding limitations, even with my mentor supplementing the remainder of the grant monies, it will not be possible to do all of the samples initially proposed, nor will it be possible to use the same platform. Therefore, we will be doing an amended experimental design, and will use TAGseq instead of Fluidigm multiplex qPCR. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?
Nothing Reported
How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?I will use the remainder of the funds, plus additional funds from my mentor, to get the RNAseq completed so that I can analyze the data and publish.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Samples were all collected and RNA extraction had begun. Then COVID caused the university to shut down, and I was not allowed into the lab for the last 6 months of my fellowship. I got an extension, but I also started a new job. I have finished all of my RNA extractions, and gotten commitments from my mentor, Dr. Jeff Lozier, to use some of his lab's funds to help pay for the sequencing for the genetic portion of the sumitted goals.
Publications
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