Projects
Industry Development Grant - Lena Schmidt
This research aims to understand the contribution of floral resources to colony and population health of honeybees and native bees, and to devise appropriate farmlevel floral enhancement schemes in collaboration with local apple growers and Greening Australia. I am also investigating how key foraging resources will be affected by climate change (specifically, elevated temperature), particularly in terms of the timing, quality and quantity of nectar and pollen available to bees. I employ a variety of methods including large-scale manipulative field and glasshouse experiments exploring the availability and quality of native floral resources across different seasons, the impact of climate change manipulations on floral resource quality and attractiveness to pollinators, and factors influencing pollinator choice for foraging on plants.
