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<\/figure>My name is Mallory Mead, and I am new to the Garden Ecology Lab! I am an undergrad studying Horticulture and minoring in Entomology, and I started a few weeks ago as an assistant to Jen Hayes on her study of pollinator attraction to native plants and nativars. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
I enrolled in Oregon State\u2019s URSA Engage program, which gives undergrads a taste of research experience in the Winter and Spring of their first year, and joined a project studying how mason bees might be impacted by climate change with Dr. Jim Rivers of the department of Forest Ecosystems and Society. The study seeks to examine the effects of warming temperatures on mason bee behavior and the development of brood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Western US\u2019s native species of mason bee, the Blue Orchard Bee (BOB) is known to be an excellent orchard pollinator. On many orchard crops they are more efficient at pollination than honey bees on a per individual basis, and so the commercial management of BOBs is being explored as honey bee colonies suffer management challenges and colony losses in recent years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Mason bees have a short lifespan of 4 to 6 weeks. Emerging in the early spring, males die shortly after mating, while females build nests in holes in wood or reeds. They forage for pollen and nectar to form provision masses in which they lay their eggs. They also collect mud to form partitions between each provision mass and to cap the nest once it is full. Their offspring will feed on the provisions and metamorphose into cocooned adults to overwinter in their cells and emerge the following spring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To ensure the bees had ample nutrient resources, the project was conducted next to the organic cherry orchard at OSU\u2019s Lewis Brown Farm. Before the cherries bloomed, 6 nest structures were designed and constructed by Jim, Ron Spendal (a mason bee house conisuerrier) and Aaron Moore of Revolution Robotics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Each structure has 3 shelves with 16 nest holes each, lined with paper straws so that the nests can be easily removed and examined. The structures are solar powered, and each shelf is heated to a different increment above the ambient temperature i.e. + 0\u00b0C , + 2\u00b0C, + 4\u00b0C, + 6\u00b0C, + 8\u00b0C, + 10 \u00b0C, and + 12\u00b0C. These differentials represent many potential warming outcomes of climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2026and we are pretty confident about this last prediction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Insects are poikilothermic meaning their internal temperatures are determined by the environment. Past studies by researchers Bosch and Kemp<\/a> have reported that mason bees who are overwintered at warm temperatures will \u201cuse up their metabolic reserves and are likely to die during the winter\u201d. And a more recent study by researchers at the University of Arizona<\/a> found that mason bees subjected to heating resulted in reduced body mass, fat content and high mortality of the mason bee offspring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our mason bees started hatching from cocoons in mid-April and began to colonize the nest structures. I captured video footage of the bees as they emerged in the morning to forage. If bees from heated nest sites emerge earlier, this will support our hypotheses that they reach their critical-for-flight temperature earlier, and get a leg-up on foraging compared to their neighbors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I also conducted \u201cnest checks\u201d to track the rate of nest construction along with two other research assistants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the fall, the nest tubes will be extracted to examine the reproductive output, and in the following spring, offspring will be assessed for rates of mortality, offspring mass, and fat content.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n Some of the challenges along the way have included dealing with insect pests. Spiders were easygoing inhabitants of the nest straws, for they only nested in empty straws, so we\u2019d swap them out for a clean one. The earwigs were much more pervasive, and went for the already inhabited nests. As generalist foragers, the earwigs<\/a> took advantage of provision balls of nectar and pollen that had not yet been sealed off by mud. Once I read that earwigs will indeed eat the mason bee eggs that are laid into the provision masses, I knew it was crucial to remove the earwigs from all nests, but these feisty creatures proved determined to stay. We ordered some tanglefoot, a sticky substance to trap the earwigs on their way up the structure post, and meanwhile I coaxed earwigs out with tiny pieces of grass. Jabbing them repeatedly would eventually provoke them to charge at the blade of grass and fall out from the straw.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yellowjackets were another opportunistic nester. They\u2019d sneak into the cocoon boxes to build nests, and always gave me a start when opening the tiny boxes. I removed their nests with an extended grabber tool and would destroy them in any way I could. I feel immensely lucky not to have been stung through this process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The most terrifying surprise during the project was a fat snake that was living in the solar panel battery box. It popped out at me hissing while I conducted a routine check. Alas, I was too spooked to take on this unexpected visitor and let it leave on its own time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/osu-wams-blogs-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs.dir\/2786\/files\/2021\/06\/LewisBrown-1024x898.jpg\")
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Our Hypotheses<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Data Collection<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Obstacles<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Preliminary Findings & Observations<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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