[Pollinator] Where have all the flowers gone? UC Davis researcher wants to find out

Sat Mar 19 10:26:10 PDT 2011

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Where have all the flowers gone? UC Davis researcher wants to find out

By KATHYKEATLEYGARVEY/Special to The Democrat

Created: 03/18/2011 02:30:38 AM PDT

http://www.dailydemocrat.com/news/ci_17643016

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Pollination ecologist and graduate student Katharina Ullmann of the Neal
Williams' lab at UC Davis, wants to know "Where have all the flowers gone?"
(Neal Williams/Courtesy) 

Katharina Ullmann is on a mission. "Where have all the flowers gone?" she
asks.

Ullmann, a pollination ecologist seeking a master's degree in entomology at
UC Davis, wants to enhance floral resources for honey bees and native bees
in agricultural landscapes.

"Pollinators play an important role in crop production and in maintaining
wildflower populations," said Ullmann, who studies with major professor and
native pollinator specialist Neal Williams. "However, habitat destruction
and agricultural intensification has modified the floral resources available
in agricultural landscapes. Ensuring that pollen and nectar resources are
available throughout the year is important for both honey bees and wild
native bees."

As part of her research, she and her colleagues from the Williams' lab are
seasonally monitoring floral visitors and floral resources at three
experimental sites in Yolo County and developing wildflower mixes that
attract pollinators. She wants to know what native flowers are most visited
by honey bees, pests and natural enemies; when they bloom, and what
resources the flowers are providing.

"An estimated 30 percent of our global crop production is at least partially
dependent on animal pollinators," said Ullmann. "The European honey bee
(also called the Western honey bee) remains the most relied upon crop
pollinator. However, managed honey bees have declined by more than 50
percent since the 1950s."

"Supplemental plantings with native pollen and nectar-rich plants in
agricultural areas may benefit honey bees by relieving floral resource
scarcity and thus reducing bee nutritional stress at critical times of the
season," she said. "However, floral resources may also attract pests."

Ullmann said that intensive agriculture "transforms complex, heterogeneous
landscapes with nature mixtures of natural habitat and diverse cropping
systems into simple, homogenous landscapes consisting of large monocultures
and little natural habitat."

Floral resources used by bees do not persist throughout the flight season of
most bees, particularly the honey bee, she said. "As a result, there are
times in the year where few flowering plant species provide pollen and
nectar. During these times, bees experience nutritional stress which
beekeepers combat by supplementing colonies with artificial diets."

Ullmann and her colleagues are monitoring 18 native annual and perennial
forb species. Forbs, herbaceous flowering plants, include clover, lupine and
California poppies.

The pollination ecologist recently received three scholarships to fund her
research: the George H. Vansell Scholarship for $4,435, the John S. Harbison
Scholarship for $1000; and the Teledyne Entomology Fellowship for $1,000.

A 2002 graduate of the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, Ullmann received
her bachelor of science degree in environmental biology, with honors, and a
minor in French, with honors. In 2001, she was involved in a six-month study
program on the ecology and conservation of Madagascar.

Ullmann coordinated the California Pollinator Conservation Program for the
Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation from January 2007 to October
2008. Her work involved research in restoring native bee habitat with
conservation biologist Claire Kremen at UC Berkeley; presenting native bee
workshops throughout northern California to growers, agricultural
professionals and resource management specialist; and teaching citizen
scientists how to identify native bees.

She also did pollinator research at Princeton University under the guidance
of pollination ecologists/conservation biologists Rachael Winfree and Neal
Williams.

Ullmann is a 2007 graduate of The Bee Course, a bee identification field
course affiliated with the American Museum of Natural History and held in
the Southwestern Research Station, Portal, Ariz., an area considered the
richest bee fauna in North America. One of the instructors is native
pollinator specialist Robbin Thorp, emeritus professor of entomology at UC
Davis.

Two of the three scholarships Ullmann received memorialize influential
agriculturists. Vansell, who died in 1954, taught entomology and apiculture
at UC Davis from 1922 to 1931 and later served with the U.S. Department of
Agriculture. His research led to a better understanding of the role of bees
in crop pollination and to improvements in the nation's supply of alfalfa
and other legume seeds.

John Stewart Harbison (1826-1912), was considered California's first modern
beekeeper. He brought 67 colonies of bees to San Francisco aboard the
steamer Sonora on Nov. 30, 1857, and then transferred them to his home in
the Sacramento area. Harbison later settled in San Diego and by 1875 was
recognized as the world's largest beekeeper and producer of honey, according
to former UC Davis apiarist Lee Watkins in "John S. Harbison: California's
First Modern Beekeeper," published in the April 1969 edition of Agricultural
History.

The Teledyne Scholarship, from the Teledyne corporation, also supports
apiculture research for UC Davis students.

_______

Scott Hoffman Black

Executive Director

     The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation

Chair

     IUCN Butterfly Specialist Group

The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation

1971 - 2011: Forty Years of Conservation!

4828 SE Hawthorne Blvd., Portland, OR 97215, USA

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sblack at xerces.org

Tel: (503) 232-6639

Toll free: 1-855-232-6639

Cell: (503) 449-3792

The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation is an international
nonprofit organization that protects wildlife through the conservation of
invertebrates and their habitat.

To join the Society, make a contribution, or read about our work, please
visit  <http://www.xerces.org> www.xerces.org.

NEW BOOK NOW AVAILABLE:

<http://www.xerces.org/announcing-the-publication-of-attracting-native-polli
nators/> Attracting Native Pollinators. Protecting North America's Bees and
Butterflies

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