Bee behavioural responses to changes in floral traits

• Grant number: 24/12490-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Post-doctor
• Start date: September 30, 2024
• End date: July 14, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology - Applied Ecology
• Principal Investigator: Elza Maria Guimarães Santos
• Grantee: Priscila Teixeira Tunes
• Supervisor: Lars Chittka
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IBB). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Botucatu. Botucatu , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Queen Mary University of London, England
• Associated to the scholarship: 21/10428-4 - Challenges for plant-pollinator communication under climate change, BP.PD

Abstract

Pollinators play an essential ecological role in maintaining global plant diversity and global agriculture. They use visual and chemical signals emitted by flowers to locate resources; however this communication route can be affected by abiotic factors that modify floral traits. The most recent IPCC report (AR6) indicates many uncertainties about the impacts and challenges that we will face in the coming decades in relation to the occurrence of droughts, both for the maintenance of natural ecosystems and for food production. In addition to the direct effects of drought per se on the reproduction of plant species, we can also expect indirect effects of drought by changes in floral traits, impacting the interaction with pollinators. This would mainly affect low-income tropical countries, which are important centres of biodiversity and have their economies based on agricultural activities, important focuses of SDGs 2 and 15 of the UN 2030 Agenda. In this context, we have subjected individuals of a model plant species of agricultural interest to drought conditions and verified that changes occur in resource (nectar) and floral advertisements (flower size, colour and floral scent). In this project, we will (i) investigate whether specific changes in each floral trait affect flower choice behaviour of pollinating bees; (ii) investigate if bees would abandon drought-affected flowers in scenarios simulating growing conditions; and (iii) develop protocols and methods to allow preference and choice experiments to be carried out with native bees from Brazil. In this way, the results obtained in this project may bring to light key responses of bee pollinators to changes in floral traits in the face of climate change. Additionally, the results obtained here will allow us to develop/ adapt protocols to perform behavioural experiments with native bees from Brazil and help to grow the area of Sensory Ecology of pollinators in the country.