Southeastern biologist Janice Bossart and biology graduate assistant Eric Van
Gorder of Fuquay Varina, N.C.,
study a bee they caught at one of the protected habitat sites they survey. 
Courtesy of Public Information
 

The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries awarded associate professor Janice Bossart a two-year grant for her research regarding bee communities. 

Bossart’s main area of study is evolutionary ecology.

“Ecology is the study of organisms and their environment,” said Bossart. “We are looking at how the environment influences organisms in various ways. Evolutionary ecologists are basically looking at how the environment causes genetic change, so we are looking at adaptation to environmental conditions. There’s lots of different things, but in a nutshell, ecology is all about thinking about organisms in the context of where they live in, both nonliving components and living components in the environment. Evolution recognizes that environment acts as an agent on populations of organisms. That is basically what my training in general is in.”

Her study aims to determine whether or not there is a decline in the native bee species.

Bossart’s motivation behind the study came from having an interest in the conservation of habitats and the species impacted by the loss of these habitats. She wanted her research to be more locally based as opposed to her past projects.

“I’ve had multiple funded research projects. Mostly I’ve worked on butterflies in West Africa, but this one was in part because it is very difficult to get funding for big research projects, and also I’m really interested in big conservation issues,” said Bossart. “I wanted to have projects that were closer around here, so that was one of the motivating factors for doing projects that are relevant in the context of Louisiana. As somebody who is interested in conservation awareness, I have noticed there is a decline in bees world-wide. Mostly, we have focused on honeybees. Pollinators are amazingly important both in terms of ecological sense because of what they do for the ecosystem, but also of an economical sense because they pollinate all our crops and all the plants in our yard.” 

Bossart intends to address multiple issues in her research, including the conservation of species impacted by human actions, recognition that bees are declining and the endangerment of species and their ecosystems. One of the factors she will be focusing on is how there are critically threatened habitats in Louisiana and that the bee communities suffer from this, which in turn could cause problems because bees play such a large role in the pollination of crops.

The study involves six sites, all different ecosystems: two upland forest habitats, two savanna habitats and two bog sites. Through using multiple methods, Bossart and her team will be sampling and surveying at these sites. Once the samples are taken, the bees are identified and catalogued.

In addition to measuring her objectives for the study, there is also a chance Bossart and her team may discover a species of bee new to Louisiana.

“Insects don’t get a lot of attention, so there is not a lot known for Louisiana,” said Bossart. “Not just pollinator species. There is always a potential that we will find species that aren’t known for Louisiana yet, or there’s always a potential we will find a species that isn’t known yet at all.”

As opposed to the abundant studies on honeybees, Bossart will be making a point to sample and catalogue native bee species in order to gather more information on different bee species not normally acknowledged as much as honeybees. Her reasoning for this is that since there is a known decline in honeybees, it means the native bees have to pick up the slack. Since there are not a lot of studies out there on the numbers of native bee species present, there is no way of knowing whether or not they contribute enough to make up for the decline in honey bees.

“There are thousands of native bee species,” said Bossart. “The large majority of those are not colony species. They are solitary species, and most of them don’t sting. Many people think of honeybees, but honeybees are not a native species. They were introduced from Europe. They are a domesticated species that we take advantage of because they are great pollinators. There are all these other species that nobody recognizes that are pollinating.”

According to Bossart, the true cause of the decline in the species of bees are still unknown, but it is known that habitat loss is one of the contributors. 

Across the nation, this issue continues to be a concern. Bossart hopes her study recognizes not only the decline in native bee species but brings awareness to the fact that the science community needs to become concerned with not only saving the honeybee community but all native bee communities.