University of Massachusetts Amherst, Massachusetts
Mounting reports of worldwide pollinator declines have highlighted an urgent need to understand the interacting factors influencing pollinator health. Infectious diseases are one of the primary stressors linked to bee declines. Bee pathogens can be transmitted through shared use of floral resources, a platform that enables transmission not only between individuals of the same colony (for social species), but also between individuals from different species. My research addresses several aspects of bee disease ecology, including a) how pathogens are transmitted between floral resources, b) the prevalence of pathogens in plant-pollinator networks, and c) how transmission may impact under-studied species. In my presentation, I will a) illustrate infection-mediated bee defecation patterns on plants, and how environmental factors and plant species influence transmission dynamics, b) show the widespread prevalence of microsporidian and trypanosomatid pathogens in wild bees and on flowers, and how this is affected by landscape context and visitation patterns, and c) demonstrate that pathogens historically associated with commercially available bumble bees can also infect solitary bee species. Furthermore, I will describe exciting new research on how flowers, in addition to being a venue where pathogens can be transmitted, can also provide medicinal benefits in the form of pollens that reduce infections. I will conclude with future directions in the field of pollinator disease ecology and conservation biology.