Huxley Smith
Pollinator Dynamics in a Native Habitat Urban Island
The VLSB pollinator garden serves as an island of native flowers in an urban landscape otherwise characterized by nonnative landscaping, acting as a biodiversity hotspot on campus. We have been conducting surveys in this garden throughout the spring and fall on the seasonal presence of insect pollinator species and mapping their visitation to the specific native plants we have in the garden. I will be continuing this surveying through the summer to fill the temporal gap in our research on pollinator diversity and abundance, as well as processing previously acquired entomological specimens from the garden to form a reference museum collection to back up our data. Moreover, I will develop methodology for tracking pollination habits of individual pollinator species to determine their plant pathways and levels of specialization.
Message To Sponsor
I would once again like to express my gratitude for my donors in their support for my research project over the summer. Your support has allowed me to continue investigating my interests in ecological research on campus, developing more skills that will benefit me across my career. Moreover, this experience has further cemented my desire to continue with my plans for pursuing PhD and a career in biological research. Thank you.