Kristen Brochu: The noxious relationship between pumpkin pollen and bumble bees

This week on the podcast I'm joined by Kristen Brochu, a postdoctoral researcher at Penn State University. We discuss her recently published work about how harmful pumpkin and squash pollen is for bumble bees. But why is this? And what exactly can we learn from this? Kristen and I talk about what we currently know (and don't know) about bee nutrition, and how understanding species-specific nutritional needs could be another tool for assessing which bees are at the greatest risk in our climate-changing, urbanizing world.

Kristen Brochu:
• Pollen defenses negatively impact foraging and fitness in a generalist bee (Bombus impatiens: Apidae) https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-58274-2
• Twitter @bugAdvocate
• Instagram @bugAdvocate
• Website https://www.kristenbrochu.com/

WEEKLY UPDATE
• What is the Asian hornet invasion going to cost Europe? (EurekAlert/Pensoft Publishers) https://bit.ly/2UWUBxv

• WSU scientists enlist citizens in hunt for giant, bee-killing hornet (Washington State University) https://bit.ly/3edk2Cn

• Photographing insects in the field: basic tips for success (Entomology Today) https://bit.ly/39YhFQG

• Small subject matter, big impact! (Australian Geographic) https://bit.ly/2JW3pgN

SURVEY RESULTS
• Has the novel coronavirus affected the research you had planned for this year? https://bit.ly/39XjwoL

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Thoughts, questions or comments? Get in touch at tbr@bymattkelly.com.