Insect pollinator including bees are critical for crop pollination. Landscapes surrounding fruit farms play an important role in determining crop visiting pollinators. This project aims to research the relationship between habitat quality of these surrounding habitats, pollinator diversity and pollination service delivery to a target crop.
Department: Sustainable Land Management
Supervised by: Prof Michael Garratt
Measures meant to improve the pollination of crops usually focus on on-site interventions such as provision bee hives and often overlook the role of the wider environment in supporting wild pollinators visiting that target crop. The ability of an environment to provide ecosystem services such as pollination is dependent on numerous factors. A healthy pollinator population requires food sources and nesting habitat. The quality and abundance of these resources has the potential to affect the quality of the ecosystem services these environments provide; a flowering crop farmed in a landscape that is abundant in pollinators would theoretically benefit from a greater yield through increased insect flower visits when compared to a crop grown in an area with decreased pollinator abundance. We have selected various habitat types ranging in flower cover to assess their role in supporting pollinators known to be associated with economically important soft fruits. Habitat types such as (non-) flowering crop fields, field margins and hedgerows. In this project you will survey pollinators and plants across a number of habitats on and surrounding fruit farms. You will be trained in pollinator and plant surveys and insect dentification. This placement will involve a combination of field work, lab work and data manipulation.
The student will assist with floral and pollinator surveys on and around several soft fruit farms in Chichester, England. The student will help identify insect specimens collected during these surveys to species level using a microscope and dichotomous keys in lab GU26 of the agriculture building.
Essential: • Ability to walk in often overgrown field margins • Ability to work at a microscope in a lab in Reading • Interest in agriculture, conservation and/or entomology • Ability to work independently Desirable: • Some practical work experience (in the field or lab) • Experience with or interest in learning species identification and using entomological keys • Attention to detail
The student will learn how to identify bees and hoverflies to species and assess soft fruit on various quality metrics. They will gain skills in field data collection methods, experimental design, and microscope use. As a result of this placement the student will get the experience of working in a laboratory, collaborating with researcher students.
School of Agriculture, Policy, & Development (SAPD)
Days and hours of fieldwork will be flexible and weather dependent. A typical field day will start with departure from Reading close to 9 and return around 18:00 depending on traffic
Monday 10 June 2024 - Friday 09 August 2024
The deadline to apply for this project is 5pm on Friday 5th April 2024. To make an application, please go to the following link and complete the application form: https://forms.office.com/e/pMgea0dAHv. To find this project in the application form, please filter ‘school of project applying to’ and select School of Agriculture, Policy & Development