Triangulating from the cairns…
Bumblebee abundance at various life stages is affected by a variety of environmental factors like climate and flowers. However, how these environmental factors affect bumblebee phenology is less well understood. Life stages, called ?castes,? are specific events within the life-cycle of a bumblebee colony. They include queens, which emerge in the early season, female workers, which emerge after queens, and males, which emerge later in the summer. I propose to study the emergence timing of bumblebee castes that are found near RMBL, as they relate to floral abundance and snowmelt timing. I will study caste emergence by contributing to an 11-year long bumblebee monitoring project that includes weekly bumblebee monitoring at six distinct fieldsites, as well as weekly floral censuses of flowers pollinated by bumblebees at each of these sites. Additionally, I will assist in the collection of bumblebee legs for a 5-year genetic study on bumblebee colonies in these same sites to better understand how colony size and abundance may impact bumblebee phenology. I will leverage my past three years of fieldwork experience on these specific projects at RMBL to contribute to these long-term datasets. My results will contribute to our understanding of pollinator phenology, as well as the relationship among sequential life events in bumblebees.