MSU Scientist Building Pollen Database to Improve Bee Nutrition Asks Citizens to Assist

摘要

STARKVILLE, Miss.—While flowers are known to be most attractive to bees, less is known about the nutrition flowers actually provide pollinators. A Mississippi State scientist is hoping to change that and is asking for citizen scientist volunteers tohelp collect data.Priyadarshini Chakrabarti Basu, assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Entomology and Plant Pathology, is building a pollen database to catalogue the nutrition profiles of over 100 bee-pollinated plants. Her work, in partnership with colleagues at Oregon State University, is funded by a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agriculture and Food Research Initiative.