EXPLORING THE SYNERGISTIC POTENTIAL OF FUNGICIDE EXPOSURE AND PARASITE INFECTION ON BUMBLE BEE FORAGING BEHAVIOR AND POLLINATION EFFICIENCY.

Bumble bees are simultaneously exposed to fungicides and gut parasites in agroecosystems, but we currently lack an understanding of the consequences of this to colony health and pollination activity.? The long-term goal of my research is to elucidate the synergistic effects of fungicide exposure and gut-parasite infection on bumble bee colony health and pollination efficiency. This work will provideessential information in our understanding of bumble bee pollination of greenhouse-grown tomatoes and shed light on the effects of common bumble bee stressors on pollination services. Results from this study will have potential for informing management decisions and generating testable hypotheses in field crop systems reliant on bumble bee pollination. Additionally, my work may present evidence that challenges the lack of invertebrate-specific warnings on commonly used fungicides in the U.S.I will address the goals of this research with two objectives.Objective 1: Expand upon previous work utilizing pesticide records and pollination efficiency scores from a commercial tomato greenhouse to investigate the correlation between fungicide exposure, pollination services, and parasite infection in greenhouse-deployed commercial bumble bee colonies.Objective 2: Experimentally test the effects of fungicide consumption coupled with parasite infection on bumble bee pollination behavior and efficiency in a caged field-study.I hypothesize that fungicide application negatively impacts bumble bee foraging duration and frequency at the flowers of sprayed plants. I also hypothesize that the synergistic effects of exposure to fungicide and parasitic infection leads to decreased pollination efficiency in bumble bees, at rates significantly greater than exposure to either of these stressors alone.