López-Uribe Lab

Author: margaritamlopez

  • 2023 NSF-IRES: Pollinators in Changing Climates Colombia

    2023 NSF-IRES: Pollinators in Changing Climates Colombia

    The impact of climate change on plant-pollinator interactions

    This International Research Experiences for Students (IRES) program will provide undergraduate students with an eight-week international research experience working with mentors from Penn State and Universidad Militar Nueva Granada in Colombia. Projects will focus on studying how environmental factors impact plant-pollinator interactions in mountain ecosystems. Students will participate in interdisciplinary research guided by mentors representing entomology, ecology, engineering, and climate science. Students will receive $4,500 for their participation in the program from June 9th to August 6th 2023.

     

    Mentors participating in this program include faculty from Penn State University (USA) and Universidad Militar Nueva Granada (Colombia):

      • Margarita López-Uribe (PSU – Molecular Ecology and Pollinator Biology)
      • José D. Fuentes (PSU – Atmospheric Sciences)
      • Julio Urbina (PSU – Remote Sensing)
      • Luis Duque (PSU – Crop Physiology)
      • Alfonso Mejía (PSU – Ecohydrology)
      • Marlene Lucía Aguilar (UMNG – Pollination Biology)
      • María Mercedes Perez Trujillo (UMNG – Horticulture)
      • Nelsy Pinto (UMNG – Ecophysiology)

    Research topics include:

    • Assessing the role of phylogenetic history in variation in thermal breadth across pollinating insects
    • Understanding mechanistic effects of abiotic stressors on crop-pollinator interactions in controlled and field conditions
    • Characterizing variation in pollinator thermal tolerance across altitudinal ranges in tropical ecosystems
    • Other projects may be developed depending on student’s interests

    Projects suitable for students majoring in:

    • Biology (or related fields)
    • Ecology
    • Entomology
    • Horticulture
    • Climate science

    Requirements:

    • Enrollment in an undergraduate program (preference to juniors and seniors) in the United States.
    • Courses in biology and calculus. Knowledge of computer programming is desirable but not necessary.
    • Fluency in Spanish is not required but desirable.
    • Applicants must be available to travel internationally from June 11th to August 5th 2023 (Note: the first days of the program will be held virtual).
    • Flexbility to share living accomodations with other students.
    • Some projects will require fieldwork at remote sites with inherent hazards, can be
      physically challenging, and may require specialized equipment with risks.
    • Safety concerns in the field may vary among individuals based on gender, age, fitness levels, and experience. Instructors guarantee an inclusive environment and safe environment.

    Applications are due on February 15th, 2023

    Applicants must submit:

    1. Resume or CV

    2. A statement detailing relevant academic/professional experiences and interest in this program.

    3. Official transcripts.

    4. Names of 2 reference letter writers.

     

    Please submit your application here.

    Inquiries about the program or the application process can be submitted to Dr. Margarita M. López-Uribe (Email: mml64@psu.edu).

     

    This NSF-funded IRES program (OISE-1952470) is administered by the Department of Entomology, Penn State University.

    Check these additional links if you would like to learn more about the results of our 2022 IRES program in Colombia, check out this video:

    .

    Some photos of the research experiences in Colombia in 2022

  • López-Uribe Lab at 2022 ESA Meeting #EntSoc22

    López-Uribe Lab at 2022 ESA Meeting #EntSoc22

    Many members of the López-Uribe Lab are presetting at the upcoming 2022 Entomological Society Meeting. Here are all the details, hope to see you there.

    Dr. Margarita López-Uribe 
    Recent history and future trends in entomology concerning bees.

    Sunday, November 13, Room 122 @ 9:50 am

    Adaptive processes in agricultural pollinators: The case study of the squash bee Eucera pruinosa.

    Tuesday, November 15, Room 203 @ 2:50 pm

    Grace Gutierrez
    Introduced mason bee species have comparable thermal tolerances to a native species.

    Monday, November 14. Room 220 @ 11:30 am

    Isabella Petitta
    Pollinator abundance and diversity across varying populations of Lupinus perennis in Pennsylvania.

    Monday, November 14, Room 116/117 @ 11:42 am

    Avehi Singh
    Comparative genomics sheds light on the evolutionary consequences of pollen specialization in the sensory genes of bees.

    Tuesday, November 15, Room 119/120 @ 10:00 AM

    Stephania Sandoval
    Non-aggressive interactions in the squash bee Eucera pruinosa and its brood parasite Tripeolus remigatus.

    Monday, November 14

    Phylogenomics reveals within species diversification but incongruence with color phenotypes in widespread orchid bees.

    Wednesday, November 16, Room 119/120 @ 3:56 pm

    Sydney Bird
    Polyandry in the common eastern bumble bee (Bombus impatiens) and its implication for conservation.

    Monday, November 14, Room 220 @ 12:18 pm

    Dr. Nash Turley
    Studying bee population dynamics using 10 years of standardized sampling.

    Tuesday, November 15, Room 210 @ 4:20 pm

    Laura Jones
    Squash cultivation and adaptation in cold tolerance aided the northward range of a solitary bee.

    Wednesday, November 16, Room 202 @ 11:05 pm

  • Spotted Lanternflies and Beekeeping

    Spotted Lanternflies and Beekeeping

    by Robyn Underwood

     

     

    The Spotted Lanternfly (SLF), Lycorma delicatula, is an introduced plant hopper from China that is rapidly expanding its range in the United States. Since arriving in Berks County, Pennsylvania in 2014, lanternflies have spread to and become established in 13 states (CT, DE, IN, MA, MD, MI, NC, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, and VA). This invasive insect is a significant economic threat, as it feeds on and damages grapevines and stresses trees. In addition, lanternflies are a major nuisance to humans, especially in the late summer and early fall when the adults aggregate and are very noticeable. Adult lanternflies, found in abundance on the trunks of trees, such as maples and tree-of-heaven, excrete large quantities of sticky, sweet honeydew as they feed on plant sap August-October. The honeydew covers the trunk of the tree and vegetation nearby, attracts sugar-loving insects, including honey bees, and promotes the growth of black sooty mold.

     

    To reduce the spread of these insects, a few things are important to know for beekeepers. Lanternfly eggs can be laid on hive boxes, lids, bottom boards, stands, pallets, etc. In addition, adult lanternflies often jump into vehicles. Beekeepers should check equipment, vehicles, trailers, etc. for lanternflies and their egg masses prior to moving the equipment. Inspection of hive equipment and removal of any life stages of SLF prior to movement is critical to avoid spreading it to new areas.

     

    In addition, once lanternflies become established in an area, beekeepers begin to notice an unusual late season honey collecting in their hives. The honeydew is a sugary liquid that accumulates where there are aggregations of lanternfly adults. Honey bees readily collect this honeydew and process it as honey. The taste of the honey depends on several factors including the plant the lanternflies are feeding on and the abundance of honeydew versus floral nectar in the processed honey.

     

    Answers to beekeepers’ frequently asked questions

     

    1. Is honey made from spotted lanternfly honeydew safe for consumption?

    Yes, the honeydew honey is safe for consumption by both bees and humans. Preliminary results of laboratory testing show that the levels of pesticides from lanterfly treatment efforts found in honeydew honey are exceedingly small and well below any level of concern. In addition, beekeepers in areas where lanterflies have been established for several years see that honey bees overwinter very well on this type of stored food.

     

    2. How can I recognize spotted lanternfly honeydew honey?

    Honey made from spotted lanternfly honeydew has a distinct smokey odor. The color is dark brown, but not nearly as dark or black as buckwheat honey. The honeydew honey is not as sweet as other honeys and it has a lingering aftertaste.

     

    3. Can I sell lanternfly honeydew honey?

    Yes! This honey is marketable. Bakeries readily purchase this honey for use. In unofficial taste tests, half or more of the people that try this honey think it tastes great. Similar to the differing opinions about the flavor of other distinct honeys, such as buckwheat honey, opinions vary.  In addition, clever marketing can make this a popular novelty.

     

    4. I don’t like the taste of honeydew honey and I don’t want to sell it. What can I do?

    To avoid extracting this honey, remove the honey you collected in spring and summer by the end of July. Honeydew honey begins to be collected by bees as lanternflies emerge as adults, usually in August. Do not place supers on colonies for fall honey collection. Instead, allow the bees to provision their hives with honeydew honey as winter feed. By spring, the bees will have turned that honey into new bees.

     

    Questions or comments? Contact Robyn Underwood at rmu1@psu.edu or 484-268-5208

     

  • What Have We Learned From 6 Years of Monitoring Wild Bees?

    What Have We Learned From 6 Years of Monitoring Wild Bees?

    There are around 4,000 bee species in the US and over 400 in Pennsylvania (Figure 1). With so many species it’s very difficult to know what’s going on with each species and any collection of species that co-occur at any given location. There’s growing concern that bees are declining because of a variety of stressors such as habitat loss, pesticides, invasive species, and climate change. While there is good evidence that some bumble bee species in the US are declining, the status and trends for most other species are largely unknown due to a lack of data. This is why there’s an ongoing effort to establish a US nationwide bee monitoring program. In our recently published paper we looked at changes in populations of many bee species using data from 6 years of intensive bee monitoring.

     

    A grid of 12 bee photos sitting on flowers. The bees vary in size, shape, and color.
    Figure 1. A variety of bees found in Pennsylvania, photos by Nash Turley CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

    We’ve been working to understand how populations of bees in-and-around several apple orchards in Southern Pennsylvania are changing over time. To do this we’ve been monitoring bees for the last 6 years using Blue Vane Traps (Figure 2), a type of trap that attracts and captures a wide variety of bees. With these we’ve collected data on what bees are active every single week between April and October for 6 years in a row. So far we’ve collected 144 species! This is 33% of the species found in the whole state. As is the case in all collections of species in nature, most species were rare, for half of the species we collected 5 or fewer individuals. However, we did have 40 species with enough observations to be able to look at population trends over time.

     

    A photo of a blue vane trap hanging from a pole with green vegetation in the background. The trap is about 1 foot tall with bright blue top with vanes and a funnel leading into a yellow tub at the bottom
    Figure 2. Blue Vane Trap, a type of insect trap that attracts and captures a wide variety of bees and other pollinating insects. Photo by Nash Turley CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

    We found that 26 species were stable over time, that is, no detectable change in abundance between 2014-2019 (Figure 3). However, 13 species, or about ⅓ of the species we could measure, declined in abundance over time. Many of the declining species were bumble bees and sweat bees. By contrast, only 1 species increased in abundance over time. In addition to changes in species’ abundances, we also saw declines in the number of species observed. At the peak year we found an average of 46 species at each collection site which dropped to an average of 30 species per site at the end of our study.

     

    Three graphs with bee abundance on the y axis and years on the x axis with points and trend lines. These show the abundance of bees between 2014 and 2019. The first graph there is no trend, no change over time, which is the pattern for 26 species in the study. The second graph shows straight line declining over time, these declines were seen in 13 species. The last graph shows a curvy line that increases sharply in the last two years, only one species (Melissodes bimaculata) increased in this way.
    Figure 3. Changes in abundance of three bee species between 2014 and 2016. These three species are representative of categories of species that were stable, declining, and increasing.

    Our collections were at 4 orchards all within a few miles of each other, so we don’t know if the patterns of declines we saw are happening in other areas. Also, 6 years of data are probably not enough to provide strong evidence of longer-term trends. Rather our patterns could be a product of year-to-year fluctuations that by random chance happened to show declines during our 6-year snapshot. Others have suggested at least 10 years of data are needed to detect long-term patterns of declines in insect populations. We are continuing our collections of hopes that we can provide more concrete evidence of population trends in the future.   

    In addition to studying changes in abundance over time (across years), we also looked at seasonal changes (within years). We wanted to understand how bee communities (the combination of species active at any given time) change from month to month. We found that bee communities in April, May, June, and July are all distinct. That means that each month you go out and look at bees between April and July you will see new species and unique combinations of species flying around. We also looked at seasonal patterns of abundance for our 40 focal species and that there were 3 types of life history strategies which are shown in Figure 4: 1) species are are active for just a short time in the spring such as mason bees and mining bees (pink), 2) those that are active for a short time just in the summer such as squash bees and long-horned bees (purple), and 3) species with a broad period of activity that are likely to be flying about from May all the way to September like bumble bees and most sweat bees (blue). Non-native honey bees had the widest period of activity, they are always around. 

     

    A grid with months April to October on the top and seven types of bees on the side. For each bee the squares are filled in for the month that most of the bees were captured. On the right are photos of each type of bee, high detailed photos of specimens with black backgrounds.
    Figure 4. Seasonal patterns of activity for seven types of bees in Pennsylvania. Filled in squares represent months in which the majority of bees were captured. See main text for further explanation of the patterns.

    Our analysis of bee monitoring data over 6 years helped us learn a great deal about the natural history of bee communities and species-level insight for 40 co-occurring species. Our results are concerning because they suggest there could be declines in species’ abundances and community-wide biodiversity in recent years, but further study is needed to know if this is part of an ongoing pattern. We hope that data like this will be helpful in identifying species of conservation concern, or species that could be good indicators for detecting threats to other bees or insects more generally. We also hope that basic natural history data on many species will be useful for guiding conservation and habitat restoration efforts focused on helping bees and other pollinators. You can read more about this research in our open access paper published in Ecology and Evolution: 

    Turley NE, Biddinger DJ, Joshi NK, López-Uribe MM. Six years of wild bee monitoring shows changes in biodiversity within and across years and declines in abundance. Ecology and Evolution.  

     

  • 2022 NSF-IRES: Pollinators in Changing Climates Colombia

    2022 NSF-IRES: Pollinators in Changing Climates Colombia

    The impact of climate change on plant-pollinator interactions

    This International Research Experiences for Students (IRES) program will provide undergraduate students with an eight-week international research experience working with mentors from Penn State and Universidad Militar Nueva Granada in Colombia. Projects will focus on studying how environmental factors impact plant-pollinator interactions in mountain ecosystems. Students will participate in interdisciplinary research guided by mentors representing entomology, ecology, engineering, and climate science. Students will receive $4,000 for their participation in the program from June 6th to August 5th 2022.

     

    Mentors participating in this program include faculty from Penn State University (USA) and Universidad Militar Nueva Granada (Colombia):

      • Margarita López-Uribe (PSU – Molecular Ecology and Pollinator Biology)
      • José D. Fuentes (PSU – Atmospheric Sciences)
      • Julio Urbina (PSU – Remote Sensing)
      • Luis Duque (PSU – Crop Physiology)
      • José R. Cure (UMNG – Population Ecology, Insect Diversity)
      • Marlene Lucía Aguilar (UMNG – Pollination Biology)
      • María Mercedes Perez Trujillo (UMNG – Horticulture)

    Research topics include:

    • Assessing the role of phylogenetic history in variation in thermal breadth across pollinating insects
    • Understand mechanistic effects of abiotic stressors on crop-pollinator interactions
    • Variation of pollinator thermal tolerance in tropical ecosystems
    • Region climate downscaling to relevant microclimatic scales

    Projects suitable for students majoring in:

    • Biology or Ecology
    • Entomology
    • Engineering
    • Climate science

    Requirements:

    • Enrollment in an undergraduate program (preference to juniors and seniors) in the United States.
    • Courses in biology and calculus. Knowledge of computer programming is desirable but not necessary.
    • Fluency in Spanish is not required.
    • Applicants must be available to travel from June 6th to August 5th.
    • Some projects will require fieldwork at remote sites with inherent hazards, can be
      physically challenging, and may require specialized equipment with risks.
    • Safety concerns in the field may vary among individuals based on gender, age, fitness levels, and experience. Instructors guarantee an inclusive environment and safe environment.

    Applications are due on March 1, 2022

    Applicants must submit:

    1. Resume or CV

    2. A statement detailing relevant academic/professional experiences and interest in this program.

    3. Official transcripts.

    4. Names of 2 reference letter writers.

     

    Please submit your application here.

    Inquiries about the program or the application process can be submitted to Dr. Margarita M. López-Uribe (Email: mml64@psu.edu) and Stephania Sandoval Arango (Email: sfs5975@psu.edu) 

    This NSF-funded IRES program (OISE-1952470) is administered by the Department of Entomology, Penn State University.

    If you would like to learn more about the results of our virtual program in 2021, visit this website