My colleague, Jill Matthijs, watering our recently transplanted flower seedlings at the Matthaei Botanical Gardens greenhouse before the field season.
The loss of flowering landscapes is known to contribute to pollinator decline, so my study asks how many flowers are needed to help conserve pollinators in urban landscapes. I have several sites with different flower quantities spread out across Ann Arbor, and I've been documenting the bees that visit them for the past two years.
The Rackham Graduate Student Research Grant made the entire second year of this project possible, by enabling me to buy the necessary supplies, rent a vehicle for my bi-weekly site visits, and purchase fuel.
– Maria Carolina Simao, Doctoral Candidate, Natural Resources and Environment