The Division Biological and Health Sciences will sponsor a talk on Pennsylvania bee biodiversity on May 14 on campus.
Dr. Nash Turley, a post-doctoral scholar from Penn State University, will give a talk on “Monitoring Pennsylvania’s Bee Biodiversity” at 11 a.m. in Room 162 of Swarts Hall. Following the talk, weather permitting, Turley will step outside to look at the bees on campus. Both parts are free and open to the public.
Turley will talk about past efforts to monitor bee biodiversity in Pennsylvania and share the results from an intensive monitoring project in Adams County. He will also explain the Master Gardener bee monitoring program that is active across the state, including in McKean County.
Turley is an ecologist with broad interests in plant-animal interactions, community and restoration ecology and science communication. He holds a doctoral degree from the University of Toronto and is using bee monitoring data to understand how native bee communities in Pennsylvania have changed over the last 20 years.
As part of Turley’s research, he collaborates with Master Gardeners on the state-wide bee monitoring program to understand the diversity, distribution and prevalence of wild bee pollinators, which are the most important pollinators of flowering plants in natural, agricultural and urban habitats.