The Garden Club of America Board of Associates Centennial Pollinator Fellowship
School: Master’s student, Forest Biology, University of Georgia

An Integrated Approach to Using Silviculture Management for Conserving Wild Bees in Managed Forests

McDonald will evaluate how prescribed burning impacts floral and bee communities; assess correlation between stand basal area and bee abundance and species richness; and identify plant taxa and bee species present in stands to better understand how species in these communities are linked. McDonald will compare native-bee populations in pine-dominant forests burned in the dormant season with those burned in the growing season, while evaluating the differences in floral resources within the stands. Findings will help forest managers integrate native-pollinator conservation into broader wildlife and timber management goals.

The Garden Club of America Board of Associates Centennial Pollinator Fellowship
School: PhD candidate in Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology, The Ohio State University

Beyond Blooms: Enhancing Nesting Resources for Ground-Nesting Bee Conservation

Fredenburg will investigate the effects of urbanization and surface soil features on ground-nesting bee nest activity in urban and rural habitats. Manipulating the surface soil to attract ground-nesting bees will experimentally test the nesting habitat feature preferences of ground-nesting bees. Comparing sites in urban and rural habitats will provide evidence of urbanization’s effects on the unique bee community. Fredenburg’s study will provide information on how the species can be better conserved in areas where nesting requirements may be limited.

The Garden Club of America Board of Associates Centennial Pollinator Fellowship
School: PhD Candidate in Ecology, Colorado State University

Songbirds as Novel Pollinators: Uncovering the Role of Passerines in Pollination Systems Across Western North America

Coyle’s research will evaluate how often passerine birds carry pollen and which plants they visit, potentially connecting plant populations locally and over longer distances. After collecting pollen from songbirds and hummingbirds in collaboration with bird banders across western North America, Coyle will use DNA analysis to identify pollen samples. Coyle’s study will provide new insights into the role of birds in pollination systems, information that could be critical to sustaining and restoring plant-pollinator interactions in a changing world.

The Garden Club of America Board of Associates Centennial Pollinator Fellowship

Did the Pollinator Cross the Road?: Plant-Pollinator Ecology and Wildflower-Population Connectivity in Roadside Verges of the Piedmont Region of North Carolina

McNear’s research will focus on the ecology of roadside wildflower populations by measuring genetic connectivity, observing insect pollinators, and testing pollen transfer in roadside habitats. The research goal is to explore the potential conservation value of verge habitats for native grassland wildflowers.

The Garden Club of America Board of Associates Centennial Pollinator Fellowship

What’s Bee-Low the Surface: Exploring Relationships between the Soil Microbiome and Ground-Nesting Bee Communities

The Garden Club of America Board of Associates Centennial Pollinator Fellowship

Beyond the Yucca Moth: The Composition, Structure, and Climate-Change Sensitivity of Moth Pollen-Transport Networks in the Southwest

Cosma’s research will explore moth pollentransport networks along an elevational gradient in southern California. Extending the traditional focus on highly specialized moth-pollination interactions to the community level, Cosma will combine field sampling with advanced molecular techniques to uncover nocturnal mothpollen transport. Cosma’s research will use the natural experiment provided by an elevational gradient to inform predictions about how plant and insect communities will fare in the Southwest’s rapidly changing climate.

The Garden Club of America Board of Associates Centennial Pollinator Fellowship
School: PhD candidate in Organismic & Evolutionary Biology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Floral Volatiles and Pollinator Self-Medication: Implications for Bee and Plant Fitness

Clemente will conduct experiments to determine whether infection by a trypanosome parasite (Crithidia bombi) changes the foraging preferences of common eastern bumblebee (Bombus impatiens) workers. Through field surveys, he also will determine parasite prevalence in wild bees foraging on patches of secondary compound-rich basil (Ocimum basilicum). This work is part of a larger investigation on whether pathogens influence the evolution of plant chemical traits by altering the foraging behaviors of their hosts.

The Garden Club of America Board of Associates Centennial Pollinator Fellowship
School: PhD candidate in Toxicology, Iowa State University

Quantification of an Agriculturally Prevalent Pyrethroid Insecticide in Honey Bee Bodies to Determine Risk to Foraging Bees

Hall is actively involved in Iowa State’s Entomology Graduate Student Organization and has held several positions, including president. Her research focuses on assessing the exposure and risk of agricultural insecticides to insect pollinators, including honeybees and monarch butterflies. The goal of her research is to better understand the potential adverse effects of pesticide exposure to pollinator habitat that is located near crop fields. The results from this research will help guide conservation efforts for pollinators within the north central United States.

The Garden Club of America Board of Associates Centennial Pollinator Fellowship
School: PhD candidate in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology, University of Nevada, Reno

The Interactive Effects of Pesticide Exposure and Climate Change on a Widespread Butterfly

Halsch is interested in the many stressors impacting butterfly populations today, conducting long term monitoring and laboratory experiments to examine the biological mechanisms underlying insect declines. His current projects investigate the interactive effects of pesticide exposure and climate change on butterfly population trajectories.

The Garden Club of America Board of Associates Centennial Pollinator Fellowship

A Pollinator’s Tiny Friends: Investigating the Role of Microbial Communities in the Health of their Pollinator Hosts


Logan A. Sauers is a PhD candidate at Illinois State University, studying the interactions between bumblebees and their beneficial gut microbiota. He is passionate about uncovering how beneficial microbes and their hosts evolve and interact. His master’s thesis uncovered high specificity in colonization of a core gut bacteria and bumblebees. Sauers is expanding his focus to research how multiple bacterial species may work together, providing greater benefits to their hosts in terms of nutrition and parasite defense than the individual species. His work will further the understanding of bumblebee health and how perturbations of gut microbiota may influence it.