Bees, Beaks and a Changing World: The Science of Adaptation

Everyone is familiar with the black-and-gold honeybees, or the round, fluffy bumblebees that buzz around flowers in spring. But did you know that your garden is also home to smaller (but equally interesting) solitary bees? Living alone, these solitary bees are highly effective pollinators with captivating behaviours. Yet they are often overlooked compared to their social counterparts. In this talk, I will share insights into the fascinating world of solitary bees, focusing on one species in particular: the red mason bee (Osmia bicornis). Unfortunately, like all pollinators, the behaviour and physiology of the red mason bee are likely to be affected by environmental changes, such as global warming. We will explore how higher temperatures influence the type of pollen collected by red mason bees, and how the nutritional quality of food affects the fate of bee larvae and adults at different temperatures.

Bird beaks are made up of a bony core surrounded by a keratin sheath. We know that this keratin sheath (rhamphotheca) helps to reduce stress in the skull during feeding, but we don't yet understand how variation in shape and material properties changes this effect. My research uses methods such as histology and computer modelling to look in to the shape, material properties and attachment of the avian beak, and how these properties affect function. This will give useful insight for further computer modelling of bird skull function, and reconstructing the rhamphotheca in extinct, beaked groups such as some dinosaurs.