Toxic Nectar? How Plant Chemistry Changes Bee Behavior by Patty Jones

Toxic nectar? How plant chemistry changes bee behavior webinar by Patty Jones, which was hosted on Thursday, January 7, 2021.

Many plants contain toxic compounds in their leaves that help defend them from herbivores. These same toxic compounds also occur in the nectar of the flowers, which has long mystified ecologists, as we view flower nectar predominantly as a reward for flower visitors. There are a number of different hypotheses for why plants would have toxic compounds in their nectar, and I use bumblebees in the lab at Bowdoin and in the field at the Bowdoin Scientific Station on Kent Island to test these proposed explanations.

Patty Jones is an Assistant Professor of Biology at Bowdoin College and Director of the Bowdoin Scientific Station on Kent Island. She is originally from Cambridge, MA, has a BA in Biology and History of Art from Cornell University and a PhD in Integrative Biology from the University of Texas at Austin. She returned to Cornell as a postdoctoral researcher for three years before joining the Bowdoin faculty in 2017. Patty has worked with a range of different systems including lobsters, butterflies, bats, and most recently bumblebees and seabirds on Kent Island. She lives on the Androscoggin river in Brunswick where she rows, and has two little boys.