Nov 8, 2019: Pesticides and pollinators: Identifying the behavioral impact of chronic neonicotinoid exposure in bumblebees

Fall 2019 Seminar Series (Pharm 847-S/ENV 847-S)

Duke University Program in Environmental Health & Toxicology

Friday, November 8, 2019, 11:45 am – 1:00 pm, LSRC Love Auditorium B101 (room change!)

Bumblebee with QR tag to enable behavioral tracking
Bumblebee with QR tag to enable behavioral tracking

JAMES CRALL, PH.D.

Dept. of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University

Pesticides and Pollinators: Identifying the behavioral impact of chronic neonicotinoid exposure in bumblebees

Bees and other social insects provide vital ecosystem services, including supporting biodiversity and agricultural yields, but these insects are threatened by rapid, anthropogenic environmental change.  This talk will explore our recent efforts to understand how bumblebee societies cope with environmental stressors (e.g., pesticide exposure, temperature stress, and predation) and will highlight the potential of emerging tools in automation and robotics for illuminating how global environmental change is affecting the dynamics of social insect societies and the ecosystem services they provide.

 

Speaker Biography:

James Crall is a USDA-NIFA Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and the Center for Brain Science at Harvard University.  Previously a Rockefeller Foundation Planetary Health Alliance Postdoctoral Fellow, James received his PhD from Harvard University in 2017, and his BA from Swarthmore College in 2007.  James studies the social ecology of bees, and how these critical organisms are impacted by global environmental change.