Oregon and Florida may seem miles apart, but the role of bees in both states has remarkable parallels. This week Dr. Rachel Mallinger University of Florida talks about blueberry pollination, bees in forest systems and interests of gardeners around bees in the Sunshine State. Dr. Mallinger is a professor in the Department of Entomology and Nematology at the University of Florida. Her position is 60% research, 25% extension, and 15% teaching, so she wears many hats! In general, she conduct research on pollination ecology, plant-pollinator interactions, and wild bee community ecology. Her extension programs works with growers of pollinator-dependent specialty crops (e.g. blueberries, strawberries), and with Florida’s Master Gardeners to improve gardens and landscapes for native wild bees. She also teaches a course on the ecology and conservation of pollinators for both undergraduate and graduate students.
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Links Mentioned:
Dr Mallinger’s Book Recommendation: The Bees in Your Backyard: A Guide to North America’s Bees (Wilson and Carril, 2015)
Go to tool: Pollinator exclusion bags (here is an exercise using these bags from Ohio State University – also here are the bags that Dr. Mallinger uses)
Favorite Pollinator: Southeastern blueberry bee (Habropoda laboriosa)
We can only hear you speaking not Dr Mallinger and it’s also the same way on iTunes podcast also.
Thanks so much Kay. We made a mistake 🙁
But we now have loaded up the combined file and it should sound better. Thanks for picking up on this.
Didn’t realize Florida had less bees and hadn’t thought about the decrease in pollen in sterile plants.