The red mason bee, Osmia bicornis (syn. rufa), is a solitary bee that is found in most of Europe. They are important generalist pollinators for spring and early summer plants and are widely used for pollination of agricultural crops. Like many insects, there is a great degree of uncertainty as to how the red mason bee will cope with the increasing temperatures caused by climate change. Since these bees are gentle, nest in aggregations, and happily settle in bee hotels, they are excellent subjects for scientific study. We have used this to our advantage to investigate how climate change will affect red mason bee development, by simulating different climate warming scenarios in temperature-controlled bee hotels.
What you will do:
After gathering pollen samples from bee nesting tubes, you will process the samples using state-of-the-art image processing software to identify them to the degree possible. You will investigate whether and how the pollen provisioning of the red mason bee changes with nest site temperatures. Specific areas of interest are: how pollen composition changes over time, how a mother allocates pollen resources across her offspring, and if pollen resources are different between bee hotel locations. Although pollen analysis is an essential part of the project, no prior experience with pollen or advanced image analysis is required.
Supervision:
You will work with Katherine Mihalczo (PhD student) under the supervision of Ola Olsson in a joint project with the Thermal Biology and Biodiversity and Conservation Science research groups. We will work together to tailor the project to your interests and establish research questions. If this project sounds interesting to you, please reach out to Katherine (katherine.mihalczo@biol.lu.se) or Ola (ola.olsson@biol.lu.se)!
Estimated start date: February/March 2026