Biology Education

Bees are extraordinary navigators — using only a few learning flights, bees are able to build internal memories of their visual surroundings that allow them to efficiently locate previously-discovered food sources as well as their hive. In this exciting project, we aim to gain a deeper understanding of how bumblebees acquire and process navigational memories by letting bees forage in a virtual, computer-generated environment. Although the bees are tethered in place, they are able to move through a computer-generated environment by walking on an air-suspended ball. We will subsequently provide robotically-controlled food rewards to encourage visual learning. We will leverage the unique experimental flexibility given to us by the virtual reality technology to probe features of the bees visual memories, e.g. by virtually displacing bees off of their previously-learned trajectories. This interdisciplinary project combines hardware prototyping and behavioral data collection. Do you like solving technical problems, coding or robotics, and want to apply these skills to exciting fundamental questions in neuroscience and biology? Then this project is especially suited to you! Prior experience with either Python, C, and/or technical prototyping is advantageous, but we encourage anyone interested in gaining these skills to apply. For an informal chat about the project possibilities, please send us a note!

This project can be adapted to 30, 45 or 60 credits, although 45-60 credits is ideal. The
project can be adjusted to either an MA or BA thesis. We are open to hearing your
preferences.

Start date
The start date for this project is flexible, ideally between February 15 and April 1.

Contact info:
Abel Corver, abel.corver@biol.lu.se
LU research profile: https://portal.research.lu.se/en/persons/abel-corver/
abelcorver.com

Many flowering plants rely on visual and chemical signals to attract pollinators. Food-deceptive orchids attract their pollinators without offering nectar rewards, instead exploiting pollinator sensory expectations. Dactylorhiza sambucina is a food-deceptive orchid with two flower colour morphs that coexist within populations, a polymorphism thought to be maintained by negative frequency-dependent selection. While colour variation in this species is well studied, it remains unknown whether the morphs also differ in floral scent, a key but often overlooked component of pollinator attraction.

This project aims to investigate whether variation in floral scent parallels colour polymorphism and whether the co-flowering community context, including other food-deceptive orchids as well as rewarding and non-rewarding plant species, contributes to maintaining colour and/or scent variation within populations through pollinator-mediated interactions.

Appreciated knowledge: background on pollination biology or plant ecology is desirable but not required.

• Motivation to conduct fieldwork (approx. 2.5 months on the beautiful Öland)
• Willingness to learn floral scent chemical analysis (GC–MS, chromatogram integration)
• Willingness to learn multivariate data analysis in R

Length of the project: MSc, 45-60 credits.

Start date: end of April/beginning May 2026.

Contact info: Yedra García (yedra.garcia_garcia@biol.lu.se), Øystein Opedal (oystein.opedal@biol.lu.se), Magne Friberg (magne.friberg@biol.lu.se)

https://portal.research.lu.se/en/persons/yedra-garcia-garcia/

The average reproductive performance of birds has been shown to be lower in polluted areas (Eeva & Lehikoinen, 1995; Peach et al, 2008, Barton et al, 2023). Hatching success is one of the most important determinants of fitness, and the number of eggs that fail to hatch can have a serious impact on population dynamics (Ferreira et al, 2005; White et al, 2015). Hatching failure (excluding predation and abandonment) can have different proximate causes: for example, it may result from poor sperm quality, bad female condition, and/or environmental factors.

Many vertebrates, such as birds, undergo annual cycles of gonad development in which the gonads must develop before breeding can commence (Davies and Deviche, 2014). It was shown that urban birds have earlier gonadal development compared with their rural conspecifics (Davies et al, 2015). It was shown in human that higher exposure to air-pollutant can cause damage to testes, characterized by histological alterations, oxidative damage and apopotosis. However, we know that urbanization has an impact on the timing and pace of gonadal development, we do not know how it can influence the process of sperm production and the quality of sperm. Therefore, the proposed project will address how urbanization and traffic related pollutants can influence the oxidative status (SOD activity, MDA level and T-AOC) and apoptosis level of the testes and the ejaculate in wild birds, and how it influences the quality of sperm (swimming velocity, progressive motility, morphology and DNA damage).

Project will be carried out on Blue and Great tits (Cyanistes caeruleus and Parus major), which makes possible that the students are working together closely during the course of their master degree, while still doing their independent research.

Master project 1 & 2 (MP12)

Objective

To determine whether urbanisation influences sperm quality via oxidative damage in the testes

Your role

You investigate whether the oxidative status and the apoptosis level in testes influences the quality of the sperm.

Master project 3 & 4 (MP34)

Objective

To determine whether urbanisation influences sperm quality via oxidative damage in the ejaculate.

Your role

You investigate whether the oxidative status of the ejaculate influences the quality of the sperm.

Fieldwork & data collection

– Participating in long-term data collection by monitoring nest boxes in 5 different parks of Malmö, and in Skrylle Nature Reserve (MP1234).

– Catching, handling and ringing birds using various methods (MP1234).

– Collect blood and ejaculate samples (MP1234) and organs including the testes (MP12).

– Measuring sperm swimming velocity and progressive motility (MP1234).

Labwork

– Measuring SOD, MDA, T-AOC and apoptosis levels from the testes (MP12).

– Measuring SOD, MDA, T-AOC and apoptosis levels from the ejaculate (MP34).

– Measuring sperm morphology and DNA damage (MP34).

Length of the projects

10 months theses for 60 credits are prioritized, but shorter theses may be organized as well, depending on the project.

Start date

The fieldwork starts at the beginning of April 2026.

Requirements

Participating students must take the Animal Testing Ethics course before the start of the project.

Contact info

Zsófia Tóth – zsofia.toth@biol.lu.se

https://portal.research.lu.se/en/persons/zsófia-tóth/

Bird migration is to a large degree a nocturnal affair, as many birds start their migratory flights soon after sunset and fly until early morning. It is however unclear how this pattern is affected by the large differences in night length that birds experience at different latitudes. When migrating at high latitudes the midnight sun means that there is no “night” at all for parts on the year, so what does this mean for the nocturnal schedule?

Using weather radar data we can identify the start and end of bird migratory movements at 14 different sites in Sweden, ranging from Kiruna to Ängelholm. Comparing the length of migratory activity at different night lengths can give us clues to what cues birds use to initiate migration, and why so many birds migrate during night at all. I am looking for a motivated student analyze weather radar data of migratory activity in relation to night length at different sites and times.

Required knowledge: Comfortable with, or willing to learn, to analyse data in R.

Length of the project:  MSc or BSc, flexible depending on depth of analysis, number of sites included.

Start date: Flexible

Contact info: Cecilia Nilsson, Cecilia.nilsson@biol.lu.se

Link to research profile:

http://cnilsson.science

https://portal.research.lu.se/sv/persons/cecilia-nilsson

Light is a powerful cue that guides and controls much of life on earth. Sunlight also follows a predictable and steady schedule, at least most of the time. So, what happens when it suddenly doesn’t? In 2017 we used large-scale weather radar data to investigate how animals in the air reacted to the 2017 US total solar eclipse. Across 143 radar sites we measured drops in animal activity in the air as the eclipse passed, probably mainly due to flying birds landing. At sites in the path of totality we saw a slightly different reaction, with some bursts of activity, possibly related to insect activity.

In 2024 another total eclipse occurred across the US. This eclipse had a different path, meaning different radar sites experienced totality, and it also occurred in a different season, spring rather than autumn. We now have the data for the 2024 eclipse and are looking for a motivated student to compare animal activity in the air between the two eclipses.

See more: https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2018.0485

Required knowledge: Comfortable with, or willing to learn, to analyse data in R.

Length of the project:  MSc, flexible depending on depth of analysis 

Start date: Flexible

Contact info: Cecilia Nilsson, Cecilia.nilsson@biol.lu.se

More information:

http://cnilsson.science

https://portal.research.lu.se/sv/persons/cecilia-nilsson

Global changes, including climate warming and habitat change, are posing unprecedented and accelerating threats to biodiversity and functioning of high-altitude and -latitude ecosystems. Nonetheless, little is known about influence of global changes affect biotic interactions in these regions. In this project, we investigate the effects of climate warming on pollination along an altitudinal gradient using a space-for-time substitution design. We focus on two charismatic keystone plants species, bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus) and lingonberry (V. vitis-idea), which are used for berry picking and require buzz pollination for maximising their reproductive outputs. Bumblebees, abundant at high-altitude and –latitude can perform buzz pollination and are the main pollinators of these plants. Fieldwork is done on Mount Nuolja, a mountain from Abisko National Park, Sweden. Alongside monitoring of the bumblebee community pollinating these two plants, part of the work focuses on the variation of the the plants’ reproductive success.

Your role: For the spring/summer 2026, I you will investigate through fieldwork and field experiments:

• the changes in pollinator communities with habitat/altitude. This will be assessed through transect walks in different habitats (birch forest and open low-altitude for bilberry; low-altitude and high-altitude open habitat for lingonberry).
• the variation in insect-pollination dependency, pollen limitation and reproductive success with climate. This will be assessed by a pollination experiment at different altitude including: (i) open pollination – flowers are available to the pollinators, (ii) bagged – flowers can only be wind- or self-pollinated, (iii) pollen supplementation by hand-pollination. This experiment will allow calculating the pollen limitation. The berries of treatment (i) will be used to assess the effects of climate. We will use berries from treatments (ii) and (iii) to assess the effects of insect pollination (within site comparison) and the combination of insect pollination and climate (between altitude comparison). This will be achieved by harvesting and drying berries for measuring their dry weight. We will count seed set (i.e., number of seeds per fruit) for a subset of collected berries.

Required knowledge:

• Experience of fieldwork, preferentially in boreal/Arctic conditions
• Familiar with community modelling
• Motivation/interest to spend 3 months in Abisko.

Appreciated knowledge:

• Knowledge of pollination ecology
• Naturalist knowledge of pollinators/insects
• Knowledge/interest of the effects of global changes – particularly of climate change – on the Arctic and/or pollinators/pollination

N.B: Fieldwork in the Arctic is physically demanding. Living in Abisko field station involves sharing accommodation (including bedroom) with other fieldworkers.

Length of project: project of 45 to 60 credits preferred – given the 3 months of fieldwork.

Starting date: April/May 2026

Contact: Océane Bartholomée at oceane.bartholomee@mgeo.lu.se.

https://www.cec.lu.se/oceane-bartholomee

Please include a brief statement (a few sentences) about your background, interests, and motivation behind why you would like to be part of the project.

Thank you!