by Mariam Aburdeineh

Bee vision: Shedding light on a conservation challenge

Kristin Heydt — Mon, 13 Jun 2022 20:35:58 +0000

Bee vision: Shedding light on a conservation challenge Kristin Heydt Mon, 06/13/2022 - 16:35

Bees see the world in vibrant color…but that may be changing. Smithsonian-Mason team researches the impact with bee vision.

When a bee sees a flower, it knows where to land thanks to its ability to see ultraviolet (UV) color patterns on the petals. Many factors have caused those colors to dull, and now a team at the Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation (SMSC), funded by a grant from the National Geographic Society, is helping reveal what pollinators see, and why it matters for the future of conservation.

“Bees and pollinators are such an integral part of the ecosystem,” said junior environmental and sustainability studies major Anna Siegle. “We’re looking at the floral color diversity of wildflowers in Virginia and how bees and insects are perceiving them.”

Anna Siegle compares a flower to color standards in visual light. The image on the left shows approximate human perception, and the image on the right depicts the bee-perceived color. Photo provided by Siegle.

Pollinators and Color

Honeybees help pollinate plants that produce food; they also help maintain biodiversity. That’s part of why understanding how they interact with plants matters.

Mason professor Daniel Hanley and undergraduate Anna Siegle are researching floral color diversity of wildflowers and how bees are perceiving them. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Creative Services

“Pollinators make really important decisions about colors all the time—and those colors are changing [due to climate change, changing pH levels and changing temperatures],” said Daniel Hanley, a ��AV professor and National Geographic Explorer who is Siegle’s research mentor.

The research findings could also help the team uncover which flowers may be beneficial for pollinators to have around, or what could be done to ensure wildflowers aren’t being impacted further, Siegle said.

Among the Flowers

Exploring how pollinators perceive color requires precision and technology, as UV colors are invisible to the human eye.

Siegle’s work begins with photographing, recording, and measuring flowers. She uses a multi-spectral camera that films both UV and visual light, and calibrates the camera for color precision and accuracy using color and white standards.

Using a spectrometer and spectroradiometer, Siegle also measures the reflectance of each flower and the color of the light. Later, she brings these data to the lab for analysis and processing. With the help of Python computer code, the photos are transformed into images of what a honeybee would see.

Colors Lead to Answers

Anna Siegle photographing flowers. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Creative Services

Hanley described his lab’s focus as primarily gathering information about how pollinators see and how perceived color diversity is quantified.

“This eventually will help us address why colors might be changing over time and how,” Hanley said. “It also helps us understand what the bees are actually paying attention to, and how it helps them with their interaction with the flower, which is critical for pollination.”

Siegle’s research is expected to have ripple effects.

“We’ll be able to see how bees are orienting to those visual signals in a way we hadn’t really been able to do before,” Hanley said. “That can be used for answering all sorts of other questions not just for pollinators, but all sorts of organisms that are using color.”

The imagery Siegle creates for the project will also be used to help bring the science to life with multimedia, including documentaries and films, she said.

Hands-on Conservation

Mason was the only school Siegle said she applied to, and SMSC was her top reason for applying.

“I have been waiting for a few years to attend SMSC,” said Siegle, who aspires to work in elephant conservation.

“It’s been amazing,” she said. “The classes have been really interesting, I’ve learned a lot, had a lot of hands-on experience, and made a lot of connections with the professors, other conservationists and guest speakers.”

It’s likewise rewarding for the mentors.

“It’s been really cool to be able to work with a student for weeks at a time to really dig into a problem,” Hanley said. “[At SMSC] you can invest in yourself and your development as a scientist in a way that other students really may nothave the chance to.”

Mason student Anna Siegle uses a spectrophotometer on a flower she photographed in the field at the Science and Technology Campus. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Creative Services

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Despite Life’s Daunting Challenges, Schar School Senior Cassidy Whitehurst Thrives at Mason

Anonymous — Tue, 19 Jan 2021 12:47:43 +0000

Despite Life’s Daunting Challenges, Schar School Senior Cassidy Whitehurst Thrives at Mason Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 01/19/2021 - 07:47

In This Story

Robert J. McGrath

Lucas Núñez

Laura Walker

Cassidy Whitehurst, second from left, and other students with Schar School professor Anne Holton (then interim president of Mason), at Richmond’s Capitol.

Originally published on January 6, 2021

Cassidy Whitehurst didn’t know if or how life would ever get better. The ��AV senior from Chesapeake, Virginia, said she grew up with parents who were addicted to drugs and alcohol, and from fourth to eighth grade, she was living in hotels and cars.

Mason senior Cassidy Whitehurst. Photo provided.

“I was doing really bad in school and wasn’t involved,” Whitehurst said. “I kind of gave up because my homelife was so stressful.”

But a moment of introspection inspired her to take control of the future.

“I moved in with my aunt in seventh grade, and around that time I started realizing that I didn’t want to live this lifestyle anymore,” the government and international politics major said. “It gave me a lot of hope thinking about the future and how I could change the situation.”

It also inspired her to want to go to college and become a lawyer.

“[In middle school] I saw my mom go to jail when she really just needed help,” said Whitehurst, who added that her parents have since been doing better. “I thought she was treated wrong and think addiction is treated wrong. That sparked me to be interested in criminal justice reform.”

Whitehurst said she decided to go to Mason after a campus tour that filled her with excitement for the campus experience. Now that she’s here, she’s been making the most of her education in classes, as the Speaker of the Student Senate, as a Mason Ambassador giving tours to prospective students, and as a Virtual Learning Community mentor.

“I love being involved with Student Government because I get to help people within the George Mason community,” Whitehurst said, adding that she also serves on the Student Advisory Committee for the State Council for Higher Education for Virginia.

“What impresses me most about Cassidy is her ability to be calm and confident in difficult and complex situations, which happen regularly in Student Senate,” said Student Government Advisor Ben Endres. “She is a natural leader and well respected by her peers as well as the professional staff.”

She also works hard to ensure her peers feel heard and accepted, Endres said, and she seeks opportunities for her own personal development.

Before she graduates this spring, Whitehurst will be an undergraduate research assistant working with Schar School professors Robert McGrath and Lucas Núñez to create a database of legislation passed in the Virginia General Assembly. The work is for the ongoing Almanac of Virginia Politics, a massive tool that collects raw data regarding the Commonwealth’s legislative history.

The opportunities Mason has provided, along with the friends Whitehurst has made along the way, have been her favorite parts of her college experience, she said.

Professors like Laura Walker and Sharrell Hassell-Goodman have also been influential, Whitehurst said, citing their engaging teaching styles and how they encourage productive dialogue among students.

“Cassidy is humble, yet confident and extremely capable and talented,” Hassell-Goodman said. “I can’t wait to see what she decides to pursue in the future.”

Did you know?: In 2020, 114 Schar School undergraduates worked on faculty-supervised research projects, including the Almanac of Virginia Politics, and as Undergraduate Teaching Assistants, Global Politics Fellows and Nonprofit Fellows.

Topics

Schar School of Policy and Government

Schar News January 2021

by Mariam Aburdeineh

Bee vision: Shedding light on a conservation challenge

Pollinators and Color

Among the Flowers

Colors Lead to Answers

Hands-on Conservation

Explore the Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation

Learn More About Undergraduate Research

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Despite Life’s Daunting Challenges, Schar School Senior Cassidy Whitehurst Thrives at Mason

In This Story

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