Feast or Famine

Morgan Carr-Markell's research is giving us a better understanding of honey bee behavior and forage activity which will help us improve the way we manage bee nutrition, conservation, and forage plantings.  ​

​If you are familiar with the plight of honey bees you probably know that one of the major threats facing bees today is a lack of nutrition - which for bees, means flowers.  If a person gets run down and doesn’t eat right they are more likely to get sick or develop health problems, but getting the proper nutrition can help a person stay healthy amid stressors.  Just like people, bees need a healthy diet too!  The major stressors that threaten bee health are pests, parasites, pathogens, and pesticide exposure.  We can help bees by directly addressing these stressors, but we also know that giving them good nutrition makes them better equipped to stay healthy through it all. ​

​Beekeepers across the nation reported 40% colony losses in 2017, but it’s not just bees that are being lost - the blooming plants that bees need are disappearing from the landscape too, making it harder every year for bees to get the food that they need.  In order to help bees stay healthy and productive, we need to replenish the habitat that is being lost, and we need to do it in a way that optimizes our use of the land and the other resources that we have to work with.   

Morgan Carr-Markell, a PhD candidate in Dr. Marla Spivak's lab at the University of Minnesota’s Entomology Department is conducting research which will give us a better understanding of honey bee behavior and forage activity, helping us improve the way we manage bee nutrition, conservation, and forage plantings. 

Imagine if we knew exactly what bee colonies want and need to eat.  Beekeepers, growers, biologists, and even home gardeners would be able to recognize and enhance the nutritional value of the forage that is available.  Morgan is conducting her research to study this question in the upper Midwest, comparing bees' preferences for species in native prairies and non-native plant communities.  The Midwest is an important “summer home” for many bee colonies where they go to replenish between pollination jobs, relying on the available forage to gain colony strength, and, hopefully make honey, so it's also an important place for conservation efforts. Morgan says “we know that honey bees will come to forage on lots of native prairie species, but when we are out in the field in real restored prairies, we want to know - what are the top species that we see, and what parts of the season are they really helpful?"  
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By “eavesdropping” on the scout bees who are recruiting foragers, Morgan decodes a language of bees; a kind of interpretive dance known as the 'waggle dance.'  By watching these dances, along with pollen sampling and identification, Morgan uses the dance to identify the exact times, locations, and plants that scout bees are 'advertising' to the other bees as food sources.  This information gives scientists the ability to answer specific questions about bee’s preferences. For example, when do honey bees forage on certain plant species, and what other factors like plant distance and density compel honey bees to choose one forage option over another? 

Above:  To be sure she correctly “decoded” the direction and distance of their waggle dance, Morgan marked honey bees with paint and then observed their dances in the hive after they visited a feeder full of sugar syrup.   

According to Morgan, her research can help beekeepers in several ways: “for example, if a beekeeper was wondering whether a restored prairie will have a big positive effect on honey production and colony health, my results suggest that a restored prairie of even a hundred acres may not provide honey bee colonies with much pollen or significantly boost honey production until perhaps late August/September (when late-season asters such as goldenrod begin blooming).  Of course, the effect of a restored prairie depends on the species that bloom there and the density of flowers.  At the same time, this information can help beekeepers advocate for future bee friendly plantings which incorporate species that are really great for bees.  It can help beekeepers push for projects like the Bee and Butterfly Habitat Fund that will help make more areas bee friendly."   
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Biologists can also use the information from Morgan’s research to identify what plants are best to include in forage seed mixes and how they should be included (what density, for example), allowing the biologists to make the best use of resources as they create conservation and bee forage seed mixes.  As the image below shows, over 20 million acres of habitat was converted into crops over just a four-year period in the US.  These monumental habitat losses are one of the reasons we need this research - to maximize the benefits of remaining habitat.  ​

Above:  Pollinator habitat is rapidly being lost not only to crop production as this illustration shows, but also to urbanization and other factors.  As we replenish lost habitat, research like Morgan's can inform how to optimize plantings to support bee and pollinator health.   

At Project Apis m. we believe that investing in the future of bee research and supporting dedicated scholars and researchers like Morgan Carr-Markell will help us towards our mission of sustainable bee health and crop production.  We believe, as Morgan says: “When we all work together, everyone is able to do their job better, and we make leaps and bounds forward with our understanding of bee health.” ​

By Sharah Yaddaw,
Communications Director
Project Apis m.

Morgan Carr-Markell is a PhD Student at the University of Minnesota at Dr. Marla Spivak’s Lab. 

​In 2016 the Costco/Pam partnership awarded Morgan a scholarship of $50,000 per year for three years to support her education and research.

Morgan has authored and co-authored five research publications and is working to prepare her current research results for publication. She has spoken at conferences, including American Bee Research Conferences, Entomological Society of America meetings, and meetings of the Minnesota Honey Producers Association and Minnesota Hobby Beekeepers Association.   She also has her own bee colonies and communicates with both commercial and backyard beekeepers so that she is able to understand their viewpoints, management challenges, and what kinds of practical solutions they need to keep their bees healthy and productive.  Her future plans include continuing research on honey bee foraging behavior, teaching classes, organizing outreach events, and mentoring research students.   ​​

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Publication list: 
Southey, B.R., Zhu, P., Carr-Markell, M.K., Liang, Z.S., Zayed, A., Li, R., Robinson, G.E., Rodriguez-Zas, S.L. (2016) Characterization of genomic variants associated with scout and recruit behavioral castes in honey bees using whole-genome sequencing. PLoS ONE 11(1): e0146430. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0146430 

Richards, J., Carr-Markell, M.K., Hefetz, A., Grozinger, C.M., and Mattila, H.R. (2015) Queen-produced volatiles change dynamically during reproductive swarming and are associated with changes in honey bee (Apis mellifera) worker behavior. Apidologie. 46(6): 679-690. DOI: 10.1007/s13592-015-0358-x 

Carr-Markell, M.K. and Robinson, G.E. (2014) Comparing reversal-learning abilities, sucrose responsiveness, and foraging experience between scout and non-scout honey bee (Apis mellifera) foragers. Journal of Insect Behavior. 27(6): 736-752. DOI: 10.1007/s10905-014-9465-1 

Heath, K.D., Bagley, E., Berkey, A.J.M., Birlenbach, D.M., Carr-Markell, M.K. et al. (2014) Amplify the signal: graduate training in broader impacts of scientific research. BioScience. 6(6): 517-523. DOI: 10.1093/biosci/biu051 
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Carr-Markell, M.K., McDonald, K.M., and Mattila, H.R. (2013) Intracolonial genetic diversity increases chemical signaling by waggle-dancing honey bees, Apis mellifera. Insectes Sociaux. 60(4): 485-496. DOI: 10.1007/s00040-013-0315-5 ​