College of the Canyons (COC) has received a $74,707 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to provide underrepresented community college students the opportunity to engage in native bee research.
The Campus as a Living Lab (CALL) Grant is set to provide COC students the opportunity to study native bees amid the bee population decline, according to officials.
“This experience will increase the knowledge and awareness students have regarding native bee distribution and ecology, as well as methods to increase campus native bee species numbers through habitat enrichment,” said Jeannie Chari, a biology instructor at COC and the grant’s principal investigator.
Chari is expected to collaborate with Patricia Palavecino, with Antelope Valley College and Jaime Pawelek, with Essig Museum at UC Berkeley, to create a Training Toolkit for community college instructors to implement on their respective campuses, according to a statement from COC.
Native bees are a global source of natural bee capital with approximately 20 percent of species found within the United States, according to a statement from COC.
“Using the campus landscape as a living lab, faculty and students will research native bee biodiversity with the intent to enrich campus habitats, foster increased biodiversity of native bee species and address the current rapid loss of biodiversity affecting ecosystem stability and pollination services,” according to COC officials.
All research data is projected to be shared amongst the participating colleges, including COC, through public databases to establish a strong foundation of data that can be referred to when fostering ongoing pollinator research, according to a statement from COC.
“Community college campuses can ultimately serve as habitat islands and corridors for native bees,” Chari said. “The research will contribute to native bee conservation on a local and global scale.”
In the spring of 2022, COC is scheduled to begin training sessions for community college instructors soon after to provide students an opportunity to participate through the college’s Biodiversity Initiative.
For more information on the project or to get involved, email jeannie.chari@canyons.edu.
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