about our project
click here for more info
Vinkrill. "Bee on Flower." Science News for Students, 29 Aug. 2016, https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/sites/default/files/2016/03/main/articles/bees-flowers-header.jpg.
background information
There aren’t many different methods used to capture pollinators. The method that has been the most successful and more used is the colored bowls method. The Xerces Society Project is one of the few projects related to the pollinators. They collect invertebrates as a way to protect them since most of them got endangered. Their project name was based on one of the butterflies that got extinct due to human activities.
For more information on the Xerces Society Project
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Right: "The Xerces Society." Agro-ecology and Sustainable Agriculture, 22 Sep. 2014, www.pineridgegardens.com/xerces.jpg.
project summary
Our project is a survey on whether or not pollinators are attracted to certain colors more than others. It consists of two parts: setting up traps using colored bowls and a Pollinator Count Survey, in which we observed flowers and counted the pollinator visitation rates. With these procedures, we have both answered our experiment questions and learned that there are many different species of insects that help pollinate flowers.
In our Colored Bowl Trap experiment, we hypothesized that yellow would attract the most pollinators, because it is a vibrant and common flower color. After conducting this experiment multiple times we found our hypothesis to be correct, and that out of all five colors, the lighter colors attracted more pollinators than the darker shades. This experiment helps us learn that flowers have most likely evolved to have vibrant colors in order to attract more pollinators. In our Pollinator Count Survey, we examined many different types of flower colors in several different locations. We hypothesized that they would be attracted towards the lighter colors, such as white. Our goal for this survey is to learn whether or not pollinators gravitate more towards certain flower colors.
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Anyone can conduct our survey, as long as they have access to flowering plants. Other people can examine flower colors that we did not observe as often, and they can also set their Colored Bowl Traps with colors that we did not use.
