Short project description

Contrasting many years approach to nature management in Denmark, trees and bushes are increasingly valued in heterogeneous natural areas. However, in agrifood systems, the trend still increases field sizes and decreases hedgerows and seminatural areas. Thinking trees into agrifood landscapes could support both biodiversity conservation agendas and increase resilience of agrifood systems.

In this project, you will explore the impact of solitary trees and bushes as wind shielding structures on wild bees in agrifood (primarily agroforestry) landscapes. You will have the opportunity to contribute to the international and interdisciplinary EU project BUTTERFLY, which compiles and expands knowledge of flower centred interactions and their impact on associated supply chains.

You will learn morphological identification, entomological curation and ecological data analysis, and can work with various field monitoring methods, e.g. attractive traps, transects, FIT counts, with possibility for including novel approaches, e.g. using cameras. The choice of methodological and analytical approach is flexible, as is the scope, which can encompass more flower visiting arthropods and flower centred interaction networks.

Alternative projects on other tree-bee and flower-arthropod interactions are possible and can include both laboratory and field work and be solely literature based.

Please feel free to reach out to discuss potential ideas.

Is field work part of the topic (yes/no)?

Potentially yes

Is lab work part of the topic (yes/no)?

Potentially yes

I coding part of the thesis topic (yes/no)?

Potentially yes