Manogya develops independent project for co-op

Since returning from RMBL, Manogya has been working on her independent project for her co-op this fall. She will use pollen metabarcoding to investigate how pollinator niche breadth changes with short-term fluctuations in temperature. Manogya will analyze samples from our repeated sampling protocol, in which we sampled a site for pollinators at different times in the same day. This repeated sampling protocol allows us to understand how abiotic factors at different times of the day impact foraging, while holding plant community and pollinator community constant. Manogya will assess niche breadth by measuring the number of pollen species on a specimen during a given foraging period via DNA metabarcoding. She plans to present her findings at Northeastern University’s undergraduate research symposium in April.