FIVM Seminar Series presents: How do human, animal and pollinator health intersect?

Pollination is a service provided by intact ecosystems, which means that its economic value can be estimated. Early research in the field primarily focused on honey bees and their diseases, but pollinators are represented by many other types of organisms, including vertebrates. Each of these groups of pollinators is affected by many environmental contaminants.

On Friday, February 17, Dr. Jacqualine Grant will cover the effects of veterinary medical products and biocides on pollinators, as well as non-monetary values of their biodiversity. Because honey bees are affected by a variety of pests and diseases, the talk will review various chemical treatments of bee hives and how these residues may contaminate honey eaten by humans.

Chemical contamination results in fewer functional pollinators, which impacts pollination in ways that can decrease pollination effectiveness and nutritional value of crops. Pollinators are exceptionally important in the One Health framework because of their direct connection to nutritionally dense foods and medicinal plants, as well as non-nutritive plants that provide cultural and mental health benefits. Pollinator health can be improved in urban and rural areas by increasing the number of native plants in the landscape. Native plants provide pollinators with a season-long food supply and appropriate nesting substrates needed for a variety of species.

Dr. Jacqualine Grant is an Associate Professor of Biology who teaches in the Department of Geosciences at Southern Utah University. She completed her doctoral research at Cornell University where she studied the nutritional toxicology of captive black rhinos then moved on to research plant-insect interactions and their underlying chemical ecology. She now focuses on the study of native plants, seed collection for ecological restoration, and documenting pollinator biodiversity. Her career highlights include participation in the David H. Smith Conservation Science Program, a Fulbright Fellowship in New Zealand, and securing federal infrastructure funding to build active transportation networks, such as bike lanes and paved trails in her community that allow people to commute without driving a motorized vehicle.