Native Bee Communities after Wildfire — by Autumn Maust

Fire is a major driver of biodiversity and structural integrity in fire-prone ecosystems. Increases in forest fuel buildup and pressure from climate change has threatened dry forest resilience across western North America. In these post-fire landscapes, pollination is critical for vegetation recovery. Understanding the effect of fire on pollinator populations is essential to conservation management and ecosystem restoration. Autumn will discuss her study (conducted in the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences at UW) measuring native bee richness in the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest in Washington at nine forested plots that burned in 2021, 2018, and 2015, or were unburned since 1968. Tune in to hear the interesting results!

Dr. Autumn Maust is a Research Scientist in the Biology Department at the University of Washington. Broadly, her research explores the effects of climate-driven disturbance on native insect pollinator communities. She uses both field based and molecular methods to quantify shifts in pollinator community composition, fitness, and plant-pollinator networks over spatial and temporal scales.

Scarabs' new Zoom Czar, Matt Neumann, has created a special link you can click to get to each month's Scarabs session, regardless if the specific meeting ID changes. You should get this link (or it will become visible) if you RSVP here (passcode is 816620). If you attend by phone, you'll need the old-fashioned numerical Zoom code, and anyone doing that should refer to their print newsletter (or, if not a subscribing member, contact us well ahead of time please!). Go to Zoom not long before the meeting starts, otherwise the link may not be active. And if anything about this new system misfires, tell us so we can trouble-shoot for next time!