The story reads like the plot line to the yet-undeveloped series, “CSI: Native Plants.” Investigators Dr. Nick Ruppel and student research assistants Teresa Weir ’22, Mackenzie Dingus ’22, and Allison Ortiz ’23 track bees, butterflies, and other native pollinators by staking them out and swabbing the surface of flowers they touch to collect the DNA they may have left behind. Then, the team in the field brings the work to the lab of Dr. Stephanie Coster, who processes the DNA to conclusively identify the “suspect.”
Hollywood hasn’t yet come calling with a screenplay, but Assistant Professor Stephanie Coster and Associate Professor Nick Ruppel (both biology) are the recipients of a $100,000 Jeffress Trust Grant to advance this interdisciplinary work in “eDNA”—short for environmental DNA—a process akin to ecological forensics. The suspects, however, are not cast as villains. The project’s goal is to protect pollinators by discovering patterns that could combat a decline in their numbers globally.
“The past several decades have seen dramatic declines in the number of global pollinators due to various factors including habitat loss, pesticide use, and disease,” Ruppel said. “Preserving their natural, wild habitat is the best we can do to counteract these threats. In urban areas, however, the creation of green spaces like gardens and parks can support a diversity of pollinators in an otherwise challenging environment. Our goal is to see which urban pollinators are thriving and which ones aren’t, and to connect their status with the resources available in a given green space.”
Ruppel credits Coster with identifying the unique opportunity for their research interests to converge. His past work comparing pollinator interactions on regionally native and exotic plants used predominantly visual monitoring techniques. Coster is an expert eDNA analyst, previously using the technique to monitor invasive species such as the rusty crayfish and nutria, or secretive species such as hellbenders.
“This project is different from my past work because I don’t know what the target is. Instead of the question being, ‘Is a honey bee there?’ I’m saying, ‘What are all the species that are interacting with these plants?’” Coster explained. “My past projects use eDNA, but they are asking different questions, using different technologies, and they have different ecological ramifications. This project is a new exciting direction for my research.”
Last summer, the team of researchers visited more than 50 field sites, including Brian Wesley Moores Native Garden on R-MC’s campus and the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden. Their work employed the community eDNA strategy as well as traditional visual monitoring to capture a full range of data. During this academic year, Ruppel processed the samples for genetic analysis and then shared them with Coster to sequence the DNA and match them to known pollinators. Assistant Professor Robin Givens (computer science) is lending her expertise to the project in using specialized computer coding to run the application that helps collate the DNA sequences.
In addition to the anticipated observations about pollinators, the project will help scientists compare the scientific techniques of visual analysis and eDNA and identify biases that each might produce as well as ways that they complement one another. For example, Coster and Ruppel hypothesize that visual analysis likely ignores pollinators who visit only at night when researchers are less likely to be present. They hope to find evidence of that through the eDNA approach. Ultimately, this work of advancing scientists’ understanding of this cutting-edge eDNA technology contributes to broader environmental research.
Student researcher Allison Ortiz ’23 (biology) feels inspired by the impact they can make. “For me, working on this project has meant that my work is doing good. To get up every morning and know that the work you are doing is potentially helping a further understanding of pollinators makes you feel good,” she reflected. She also marvels at the doors it opened for her personally. This summer Ortiz will conduct a Schapiro Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) project on pollinators, deepening her interest. She is the recipient of the Dr. Sabra Klein-Maloney Fellowship for the work.
Even as the analysis continues, Coster and Ruppel are drafting a research paper on their observation that fewer wild pollinators were present if a honey bee was observed in the garden. Ruppel refers to it as honey bees appearing to “play the ‘bully” and scare away native bees… so maybe this case has a suspect after all!
Original source can be found here.
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