As a biology student from Leiden University, I did my master research project here at Naturalis. I looked into the effect of climate change on the phenology of bees. The phenology of many ecological processes is modulated by temperature, which makes them potentially sensitive to climate change. It is particularly important to understand responses to climate warming for species that have critical ecological functions such as pollinators. By using ecological models on existing observation data and climate data we found that some bee species show a significant shift in phenology in the past 20 years. Right now, I am working on publishing the results.
Following my master research project, I will be working for Naturalis during the summer on two different projects. One project is a cooperation with solar park Shell Moerdijk and solar park Shell Heerenveen where we investigate how we can improve the park's insect-diversity by testing different seed mixtures sown under the solar panels. The second project is the realization of a bee ribbon in the flower bulb region on the initiative of Rabobank. The bee ribbon runs through the municipalities of Hillegom, Lisse and Teylingen with the N208 provincial road as the central axis. Care institutions, residents, companies, municipalities and province contribute with their gardens, business parks and greenery along waterways, roads and in parks. These places will provide food and nesting opportunities for bees and other pollinators through more flowers, bee hotels and other nesting spots. For both projects I will be working on the monitoring of the pollinators in those areas.