Landscape and Biodiversity Research Group

Lizzie Cant

Project Title:
Investigating the influence of linear features in the landscape on insect pollinator movement and consequent plant gene flow

This is a full-time, BBSRC funded PhD project in collaboration with Rothamsted Research, jointly supervised by Jeff Ollerton and Juliet Osborne

The aim of this PhD project is to establish the degree to which linear landscape features in an agricultural setting facilitate the movement of foraging pollinators and consequent gene flow between patches of plants.

The linear features considered have been hedges and roads, and their potential guiding or barrier effects have been investigated with regards to pollinator movement and plant gene flow. The bee pollinated species Trifolium repens, white clover (Fabaceae) has been used as the experimental plant species. Consequently, due to its pollination style, predominantly bee movement has been investigated. A summary of my PhD project is shown in this figure below.

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Cant,E. T., Smith,A. D., Reynolds,D. R., and Osborne, J. L. 2005. Tracking butterfly flight paths across the landscape with harmonic radar. Proceedings of the Royal Society 272: 785-790. (Acrobat 682KB)