Science faculty member Michael McAloon was recently awarded a Chrysalis Fund grant to support his ongoing pollinator research. The funding will help bring awareness to the diversity of pollinators and the plants they pollinate, while stimulating deeper learning, interest, and understanding among McAloon’s Taft students. 

Scientists note that pollinator studies are critical for records of biodiversity and are a good indicator of the health of an ecosystem. McAloon’s biology students will capture and identify insect pollinators, swab the pollinators for pollen, and use DNA barcoding techniques to identify the pollen to species to examine which plants those pollinators are visiting campus and two local nature preserves over a two- to three-year span. He envisions most of the same students being involved throughout the life of the study—first as juniors (who will pass the data to seniors), then seniors repeating the collection and conducting higher-level data analysis and reporting. 

“Once students have identified the flowering plant species, they can then associate the insect species and plant species together,” explains McAloon. “The data points for the pollinators can be entered into iNaturalist. Specific pollinators will have the plant species associated with them in the database, and then the students will return to the field to find and geographically tag the matching plant species nearest to the pollinator. Over time, we will keep a record to compare these data which may show how the distribution of pollinators changes and if plant composition has any effect on pollinators. Comparison data will be analyzed using appropriate statistical methods and biodiversity indices to determine any significant differences among pollinator species and or distribution of those species.”

Over the past four years, McAloon and his students conducted proof of concept with successful pollen DNA extraction, amplification, and sequencing to determine unknown species of store-bought commercially available pollen, and wild pollen collected from honeybees and their hives. Most interesting, however, is the ongoing work McAloon and his students are doing with Maijuna beekeepers in the Peruvian Amazon. 

McAloon traveled to the Amazon first in 2018 and again in 2023 to participate in research and education projects. In 2023, he served as the primary investigator for a molecular study on pollen collected by native stingless bees. His work on the identification of pollen collected by the bees using molecular techniques is part of an ongoing, novel study that Taft students have continued on campus. Maijuna beekeepers are using the information from the research McAloon’s students are conducting to discover which plants their bees are pollinating, and which honey could potentially have a specific medicinal profile. In 2024, McAloon returned to Peru, this time with student researcher Alli Yen ’24. At Taft, Alli helped identify the pollen; she presented the results to the Maijuna community in July.

“Native bee honey is a valuable commodity, and in finding out which plants are being used, the Maijuna can demonstrate the importance of maintaining the plant diversity within their land,” notes McAloon. “The income from the honey replaces the need to sell game in markets, thereby allowing game animals to repopulate.”

The work they are doing directly impacts the conservation of the Napo-Sucusari Biological Reserve and the Maijuna-Kichwa Regional Conservation Area and is conducted in partnership with members of the indigenous Maijiuna community.

Chrysalis Fund grants are awarded by the Entomological Society of America, the largest organization in the world serving the professional and scientific needs of entomologists and individuals in related disciplines. McAloon will use the grant to cover the costs associated with insect collection, mounting and storage boxes; DNA extraction and PCR kits, and the cost of sequencing.