Research in our lab over the last 20 years has focused on the community ecology and conservation of wild bees. We have shown that bee species richness, diversity, and abundance are directly and positively prairie preserves serve as a reservoir for wild bee diversity.  Furthermore, we have demonstrated that greater bee diversity leads to greater plant reproduction for important, out-crossing prairie plants.  We have also shown that the size of prairie preserves is relatively unimportant, if the floral resources are species rich – even small patches, protected or not – had equivalent bee communities.

Our studies of bee communities in almond orchards in California show that wild bees are an important component of pollination success for almond growers and our studies at small produce farms in Iowa show that most of the pollination there is done by wild bees even when honey bees are nearby.  However, the composition of the bee community differs at farms compared to prairies, possibly as a result of differences in floral resources at these sites.