2020 Outstanding Achievement Awards from the College of Natural Sciences (CNS) were received by Distinguished Professor Lila Gierasch and Associate Professor Li-Jun Ma were both recognized for their research, while Director of Administration and Outreach Megan West was celebrated for her commitment to diversity and inclusion. The CNS Outstanding Achievement Awards recognize faculty, staff, and students who have made important contributions to their discipline, department, college and university. Read more

A new study reported this week by evolutionary ecologist Lynn Adler at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Rebecca Irwin of North Carolina State University, with others, suggests that flower strips – rows of pollinator-friendly flowers planted with crops – offer benefits for common Eastern bumblebee (Bombus impatiens) colony reproduction, but some plants do increase pathogen infection risk.

As Adler and colleagues point out, pollinator declines affect food security, and pollinators are threatened by such stressors as pathogens and inadequate food. Bumblebees feed on pollen and nectar they gather from such plants as sunflower and milkweed. But bumblebees are also likely to acquire a gut disease pathogen, Crithia bombi, from some of these plant species more than others, the authors note. Until now, the effect of plant species composition on bee disease was unknown, they add. Read more

Professor Li-Jun Ma and Jedaidah Chilufya will co-host the Daily Plant Biology coffee zoom meeting for Plant Biology students.
The meeting will be daily starting at 9:30am starting Monday, March 30, 2020. 
Zoom Link: https://umass-amherst.zoom.us/j/659134217 

Rebecca Brennan
Monday, March 23, 2020
1:00 PM
Zoom Web Link: https://umass-amherst.zoom.us/j/255135837 
Thesis Title: Processes, Patterns, and Predictions of Soil Moisture Variation in Upland and Peatland Cranberry Farms in Massachusetts.