Alexander Dietz
Main Focus
In my PHD project, I compare native and ornamental flowers in their ability to be an optimal food source for insect pollinators. Since ornamental plants are mainly adapted to human visual preferences and don’t share a long coevolution process with native pollinators, it is hard to say whether insect pollinators can actually use them as reliable food sources.
To investigate this problem, I work with bumblebees and hawkmoths, since both are very visually guided pollinators, with similar visual systems, yet very different foraging strategies and food needs.
I look at their visual preferences, their foraging efficiency and the nectar contents of the flowers and compare these aspects between native and ornamental plants.
Extra information
In my PHD project, I compare native and ornamental flowers in their ability to be an optimal food source for insect pollinators. Since ornamental plants are mainly adapted to human visual preferences and don’t share a long coevolution process with native pollinators, it is hard to say whether insect pollinators can actually use them as reliable food sources.
To investigate this problem, I work with bumblebees and hawkmoths, since both are very visually guided pollinators, with similar visual systems, yet very different foraging strategies and food needs.
I look at their visual preferences, their foraging efficiency and the nectar contents of the flowers and compare these aspects between native and ornamental plants.