Postdoctoral Fellowship: PRFB: Bee-ing adaptable: how utilization of local information in honeybee swarms shapes adaptive responses to environmental perturbations

Chase, Danielle Lee, Boulder CO

Investigators

Abstract

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2024, Integrative Research Investigating the Rules of Life Governing Interactions Between Genomes, Environment, and Phenotypes. The fellowship supports research and training of the fellow that will contribute to the area of Rules of Life in innovative ways. Dense biological aggregations, ranging from cellular to organismal, possess the remarkable capability to maintain favorable internal conditions despite fluctuations in the external environment. A striking example of this is observed in honeybee swarms. Consisting of a queen bee and thousands of workers, a honeybee swarm can withstand wind, rain, and temperature fluctuations by adjusting its structure as it hangs suspended from surfaces in nature for periods ranging from several hours to days. Using an integrated experimental-theoretical approach, this project will explore how the behavior of individual bees in response to their local environments collectively drives global, adaptive changes to the swarm’s structure to buffer against environmental fluctuations. Deciphering these rules could contribute to the development of self-assembling, self-optimizing adaptive materials or robotic swarms. Honeybee swarms are an accessible and engaging system for student researchers in a variety of disciplines intersecting with biology. The interdisciplinary nature of this project will offer research opportunities to students with diverse backgrounds and interests. Morphological adaptations in honeybee swarms observed in response to environmental perturbations have thus far been limited to the external surface. The internal architecture, where most of the bees reside, remains elusive. Furthermore, without a lens into the swarm’s interior, the topological and geometric changes in bee-bee connections that result in global, adaptive responses have not been characterized. The fellow will use x-ray computed tomography to visualize the dynamic internal swarm architecture in response to temperature changes and characterize the local topology and global morphology. Insights gained from experiments will inform the development of a hybrid continuum, agent-based model. This model will illuminate how honeybees utilize local information to adapt the global morphology of the swarm in response to environmental perturbations. Using this model, the fellow will explore fundamental questions about the multi-optimization of competing biological objectives in aggregations across the tree of life. The fellow will engage the local community in a project documenting the ambient environmental conditions surrounding feral swarms and observing their morphologies. Data from this community science project will be used to inform environmentally relevant conditions to prescribe in the lab experiments. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.