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Jenna Melanson

@jennamelanson.bsky.social
1.3K followers 460 following 21 posts

PhD Candidate, University of British Columbia 🍁 bumble bee movement, resource use, and multiple risks in agroecosystems she/her

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Reposted by Jenna Melanson
UBC Statistics @stat.ubc.ca · 07/10/2026
📣 UBC Science seeks a Black scholar for a tenure-stream Assistant Professor position in Quantitative Science, starting July 2027. 📅 Apply by Dec. 1, 2026 💻 Info sessions: Oct. 16 & 30, 10 am PT Apply and learn more: science.ubc.ca/blackscholars
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Jenna Melanson @jennamelanson.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Ahh yes, my two favourite research topics: "[specific area of expertise]" and "bee."
Spam email from AI slop bot asking me to collaborate: "Given your expertise in bees and [specific area of expertise], I believe your perspective would provide significant depth and strengthen the scientific contribution of this work. I would particularly appreciate your insights regarding bee."
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Jenna Melanson @jennamelanson.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Last week I successfully defended my PhD dissertation, entitled "Navigating the risk-reward landscape: bumblebee movement, resource use, and health in agroecosystems" 🎉 a very fun day with lots of friends, colleagues, and family!
zoom view of student presenting dissertation work on bumblebeesin person view of oral defence!
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UBC IRES @ires.ubc.ca · 09/09/2026
Professor Claire Kremen has been elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, one of the highest honours recognizing outstanding scholarly achievement in Canada. We are so pleased to share the news, and hope you'll join us in congratulating Claire! science.ubc.ca/news/2026-09...
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UBCZoology @zoology.ubc.ca · 09/09/2026
Congratulations to all @src-rsc.bsky.social new Fellows and in particular to @zoology.ubc.ca ✨Claire Kremen and ✨Colin Brauner! 🤩 @ires.ubc.ca @ubcbiodiversity.bsky.social @science.ubc.ca @ibiosprogram.bsky.social
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Lars Chittka @larschittka.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
www.science.org/content/arti...
science.org
Bees just did something no other insect has been shown to do
Like humans, bumble bees can plan ahead when working through a problem, even pausing to consider the solution
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Tom Astle @tjalamont.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
#Bugsky 🐙🌿 Shared with me by a fof in SoCal - this is a gynandromorph (both male & female) valley carpenter bee (Xylocopa sonorina). Females are black, males orange, so the extreme color dimorphism really stands out. Per Doug Yanega at UC Riverside, bee gynandromorphs he’s seen are mosaic instead—
A photo looking down on an unusual bee clinging to a green shirt. The bee is a stout bee called a carpenter bee, but what’s unusual is that it is both male and female, known as a gynandromorph. In this particular species (Xylocopa sonorina), females are jet black and males are fuzzy orange. This one has an abdomen that is divided into four perfect quadrants, like a checkerboard, alternating orange and black. The thorax is mostly black but with some orange.
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 29/05/2026
Of all the harm this administration has done to US science, today's proposed changes to the way federal grants are awarded and administered is the most damaging yet. The text of the federal register document is impenetrably tedious by design, so here's an excellent summary of what it says.
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Julia J. Mlynarek @jjmlynarek.bsky.social · 11/08/2025
Looking for a PhD student for a biodiversity and insect health on restored mining sites project. Some really neat questions to answer. À la recherche d'un.e étudiant.e au doctorat pour étudier la biodiversité et santé des insectes sur des sites miniers restaurés.
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Marc Johnson (he/him) @evoecolab.bsky.social · 25/02/2025
Exciting new paper by Jens Ulrich & Risa Sargent: "Urban landscapes with more natural greenspace support higher pollinator diversity." esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
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Armando Rosario-Lebrón @rosariolebronentomology.com · 08/05/2025
The legendary USGS Bee Lab is being shut down. The 2026 budget proposal defunds the Ecosystem Mission Area, which supported the lab. If their science helped your work, there’s still time to make your voice heard. Read below. (1/4) 🧪 #pollinators #Pollinators #USGS #Entomology #Hymenoptera 🪲🪳
usgs.gov
USGS Bee Lab at the Eastern Ecological Science Center
The USGS Bee Lab supports research on native bees. As part of that program we and our co-located USFWS partners develop identification tools and keys for native bee species, take public access hi reso...
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leifcollectsbugs @leifcollectsbugs.bsky.social · 12/04/2025
Paranthrene simulans, (Grote, 1881), a Batesian mimicry MASTER! #educational #science #entomology #bugs #moth #wasp #insects #lepidoptera #batesianmimicry #nature
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John M. Mola @johnmola.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
We published guidance on what to do if you find a bumble bee nest. These incidental discoveries could add up to be important datasets if data is (somewhat) standardized. We provide case studies with two endangered rusty patched bumble bee nests resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....
resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Answering key bumble bee conservation questions by studying discovered wild nests: A Bombus affinis case study
You have to enable JavaScript in your browser's settings in order to use the eReader.
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Sheila Colla, Ph.D @savewildbees.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
Happy #WorldWildlifeDay. A friendly reminder that livestock cannot replace native biodiversity, despite what you may have heard.
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CJ Sands @cjsands.bsky.social · 03/01/2025
I don’t mean to overly romanticize bees, but I don’t think it is possible to overly romanticize bees. 🐝
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Peter Graystock @pgraystock.bsky.social · 03/01/2025
Funded PhD opportunity in the Graystock lab! If you are interested in pollinators, microbes, parasites and machine learning, please get in touch! - only a few days left to let me know! Whilst a project using the above is planned, im happy to adapt to the strengths of a candidate
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c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · 25/12/2024
"Ants solving a geometric problem and it's amazing." This is a great example of 'emergent phenomenon': - None of the ants understand the problem they're solving. - None of them can see the whole shape. - A series of small decisions or rules add up to something with a new layer of complexity.
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James Rudolph @jrudolphschreiber.bsky.social · 17/12/2024
Great post! Check out this amazing link from the Xerces Society @xercessociety.bsky.social if you're looking for which #nativeplants are great for your region AND want to attract our pollinator friends! xerces.org/pollinator-c...
xerces.org
Pollinator-Friendly Native Plant Lists
We've prepared the following lists of recommended native plants that are highly attractive to pollinators such as native bees, honey bees, butterflies, moths, and hummingbirds, and are well-suited for...
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Syd Cannings @sydcannings1.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
Way to go, Michelle... I'm sure you'll do great things over the next few years! #UBCZoology #UBC
Photo of Dr. Michelle Tseng and text of tweet from UBC Science congratulating her on receiving Peter Wall Legacy Fellowship
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Haley A Branch @stressedbranch.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
Today is International Day of Persons with Disabilities. Just a reminder that ~25% of adults are disabled, ~19% of undergrads, yet less than 10% of graduate degree recipients identify as such. #DisabledInSTEM #DisableAcademia #Disability
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Dr Beth Nicholls @bethbees.bsky.social · 29/11/2024
First post and it's a biggie! The first preprint from our lab is out now 🥳 Something I have wanted to know for a long time- can bumblebees taste amino acids? The answer is yes...but not all of them! 1/2 @sussexneuro.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
biorxiv.org
Gustatory sensitivity to amino acids in bumblebees
Bees rely on amino acids obtained from nectar and pollen for essential physiological functions, including maintenance, sexual maturation, and larval development. While amino acid concentrations in nec...
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Dr. Ilona Naujokaitis-Lewis @inlewis.bsky.social · 27/11/2024
PhD opportunity! Dr. Michelle Dileo and myself are recruiting a PhD student to study #pollinator adaptive capacity to #climatechange. Interested in #bees or #butterflies, #genomics, landscape #ecology? Based in 🇨🇦. michelledileo.wordpress.com See advert for details. Please share! 🧪🐝🦋
A close up image of a yellow flower with a bee foraging in the centre of the flower. A human hand is partially visible, keeping the flower as still as possible. Photo of PhD position advertisement on pollinator adaptive capacity to climate change
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BWEEMS @official-bweems.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
Hi Bluesky! We are BWEEMS, Black Women in Ecology, Evolution and Marine Science. A non-profit dedicated to amplifying and supporting Black women in EEMS spaces! It's nice to be here! 🐟 🪴 🐊 www.bweems.org
bweems.org
Black Women in Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Science
BWEEMS is a global network of Black Women driving innovation in ecology, evolution, and marine science despite being historically overlooked and isolated in the field.
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Felicity Enders, PhD, MPH @felicityenders.bsky.social · 21/11/2024
Writing a letter of reference for someone? Or (gasp) drafting for someone who’s writing for you? If you haven’t seen this graphic on avoiding gender bias, read it. Ref letters are broadly biased in both major and seemingly tiny ways. The bias is avoidable once you’re aware.
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Katherine Parys @liquidanbar.bsky.social · 24/11/2024
Spent some time the other day updating the #beenome100 website! If you’re interested in #beegenomes or #insectgenomes in general, check it out 🐝 beenome100.org
beenome100.org
Beenome100
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Gwen Pearson @bug-gwen.bsky.social · 22/11/2024
Grants available to grad students/postdocs working on Bombus conservation; 10K for one year. www.pollinator.org/nappc/imperi...
pollinator.org
Imperiled Bombus Conservation Task Force | Pollinator.org
Pollinator Partnership is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization and the largest in the world dedicated exclusively to the protection and promotion of ...
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beespeaker @loriweidenhammer.ca · 22/11/2024
One of my favourite bee encounters this year was this bodacious Bombus nevadensis queen waking up on a Nootka rose blossom in a ditch somewhere in the Kootenays in British Columbia. June, 2024. She performed her morning ablutions and then went back to work.
A large female Nevada bumble bee queen rests on a rose blossom.
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FLOWer Lab 🌸🍒 🐝 🪰🔬🧬 @flowerlab.bsky.social · 21/11/2024
The video provided in Supplementary Information from the very interesting paper by Lai and co-authors in Ecology, showing potential pollination by Ethiopian wolves of Kniphofia foliosa! 🐺 Read it here: esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... @pollinet.bsky.social
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Tris Dodge @tododge.bsky.social · 16/11/2024
Moved here recently and figured I should shamelessly promote our recent paper for my very first post.
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Jenna Melanson @jennamelanson.bsky.social · 17/11/2024
Hello, I’m a PhD student working on bumble bee ecology in agroecosystems, mostly from a landscape simplification/behaviour standpoint, but also assessing effects of an introduced bumble bee on native bee communities! Excited to chat all things pollinators / agriculture!
Bombus huntii on dandelionan early-season blueberry field (no leaves/flowers yet)Bombus impatiens in a sample tube Woman (me) holding a giant frog (not to be confused with a bumble bee)
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