Howard Projects

Dr Scarlett Howard
Monash Staff Page - Scarlett Howard 
Integrative Cognition, Ecology and Bio-Inspiration (ICEB) Research Group
scarlett.howard@monash.edu

Projects

Project offering: Honours/BIO3990

Project title: One, two, bee: Numerical abilities in foraging honeybees (variety of projects)

Background:  Despite having a miniature brain, honeybees show impressive learning, memory, and cognitive abilities, such as maze navigation, concept acquisition, human face discrimination, and categorisation of visual stimuli. In recent years, honeybees have been shown to have impressive numerical capability. They can perform tasks such as quantity discrimination, addition and subtraction, odd vs. even categorisation, learn the rule of greater vs. lesser, match numbers to symbols, and more. We aim to understand more about the numerical abilities they have and how we can push the cognitive limits of a miniature brain.

Project Aims:  The objective of this project is to determine how well bees can process numerosities and quantities. The researcher will train free-flying honeybees to perform numerical tasks and then test the bees on their performance in processing number. All bees participate voluntarily in the experiments in an outdoor environment.

Techniques:  Animal handling, experimental design, data analysis using R, conducting animal behaviour experiments. 

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Project offering: Honours/BIO3990

Project title: The role of learning and memory in the foraging and pollination of flowers by bees (variety of projects)

Background:  Flowering plants have evolved flower signals to attract or exclude specific pollinators. Flower signals which initially attract or deter pollinators are termed ‘distant signals’. These signals include the flower’s colour, shape, size, pattern, scent, and location. Distant signals are the most influential flower traits as they are present at all stages of attraction and decision-making by pollinators, from flower detection to landing and pollination. Other flower traits, such as ‘near’ and ‘contact’ signals are only perceived by pollinators after a decision to land has occurred. 

Bees are the most important and effective group of pollinators contributing to food security and native plant pollination. Bees can readily learn the specific signals of rewarding flowers and use these signals to locate and remember rewarding flowers throughout multiple flower visits to collect pollen and nectar. Little research has been conducted on the 2,000-3,000 estimated species of native Australian bees, despite their importance in native plant reproduction, rich diversity, and roles in crop pollination. Similarly, we know surprisingly little about the flower signal preferences of Australia’s major crop pollinator, the European honeybee, making it challenging to match pollinators with appropriate crops to enhance food production and native plants for conservation.

Project Aims:  This project will determine what flower traits bees use to locate, learn, and recall rewarding flowers during foraging. All bees participate voluntarily in the experiments in an outdoor environment.

Techniques:  Animal handling, experimental design, data analysis using R, conducting animal behaviour experiments.

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Project offering: Honours

Project title: Communication by numbers: Exploring mathematics and number representation in miniature minds (variety of projects)

Background:  Bees and humans diverged over 600 million years ago, yet we share similarities in communication, cooperation, and mathematical ability. The differences between human and bee brains are vast in terms of size, structures, and connectivity. Since parting ways, both honeybees and humans have independently developed effective, but different, means of communication and cooperation within complex societies. Humans have developed language, while honeybees evolved the waggle dance – which communicates the exact location of food sources including distance, direction, angle from the sun, and quality of the resource.

Despite their miniature brains, honeybees have recently demonstrated the capacity to acquire and solve multiple numerical concepts and mathematical problems, sometimes at a level that parallels those of pre-school aged children. 

Project Aims:  This project will ask whether there is a universality in mathematics spanning not only humans and other vertebrates, but also invertebrates. Honeybees may represent an ideal invertebrate model allowing us to explore the origin of mathematics, the rise of numerical concepts, and new ways of understanding intelligence in species with highly different brains and life histories. All bees participate voluntarily in the experiments in an outdoor environment.

Techniques:  Animal handling, experimental design, data analysis using R, conducting animal behaviour experiments.

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Project offering: Honours/BIO3990

Project title: Plant-pollinator relationships across urban gradients

Background:  Insect pollinators provide services such as food security, native plant reproduction, and they maintain healthy ecosystems. Pollinators are under threat from climate change, urbanisation, land-use change, and much more. Yet, we know little about how environmental change is impacting important plant-pollinator relationships globally, and particularly in Australia. This project aims to map the relationships between plants and pollinators across different landscapes to aid in future conservation and support for pollinators.

Project Aims:  The researcher will map the relationships between plants and pollinators across landscapes.

Techniques:  Animal handling, experimental design, data analysis using R, conducting animal behaviour experiments; fieldwork experience, botany/plant expertise.

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Project offering: BIO3990

Project title: How the bee microbiome changes across landscapes

Background:  Insect pollinators provide services such as food security, native plant reproduction, and they maintain healthy ecosystems. Pollinators are under threat from climate change, urbanisation, land-use change, and much more. Gut and surface microbiomes of bees consist of essential microorganism communities. Landscape type is associated with different microbiome compositions in native wild and managed bees, with poorer microbiomes associated with urban areas. Lower quality microbiomes have been separately associated with reduced cognitive performance in bees, such as learning and memory.

Project Aims:  The researcher will examine the microbiome of native and introduced insects across landscape gradients, using non-lethal and minimally invasive methods.

Techniques:  Animal handling, experimental design, data analysis using R, conducting animal behaviour experiments; fieldwork experience, microbiome analysis.