Recipient Organization
INSTITUTE OF AMERICAN INDIAN ARTS
83 Avan Nu Po Road
SANTA FE,NM 87508-1300
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
The IAIA Tribal Apiculture & Pollinator Conservation Research Project is a proposed USDA-NIFA Tribal Colleges Research New Discovery Grant. The long-term goal is to develop better understandings of plant-pollinator interactions in the southwestern and intermountain regions for tribal education, conservation, and climate adaptative programs through:• culturally relevant plant and pollinator data collections• plant nutritional analysis• pollen nutritional analysis• honey nutritional analysis•outreach material publications•curriculum development for students, elders, and youthThis research project will be conducted by the IAIA Land-Grant Programs Extension Educator, programming support staff, and IAIA undergraduate student assistants. Research area includes the IAIA campus, and neighboring tribal community participants' lands. USDA-ARS Pollinating Insect Research Laboratory in Logan, Utah will serve as collaborators for the duration of this research project.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
100%
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
Conduct and document a bee and pollinator atlas survey to publish a Bee Atlas for IAIA campus and surrounding tribal community landscapes of the IAIA Tribal Beekeepers and Pollinator stewards' program, which includes the Indigenous Pueblos of Taos, Santa Clara, and Cochiti, and subsequent regional tribes who express interest in collaboration with the USDA-ARS Pollinating Insect Research Lab in Logan, Utah.Regularly scheduled catch, macrophotograph, and release of pollinator species on plants in our area throughout the high desert and alpine growing season in northern New Mexico.Insect species will be collected via swoop net, put on ice to chill until immobile, then photographed, and once warmed up, released back into the wild.High-resolution photography, AI image classification models, and genomic molecular methods, analyses of the nation's pollinating insect collection to determine genus of bee species (to subspecies if possible), and then catalogued into a visual field guide bee atlas.Observation, documentation, and analysis of Plant-Pollinator Interactions of native plants and plants of Indigenous significance.Experimental Design:weekly observations during the warm season around campus garden in a 1-mile radiusPlant species grid monitored weekly in a 1-mile radius from each apiary.Culturally relevant plant collection to be sent to USDA-ARS partners for nutritional analysis (to include leaf, stem, root, flowers, and seeds).Honey and Pollen from our IAIA apiaries both on campus and on neighboring tribal member hosts' lands to be analyzed by USDA-ARS partners. Curriculum development for youth to elders, students, educators, and extension professionals to share with their communities.IAIA Tribal Beekeeping Program regional expansion (per increasing requests from tribal members across Indian Country expressing growing interest)Train-the-Trainer regional workshops on bee and pollinator identification and RE-Indigenized beekeeping.Early career professional development for alum and mid-career professional development for Program staff.
Project Methods
Creation of a baseline of pollinator diversity and plant index information which can be used into the future for comparative studies and to monitor longitudinal studies for assessing trends and modeling potential.Undergraduate student assistants' participation in all collection and documentation processing (1 student fall & spring semester; 2 summer season).Regular observation and documentation of pollinator species throughout the warm seasons with close range video and UAV landscape reviews.High-quality photography to be documented and to be compiled into a nature field guide that will serve to support institutional ethnobotany and outreach programming for surrounding tribal community and Indigenous stewards, as well as efforts working to develop conservation plans, water, land access/ management stratagems, education from youth to elders, and for Indigenous serving agencies.Non-invasive genomic tools for DNA, including eDNA analysis in collaboration with the USDA-ARS Pollinating Insect Laboratory in Logan, Utah, to determine species level of documented macrophotographs.Access to the USDA-ARS Pollinating Insect Laboratory collections for bee identification.Integration of diverse collective experience translating bee research to different audiences and stakeholders.