NSF Award
2212640
Animals, whether behaviorally or physiologically, manage daily and seasonal environmental fluctuations, such as temperature changes, by using receptors on their bodies. For social animals, individuals often work together in a group to manage these fluctuations much more effectively, such as through huddling, yet little is known about exactly how animals accomplish this. Honeybees, for example, are an excellent model system to study social temperature regulation because they engage in a cooling behavior called fanning, in which a group of bees fan their wings to circulate air in the colony. If they do not cool effectively, the colony can die. This project will identify the mechanisms that honeybees use to sense environmental fluctuations, how their brains change in response to this information, how they communicate this information to each other, and how entire colonies regulate temperature when information changes. Physiological and genetic testing techniques will be used to understand both individual and collective behavior, especially in changing environments. The project will engage the public 1) by developing a local prison beekeeping program to provide tangible workforce skills for inmates, 2) by working with the ROSE Project, which focuses on introducing underrepresented middle school students and parents to STEM research, 3) by presenting at local beekeeping and ecology meetings, and 4) by training and supporting undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral scientists in these cutting-edge research and outreach techniques.<br/><br/>Organisms must be able to behaviorally and physiologically manage daily and seasonal fluctuations in climate. Sensory reception and integration of information is critical to maintain homeostasis during typical thermal shifts across days or seasons. Collective behavioral responses to changing temperatures require effective reception and integration of both social and ecological information. Although we know why animals thermoregulate, it is less clear how animals integrate social information to be able to thermoregulate effectively. Honeybees must maintain 34°C in their colony, or risk death of their developing brood. In the summer, honeybees engage in a cooling behavior called fanning, in which they fan their wings to circulate air to cool the colony. Fanner honeybees utilize both information from their nestmates and information from their ecological environment to collectively thermoregulate. The fanning response shifts when the social and thermal information changes; however, the ways in which individuals or groups perceive, integrate, or communicate about these changes to behave collectively is unknown. This proposal will identify these mechanisms by addressing four aims: 1) Determine how the social interactions shape the fanning response; 2) Uncover the neural gene networks associated with the fanning response; 3) Define TRP channel involvement in the fanning response; and 4) Evaluate colony-level fanning response in a changing environment. This research will provide critical knowledge about how complex animal systems manage dynamic environments, identify gene and sensory pathways that mediate effective responses, and generate hypotheses about how animal groups may manage global climate change.<br/><br/>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.
