Video Description: Matthew Austin is an ecologist and biodiversity postdoctoral fellow with the Living Earth Collaborative at Washington University in St. Louis. “The project that I’m working on is looking at the ecological and evolutionary implications on pollination systems as a result of a change in climate,” he explained. “We know that climate change has altered the time of year that plants flower in certain places, including the greater St.  Louis area. We see that a warming climate is not only causing flowers to bloom earlier, but in many species, it’s also causing flowering to end later.” Austin said earlier blooms and a longer flowering season can be confusing to bees because suddenly there are a lot more flowering options at one time. What are the impacts of such change? That’s what he hopes to find out.

• Have students research flower blooming times and growing zone in their own area. Have they changed in the past twenty years? If so, what changes have been detected?
• After viewing the video, have students summarize the major environmental reasons to study bees and flower pollination times.