Pollinator Communities of Fragmented
Shrub-steppes in Okanagan, BC
Project Outline
Description:The effect of habitat loss due to agricultural vineyard expansion on pollinator communities in British Columbia’s at-risk shrub-steppe ecosystem. We are documenting the species richness and abundance of pollinator communities in fragments of antelope brush and relating these community characteristics to the total amount of antelope brush habitat in the surrounding landscape.
Project Background: Starting in 2021, Duncan MacNaughton set up sites across the South Okanagan valley of British Columbia British Columbia where he conducted insect surveys.
Field assistants: Tatum Narode, Sasha Tuttle, Tyler Kelly
Project Partners: Nature Trust of British Columbia, BC Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resources Operations, and Rural Development, Osoyoos Desert Centre
Funding Partners: NSERC Discovery, Aboriginal Graduate Student Fellowship
Land Acknowledgment: This research takes place on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Syilx Nation.