Next summer, Anita Pant will spend every day in the fields of the Ecology Center, keeping track of birds and insects as they come and go, visiting the blooms of native plants. Pant, who is from Nepal, is pursuing a doctorate in environmental and evolutionary biology at UL Lafayette.
Her detailed research may reveal which plants are most attractive to pollinators, creatures that feed on nectar and fertilize plants.
There are hundreds of bee and butterfly species associated with flowering plants and pollination. Moths, flies, beetles and bugs, as well as hummingbirds, are known to pollinate flowers.
Pant will monitor the visitation rates, abundance and diversity of the pollinators associated with her study plants. The main goal of her research is to identify the optimal mixtures of plant species that will attract the highest number of – and most diverse – pollinators.
Some of the native plants she will maintain are rattlesnake master, blue mountain mint and rosinweed.
The Ecology Center recently received a $51,899 grant from the Coypu Foundation to support Pant’s work. It will help pay for a stipend, tuition and research supplies for her, as well as supplies and equipment for the Ecology Center to research and develop its PureNative™ brand of seeds and plants.
The Coypu Foundation, created by the estate of the late John S. McIlhenney, supports environmental and ecology projects.