Chad Campbell: Buzzing about alfalfa bees

This photo shows a young white male dressed in dark pants, a short-sleeved blue plaid shirt, and a baseball cap, smiling at the camera. He is standing next to a wire fence with woods to the left of the photo and pasture to the right. He is holding a power drill and has his other hand on a wooden box (about 12"x12"x12") on a 5-foot post. — Virginia Tech entomology graduate student Chad Campbell installs nest boxes as part of his study on the alfalfa leafcutting bee, an important alfalfa pollinator. Photo courtesy of Chad Campbell.

The following story was written in November 2021 by Ved Patel in ENGL 4824: Science Writing as part of a collaboration between the English department and the Center for Communicating Science.

One of the biggest challenges in agriculture is maintaining the well-being of bees. Specifically, for alfalfa seed farmers, it is imperative that the bees that pollinate the crop are healthy. Without pollination, seeds do not develop. Without seeds, new crops cannot be planted.

At the Virginia Tech Couvillon Lab, graduate student Chad Campbell is researching the well-being of a particularly important alfalfa pollinator, the alfalfa leafcutting bee.

Campbell finished his undergraduate studies in environmental science and his master’s in urban forestry, which piqued his initial interest in bees. Conservation has always been an area that Campbell has felt passionate about, and eventually this passion led him to the Department of Entomology here at Virginia Tech, where pollinator conservation is under study. He has been working with Dr. Margaret J. Couvillon, head of the Couvillon Lab and co-chair of the Virginia Tech Bee Campus USA initiative, to learn more about alfalfa bees. Campbell focuses on the effects of different landscapes in Virginia on the health of the alfalfa leafcutting bee.

Alfalfa leafcutting bees are different from honeybees, as they do not produce honey and do not live in colonies. According to Campbell, alfalfa bees were introduced to America in the 1930s. Later, farmers realized that the bee significantly increased the yields of alfalfa seeds. Although many may never have heard of alfalfa seeds, they are critical in the flow of agriculture. For instance, the seeds grow into forage crops that are used for livestock grazing, and the seeds are also used to produce the alfalfa that is a component of hay. Without alfalfa production, farmers would have to employ more expensive feeding methods for their animals. More expensive feed means that the meat we purchase in supermarkets would also become more expensive. Hence, Campbell’s research is critical both to consumers and to the farmers that produce alfalfa.

Campbell’s research is part of a larger project that has been ongoing for five years, which started with studying the honeybee waggle dance. In the project's first phase, honeybee hives were placed in three different landscapes: Blacksburg, Winchester, and Suffolk, Virginia. Researchers went to these areas and decoded the waggle dance used by honeybees to communicate. Using the directions provided by the honeybees to their nestmates about where to find pollen, researchers created maps of prime honeybee foraging areas.

This photo is a closeup of a bee on a passionflower. The flower is purple, white, and pale green. The bee is black and yellow and has yellow pollen on the hairs on its thorax. — An alfalfa leafcutting bee (Megachile rotundata) foraging on passionflower in Suffolk, Virginia. Photo courtesy of Chad Campbell.

This initial study with honeybees inspired Campbell to study alfalfa bees to see how their survival relates to the honeybee foraging data. Simply put, he wanted to see whether alfalfa bees would also prosper where a honeybee colony is doing well in a particular landscape.

To judge the well-being of the bees, Campbell must assess the bees on an individual level, which makes his project even more challenging. In the end, his purpose is to figure out which landscapes are the best for pollinators to live in. Because alfalfa bees do not live in colonies like honeybees do, the landscapes in which they are successful may be very different.

“The main thing is just bringing to light the pollinator crisis,” said Campbell, “and that we can use science to understand the status of bees and bee populations and to find solutions. That's my purpose.” Most flowering plants rely on pollinators, and decreases in the diversity, distribution, and population density of pollinator species have been documented all over the world.

Campbell wants to continue his research, as there are still questions left unanswered regarding the alfalfa leafcutting bee, and aims to travel more throughout Virginia to find more conclusive results and solutions. After graduation, Campbell hopes to continue working in pollinator research, education, and conservation with a non-profit or other institution.