#KUFieldWorks: Understanding how bees respond to environmental changes

Editor’s note: Fieldwork provides invaluable insights about real-world environments and processes, expanding and reinforcing what researchers learn in classrooms, labs and collections. KU faculty, staff and students across a spectrum of disciplines take their inquiry directly to rivers, prairies, dig sites, glaciers, islands, archives and more. Through the #KUFieldWorks series, we'll join them on their adventures.

Q&A with Victor Hugo Gonzalez, associate teaching professor of biology and research associate in the KU Biodiversity Institute & Natural History Museum

Bees are essential pollinators around the world. Changes to their populations could affect the food security of billions of people, but bees are often studied only in temperate regions of the world. Victor Hugo Gonzalez studies these insects in habitats with more extreme temperature conditions, including Greece and Latin America.    

What methods, approaches, experiments, etc. are you using?

My studies combine traditional field methods — such as net collecting, pan trapping, and habitat surveys to capture and study bees in their natural environments — with modern experimental approaches to assess their physiological and behavioral responses to human-induced environmental changes. This combination allows me to document species diversity and ecological interactions while also exploring how bees cope with habitat loss or rising temperatures.

Why does your study matter to your field or for society?

My study is important for understanding how bees live, evolve and respond to environmental changes caused by humans. Bees are the main pollinators of both wild and cultivated plants, making them critical for global biodiversity and our own food security. Although there are more than 20,000 bee species worldwide, most research has focused on a few species from temperate regions, such as honeybees and bumblebees. I focus on species from understudied biodiversity hot spots, such as the northeastern Aegean in Greece and the American tropics (Colombia and Panama), thus filling significant gaps in our knowledge.

What do you enjoy most about being in the field?

What I enjoy most is the feeling of falling in love again with science and with the bees I study. Studying bees in their natural habitats, some of which I had previously known only from museum specimens or written accounts, brings back the same level of wonder and curiosity I felt as a kid. I also enjoy collaborating with local scientists, students and community members. I collaborate with colleagues at the University of the Aegean in Lesbos, Greece; The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama; and several universities and biodiversity institutes in Colombia. While learning about my collaborators’ history and culture, I am also reminded that addressing global challenges requires a collective effort.

What are some memorable (funny, scary, surprising, etc.) moments from the field?

The island of Lesbos recently received more than 17,000 refugees and experienced one of the most significant humanitarian crises in Europe. I saw long lines of people walking along roads, many of them barefoot, and half-dressed children. The contrast between the suffering of displaced families and the presence of tourists on the island was bizarre, but it touched everyone’s hearts.

Another unforgettable moment happened in the Colombian Amazon. Last year, in collaboration with the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Instituto Alexander von Humboldt, I spent three weeks visiting beekeepers in the Putumayo region to document the native bees they use. One of the beekeepers we met was cultivating coca and had an active cocaine processing lab nearby. I could not keep my eyes on the bees, and I did not even dare to use my phone to take pictures, my notebook to take notes, or my GPS to look at the coordinates. This was a reminder of the complex social and environmental landscapes in which conservation work often takes place.

There are also funny moments, like the time goats ate our bee traps and we had to modify our experiments.

When is fieldwork frustrating, challenging or overwhelming?

Fieldwork can be frustrating when things do not go as planned, especially when those things are out of your control. For example, you might wake up before sunrise, drive for hours to your field site, and just as you are ready to start your day, it begins to rain. Other times, you find more mosquitoes than bees, each one piercing your skin through your clothes and feasting on your blood, making fieldwork intolerable. Moments like these remind you of the flexibility, patience and sense of humor you must develop to keep going.

How does fieldwork complement the work you do elsewhere?

Fieldwork is an essential component of my work, as it allows me not only to collect data firsthand but also generate questions that guide future studies. It complements my museum-based work by providing the ecological and behavioral context behind the specimens we see behind the glass. For example, bees often have bizarre facial structures that we suspect are used for collecting pollen. Observing these interactions in nature helps us confirm those hypotheses. Specimens captured during fieldwork also expand our understanding of the bees’ diversity, distribution and morphology, contributing valuable data.

First photo: A collage of photos of KU researchers in the field with graphic elements.

Second photo: Victor Gonzalez tests how native bees handle heat using portable equipment during fieldwork in Colombia’s tropical rainforest.

Third photo: Victor Gonzalez and Bill Wcislo collect nocturnal bees at Fortuna, a Smithsonian field station in Panama’s cloud forest.

Fourth photo: Victor Gonzalez’s arm covered in mosquito bites after a single day of fieldwork in Colombia’s tropical rainforests.