I have co-supervised Vanessa Pilon’s 4th year thesis project on the pollination ecology of blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium) plants at Ramsay Lake in the Gatineau Park, Quebec (in collaboration with Dr. Risa Sargent).  During the summer of 2009, Vanessa looked at factors that may limit fruit and seed production within individual blueberry plants, as they relate to pollination and/or resource distribution among developing fruit clusters.  This was also correlated with a glimpse of the activity and abundance of the insect pollinators visiting the blueberry flowers.  We found that natural pollination does seem to limit fruit and seed set on this field site and that when pollination is maximal the plants seem to allocate resources strategically to developing fruit both among and within the fruiting clusters.

Please consult the final reports and posters for the field projects of my previous thesis students:

Vanessa Pilon (B.Sc. ’10): Pollination Ecology of Blueberries final report here and poster here (in French; co-supervision Dr. Risa Sargent)