> ... she advised me not to rely too heavily on the pollen content as a
determinant of the bees' foraging behavior...
> I want to be able to present this data to laypeople in the most accurate
way possible, without making unwarranted assumptions.
I see the knotweed in the chart, but I don't see any purple loosestrife,
which surprises me.
The invasives are successfully invasive because they do things like offer
more/better nectar to pollinators.
If experts are advising against utilizing the pollen analysis, it might be
easier to talk about nectar sources to laypeople. While crops can vary,
listing trees and plants are known to grow in RI, and getting the best data
the state and the US Forest service have on prevalence might be better
"truth in advertising". There are also garden groups, and ecological
preservation groups mapping the speicies.
You've got reasonably distinct areas to talk about, each with a distinct
ecosystem and mix of plants/trees: (a) inland, (b) the seacoast, and (c)
the Narraganset Bay area.
I can't do much better at IDing actual nectar sources, even though there's a
flora database for Central Park:
https://www.nybg.org/science-project/flora-of-central-park/
and every street tree in NYC is precisely mapped:
https://tree-map.nycgovparks.org
But even with an overwhelming amount of data, the honey flavor varies from
roof to roof, and from year to year, even though all my hives, regardless of
location, can easily forage over the entire central park area, a 2.5 mi by
0.5 mi (4 km by .8 km) park, and the entire island is only 2.3 miles wide at
its widest. The weather and pure chance seem to be the significant factors
that decide what blooms any one hive is going to work at any one time.
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