About

Professor Lynn Adler leads the Adler Lab at UMass, focusing on the ecology and biology of pollinators, particularly bumblebees, and their interactions with pathogens. Her research encompasses nectar chemistry, bee pathogens, traits influencing disease transmission, and the community ecology of sunflowers and other plants. The lab investigates how different plant species or traits affect pathogen transmission rates and how infections impact bee foraging behavior and health. Professor Adler's work integrates aspects of pollinator protection with broader ecological and agricultural implications, emphasizing collaborative approaches to address challenges in pollinator health and disease dynamics. Her lab includes graduate students and postdoctoral researchers studying diverse topics such as coevolutionary dynamics of bumblebees and parasites, the influence of pollen on bee-parasite relationships, and the effects of landscape and floral resources on bee nutrition and pathogen dynamics in agroecosystems.

Research topics

• Biology
• Botany
• Ecology
• Horticulture
• Genetics

Selected publications

• Sunflower pollen diets reduce infection in closely related bumble bee species

  Ecological Entomology · 2026-01-09 · 1 citations

  articleSenior author

  Abstract Parasite growth and infection success are often influenced by host diet. Consuming sunflower pollen ( Helianthus annuus ) dramatically reduces infection by the trypanosomatid gut parasite Crithidia in the model bumble bee species Bombus impatiens, as well as two of its relatives in the subgenus Pyrobombus . However, only five Bombus species out of 265 species globally have been assessed, making results difficult to generalize. Expanding our understanding of diet‐mediated infection outcomes beyond model species is important given that many bumble bee species are in decline. We examined how consuming sunflower pollen affects Crithidia infection in two previously untested species of bumble bees in the subgenus Pyrobombus , Bombus perplexus and Bombus ternarius, compared to wild‐caught B. impatiens . We hypothesized that consuming sunflower pollen would reduce Crithidia infection in these species, similar to B. impatiens, since dietary sunflower pollen reduced Crithidia infection in other members of the subgenus Pyrobombus. Infected bees were fed either monofloral sunflower pollen or monofloral buckwheat pollen ( Fagopyrum esculentum ) as a control for seven days, after which we counted the number of Crithidia cells in the gut. We found that sunflower pollen significantly reduced Crithidia infection in B. impatiens , with comparable significant effects in B. perplexus and B. ternarius . These results highlight the importance of understanding the effects of diet on host interactions with a common gut parasite

  PublisherDOI

• Correction to: Pollen Diet Diversity does not Affect Gut Bacterial Communities or Melanization in a Social and Solitary Bee Species

  Microbial Ecology · 2025-08-06

  erratumOpen accessSenior author

  In the Bioinformatics methods the original statement "We rarefied to 8000 reads per sample" is incorrect.The results presented in the main text are based on non-rarefied reads.We also analyzed the data rarefying to 8000 reads; these results are in the updated electronic supplemental material associated with the original article.The overall results and trends were consistent between rarefied and non-rarefied data.Additionally, in Table 1, the first two entries for F or 2 should be 9.850 and 31.887,respectively, not 9.699 and 32.212.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Chemical, Morphological, and Phenological Traits of Blueberry Cultivars Predict Susceptibility to A Pollinator-Vectored Fungal Pathogen

  Journal of Chemical Ecology · 2025-06-28 · 1 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Diverse flavor cultivars have distinct floral chemistry: Characterization of floral volatiles in ten cultivars of basil (Ocimum basilicum L.)

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  preprintOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Self-medicating behavior in bumble bees has cascading consequences for pollination and plant reproduction

  bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · 2025-07-24

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  ABSTRACT The sublethal effects of parasites can profoundly influence host traits and propagate to other trophic levels via indirect effects. To date, research on such trait-mediated indirect effects of parasites has focused on non-adaptive changes to host behavior, but adaptive sickness behaviors, such as self-medication, could also indirectly affect community composition and even the evolution of ‘medicinal’ traits in lower trophic levels. Here, we used interactions among the parasite Crithidia bombi , the bumble bee host Bombus impatiens , and Monarda fistulosa , a bee-pollinated plant with multiple chemotypes (genetically determined chemical phenotypes), to experimentally test whether parasite infection influences pollinator foraging, pollination success, and female plant reproduction differentially for medicinal vs. non-medicinal chemotypes. Compounds from three Monarda chemotypes reduced Crithidia infection intensity in bees (thymol, carvacrol, and 1,8-cineole; hereafter medicinal chemotypes), while two others did not (( R )-(–)-linalool and geraniol; hereafter non-medicinal chemotypes), compared to control sucrose solutions. We found evidence for self-medication in tent foraging choice assays: infected bees preferred medicinal chemotypes while uninfected bees foraged indiscriminately, leading to differences in pollen receipt. Crithidia infection had weak but compounding chemotype-specific effects on seed production, germination rate, and offspring chemotype, such that pollination by infected bees resulted in a 57% increase in the proportion of medicinal plants in the F1 generation compared to pollination by uninfected bees. Self-medicating behavior can have differential effects on the reproduction of medicinal vs. non-medicinal plants, suggesting that pollinator parasites may act as agents of selection on the phytochemistry of floral rewards. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Parasite infection can alter host behavior in multiple ways, including by inducing self-medication. Self-medication has been documented in diverse animal taxa, yet we know very little about the broader ecological or evolutionary consequences of this response to infection. Here, we demonstrate that bumble bees infected with a common parasite show a preference for plant genotypes whose nectar contains antiparasitic compounds, and that this results in differential pollination and reproductive success for medicinal vs. non-medicinal individuals of a chemically polymorphic plant species. Our findings highlight self-medication as a previously understudied mechanism by which parasite infection could initiate cascading effects across trophic levels, and suggest that parasites may indirectly influence the evolution of plant traits via pollinator self-medication behaviors.

  PublisherDOI

• Pesticide residues in honey: Agricultural landscapes and commercial wax foundation sheets as potential routes of chronic exposure for honey bees

  Environmental Toxicology and Pharmacology · 2025-04-15 · 2 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Pesticides pose significant threats to pollinators , and honey bees are frequently exposed through foraging and beekeeping practices. We assessed honey bee pesticide exposure by analyzing 92 pesticide residues in honey from 30 hobbyist apiaries across Massachusetts, along with store-bought honey and commercial wax foundation. For all samples, we calculated the risk of multiresidue toxicity to honey bees and assessed the role of landscape composition in predicting pesticides in local honey. Both honey and wax contained multiple pesticides, particularly neonicotinoids and piperonyl butoxide . Store-bought honey accumulated at least two times more residues than local, but did not differ significantly in toxicity. Overall, honey toxicity levels remained below thresholds of concern for bees and human consumption. Although our study had low agricultural land (∼6 %), croplands were positively correlated with pesticides in honey, while wetlands (∼ 15 %) were negatively correlated. Additionally, our study suggests that commercial wax exacerbates pesticide exposure. • Apiaries with more agricultural land accumulated higher pesticide concentrations. • Concentration and toxicity of synergist piperonyl butoxide increased with agriculture. • Wetlands show potential to mitigate pesticide contamination. • Commercial wax foundation had substantially higher pesticide residues than honey. • Store-bought honey had higher pesticides than local honey.

  PublisherDOI

• Preventative medicine? Examining prophylactic effects of a sunflower pollen diet in <i>Bombus impatiens</i> ([Hymenoptera]: [Apidae])

  Journal of Economic Entomology · 2025-02-12

  articleSenior author

  Widespread decline of pollinator populations is of concern for both natural and agricultural ecosystems. Pathogens have been identified as a major contributor to the decline of some bee species, making understanding host-pathogen dynamics a crucial area of research. Sunflower pollen (Helianthus annuus L.; Asterales: Asteraceae) dramatically and consistently reduces infection by a prevalent gut pathogen, Crithidia bombi Lipa & Triggiani 1988 (Kinetoplastida: Trypanosomatidae), in the common eastern bumble bee (Bombus impatiens Cresson 1863; Hymenoptera: Apidae), when consumed by bees post-infection, but we do not know if sunflower can confer protection when consumed before exposure. We asked whether feeding bumble bees sunflower pollen diets prior to pathogen exposure decreases Crithidia infection compared to buckwheat pollen (Fagopyrum esculentum Moench; Polygonales: Polygonaceae). Buckwheat pollen was used as a comparison since it has a similar protein concentration as sunflower pollen, but results in higher Crithidia counts more comparable to typical wildflower pollen when consumed post-infection. Bumble bees were fed sunflower or buckwheat pollen for 7 d, inoculated with Crithidia, and then fed a wildflower pollen control diet for seven more days before assessing infection. We found that consuming a sunflower pollen diet before inoculation did not reduce Crithidia cell counts compared to buckwheat pollen. Furthermore, bumble bee survival and consumption of sucrose solution and pollen did not differ between these diets. The results show no evidence of sunflower pollen providing prophylactic resistance against Crithidia bombi infection, indicating that the timing at which sunflower pollen is consumed relative to exposure has important consequences for infection.

  PublisherDOI

• A comparison of three queen rearing techniques to improve sustainable small-scale beekeeping in the northeastern United States

  Figshare · 2025-03-03

  datasetOpen accessSenior author

  Winter losses of honey bee colonies in the United States can be very high; small-scale beekeepers in northern states frequently lose 50% or more of their colonies over the winter. To replace their losses, beekeepers often buy bees and queens from southern states. However, queens reared from northern-adapted stock may survive better in northern climates, and transporting queens from non-local regions can increase pest and pathogen spread and affect local population structure and genetic diversity. Rearing local queens could improve northern beekeeping sustainability, but traditional queen rearing (10-day grafting) requires specialized knowledge and resources, making it inaccessible to many beekeepers. We compared the efficacy of 10-day grafting to two more accessible queen rearing methods: 1) a novel 48-h technique, which is an abbreviated version of 10-day grafting, and 2) walk-away splits, in which a beekeeper simply splits one colony into two and leaves the queenless colony to rear a new queen. We reared approximately 100 queens using each method and compared queen survival and worker population size, as well as queen size and reproductive characteristics for a subset of queens. We found no significant differences in queen survival, size or reproductive characteristics between treatments, suggesting that simpler methods may produce queens as effectively as traditional 10-day grafting. These methods can be easily taught to small-scale beekeepers, improving access to local queens that are better adapted to northern climates.

  PublisherDOI

• Mechanisms and Consequences of Plant–Pollinator–Pathogen Interactions

  Annual Review of Ecology Evolution and Systematics · 2025-06-16 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Infectious disease is a major driver of biodiversity loss, but how disease threatens pollinator communities remains poorly understood. Here, we review the plant–pollinator–pathogen literature to identify mechanisms by which plant and pollinator traits and community composition influence pathogen transmission and assess consequences of transmission on plant and pollinator fitness. We find that plant and pollinator traits that increase floral contact can amplify transmission, but community-level factors such as plant and pollinator abundance are often correlated and can counteract one another. Although disease reduces pollinator fitness in some species, little research has assessed cascading effects on pollination, and taxonomic representation outside of honey bees and bumble bees remains poor. Major open challenges include ( a ) disentangling correlations between plant and pollinator abundance to understand how community composition impacts pathogen transmission and ( b ) distinguishing when pathogen transmission results in disease. Addressing these issues, as well as expanding taxonomic representation of pollinators, will deepen our understanding of how pathogens impact diverse pollinator communities.

  PublisherDOI

• Effects of Leaf Herbivory on Floral Trait Correlations and Scent Composition in Asclepias syriaca

  Journal of Chemical Ecology · 2025-10-25

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• IntBIO: Collaborative Research: Integrating molecular, cellular, organismal and community scales to understand how plants structure pollinator-pathogen dynamics

  NSF · $907k · 2022–2026

• Collaborative Research: The role of floral secondary compounds in bee performance and disease transmission in a natural ecosystem

  NSF · $354k · 2013–2017

• Chemical Defenses Against Floral Enemies: Costs and Benefits of Toxic Nectar to Nectar Robbing, Pollination, and Plant Fitness

  NSF · $328k · 2002–2005

• DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Inter-strain variation and evolution of resistance to phytochemicals in the bumblebee trypanosome parasite, Crithidia bombi

  NSF · $21k · 2015–2017

• Dissertation Research: Plant chemical defenses and nectar traits mediating floral competition

  NSF · $15k · 2010–2013

Frequent coauthors

• Rebecca E. Irwin

  Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory

  93 shared

• Philip C. Stevenson

  Natural Resources Institute

  29 shared

• Evan C. Palmer‐Young

  26 shared

• Nicholas A. Barber

  21 shared

• Nina Theis

  Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology

  16 shared

• Ruth V. Hazzard

  15 shared

• E. Toby Kiers

  15 shared

• Alison E. Fowler

  National Zoological Park

  11 shared

Labs

• The Adler LabPI