Welcome and thank you for participating in Pollination Investigators!

Pollinators provide an invaluable service to both natural ecosystems and agriculture. Approximately 35% of the global food supply is highly reliant on animals for pollination!

Worldwide declines in bees have been documented, threatening pollination services. The goal of this citizen science program is to measure and compare the pollination services that insects provide to gardens in urban, suburban and rural areas. We do this by comparing fruit set, fruit weight and seed set in pepper plants grown in the presence and absence of insect pollination.

For details on how you will collect pollination data see our “experiment” page and view the “sign up” page for details on joining the program!

Pollination Investigators is supported by the OSU Integrated Pest Management Program through funding from the USDA NIFA Crop Protection and Pest Management Competitive Grants Program (2014-70006-22507)

Photos by MaLisa Spring

A honey bee, solitary native bee, and bumble bee foraging for pollen and nectar. Declines in all three groups of pollinators have been documented in the United States.