Long before a mature blueberry arrives in a shopping cart or muffin mixture, a native bee has probably undertaken a subtle yet vital role in its progression. Now, thanks to a University of Georgia research on wild bee diversity in blueberry fields, we have gained insights into just how crucial those wild pollinators are to one of the state’s most precious fruit crops.

Sarah Rezende, a Ph.D. candidate collaborating with Associate Professor Jason Schmidt in the Department of Entomology, is striving to reveal what Georgia’s wild bees require to flourish — and how their movements influence the efficiency of commercial blueberry farms.

As a part of a larger USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) initiative aimed at enhancing blueberry output by planting pollinator- and predator-friendly flowering flora around fields, Rezende centered her study on how wild bee populations fluctuate across geography and time in southeast Georgia blueberry farms.

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