ACADEMIC
THE EFFECTS OF ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGES AND HUMAN DISRUPTION ON WESTERN HONEY BEES’ (APIS MELLIFERA) BEHAVIORS
CHARLIZE BALDOZA
Abstract
For this project, I will be examining the Western Honey bees’ behavior in response to
different environmental factors. These factors include playing different predator sounds, human
disruptions, and how their responses are affected by different climate changes such as rainy
weather and cold days. To better understand the interaction of honey bees towards these
environmental changes, I observed how these would prompt aggressive and defensive honey bee
behaviors, which is distinctly noticed by their buzzing noises and their body movements. These
observations and experiments will take place during the daytime since honeybees are diurnal and
will be compared in two locations, which are Hidden Lake Park in Tracy, CA and the Las Positas
College Campus in Livermore, CA. For one experiment, I played different frequencies to mimic
the frequency of predator noises and recorded qualitative observations of the honey bees’
responses. For another experiment, I played predator noises (Oriental hornet and California
Scrub Jay) and recorded whether the honey bees would move or display aggressive behavior, and
I recorded the honey bees’ frequencies in response to these sounds each over a period of 180
seconds in 30 second intervals. Lastly, I stood in front of a rose bush to demonstrate how human
activity disrupts honey bee pollination and I recorded their movement, behavior, and frequencies.
The results of this study support that environmental changes cause aggressive and defensive
behaviors to emerge, and the most apparent is playing predator sounds of the Oriental hornet,
since this is one of the honey bees most noxious predators. Another significant trigger was the
extremely high frequencies played as this caused increased buzzing noises, rapid wing
movements, antennae to be pointed forward, and hissing noises. Playing California scrub jay
sounds and interfering with the environment also agitated honey bees as well causing their
buzzing noises to increase, but these were not as prominent as playing the Oriental hornet sounds
and frequencies.
THE COMPOSITION OF KOMBUCHA
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LOGAN ATCHINSON, KYLE DRIVER, MANDY HOLLMAN, AND STEVIE JONES
Abstract
Kombucha is a fermented beverage that has recently picked up popularity for its health benefits.
Our team wanted to find out if the microorganisms that are claimed to be in the drink are really there.
So we asked: Do the microbes of the House Kombucha final product look like the SCOBY, and are
we able to identify any? Through several attempts at plating and many types of stains we were able to
find a large number of similarities between the SCOBY and House Kombucha final product. We were also
able to potentially identify at least one bacterium. After looking at all our data we have determined that
both have very similar microorganisms.