What you’ll learn

Pollinators live in a sensory world very different from ours: a bumble bee crossing a meadow follows plumes of scent, patterns of color we can't see, and memories of where it found food before.

In this talk, Dr. Jordanna Sprayberry will explore how the senses pollinators detect, combined with what they’re searching for, shape the paths they take across a landscape. Drawing on research into how bumble bees smell, she will discuss how odors from flowers, and from human activity, can impact foraging decisions.

Learn how bumblebees' sensory lives are relevant to habitat restoration, offering a pollinator's-eye view of what makes a rewilded patch easy to find, rewarding, and worth coming back to.

Dr. Jordanna Sprayberry

Dr. Jordanna Sprayberry is a recent transplant to Long Island, having started as an Associate Professor of Ecology and Evolution and Director of Undergraduate Biology Education at Stony Brook University in the fall of 2025.

Her lab studies the neuroethology of pollination, including how bumblebees use scent to navigate floral landscapes, and how human-made odors such as agricultural fungicides interfere with that process.