Sofia Blomqvist

My research

Declining populations among pollinating insects is happening world wide. One of the main reasons behind this decline is the intensification of the agricultural landscape that has occured during the last decades an has resulted in a drastic decrease in number of flower rich habitats and caused a shortage of nesting and foraging habitats for insects. Today you can find rests from an old agricultural landscape, with plants that are of importance for our pollinators, next to railways and in road verges. Since roads and road verges are constantly increasing in numbers, flower rich road verges could function as an important resource for insects. My project is a cooperation between Lund University and The Swedish Transport Administration. I will spend my time as a PhD student by looking at how flower rich road verges are affecting our pollinating insects. Can they help our insects or are they posing a threat by acting as ecological traps? The aim is to find features in road verges and ways to manage these in order to help our pollinators.

My background

I did my undergraduate studies in Biology and my MSc in Conservation Biology here at Lund University. During my time as a student I have gotten the chance to work as an assistant in different projects concerning bumblebees in the agricultural landscape and am looking forward to continuing my work with pollinating insects.