Pollination is valuable to both pollinators and plants. It serves as a source of food for the visiting insects and as a mean of sexual reproduction for the flower. For instance, the golden rod relies on bumblebee and honeybee pollination. This mutualism is a very important part of nature. 67% of flowering plants rely on such a relationship. A decrease in pollinator abundance can result in reduced fitness for plants (little pollen quantities and decreased pollinator competition). Also, heterozygosity in a population becomes less and less prevalent as inbreeding and self-pollination occur more frequently. Not only does a reduction in seed and fruit production affect the fitness of a plant, but it also has an impact on other organisms, and thus the community (Mckinney, 2009). If the plant-pollinator mutualism relationship breaks down, it could mean devastation for both organisms (Kearns, 1997). This is where the importance of this study comes into play. .
Where does the bumblebee succeed/prefer most in pollinating the golden rod, in the shade or in the sunlight? Answering this question can show us not only the setting in which the golden rod thrives in, but where large amounts of bumblebees and honeybees live. From this we can determine the approximate areas where flowering plants, in this case golden rods, are losing this mutualistic relationship. The null hypothesis for this experiment is that when bumblebees and honeybees are pollinating golden rods, they have no predilection doing it in either the shade or in direct sunlight. The alternative asserts that bumblebees and honeybees do have a preference for the shade or sunlight when pollinating golden rods. The working hypothesis states that these bees display a preference for pollinating golden rods in direct sunlight over the shade. The area predicted to attract the most amount of bee pollination is where there is direct sunlight.
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