Overview
As a behavioral ecologist the focal areas of my research explore the behavior of plants and pollinators, how these behaviors are influenced by the environment, and how plant-pollinator interactions are maintained. Such information is crucial for designing and maintaining habitats that support biodiversity, food production, and other ecosystem services related to pollination, while maintaining resilience and sustainability in an increasingly unpredictable and uncertain future.
Pollinator foraging ecology
One question I have asked is how different pollinator species allocate their workforce into the environment, and which flowers they choose to visit while co-existing in the same habitat.
Related peer-reviewed publications
Minahan, D., & Brunet, J. (2025) Pollen collection by the western honey bee and common eastern bumble bee foraging in a common landscape and applications for agri-environment schemes. Royal Society Open Science, 12, 240675 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.240675
Minahan, D., & Brunet, J. (2018). Strong interspecific differences in foraging activity observed between honey bees and bumble bees using miniaturized radio frequency identification (RFID). Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 6, 156. https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/ecology-and-evolution/articles/10.3389/fevo.2018.00156/full
Nutrition and behavior
Another concerns the effects of stressors on pollinators such as poor nutrition from low flower diversity in developed landscapes. Many of these effects are not outright lethal but instead impair the cognitive abilities of pollinators, leading altered patterns of behavior.
Related peer-reviewed publication
Minahan, D., Goren, M., & Shafir, S. (2024). Unbalanced dietary omega-6:3 ratio affects onset of nursing and nurse–larvae interactions by honey bees, Apis mellifera. Animal Behaviour. 213. 235-246. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0003347224001428
In prep: Minahan, D. and Shafir, S. Unbalanced dietary omega-6:3 ratio leads to longer orientation flights and greater lifetime flight duration in honey bees (Apis mellifera)
Communication, perception, cognition
And the third area of research examines the aspects of communication between plants and pollinators. For example, it is well known that visual cues like flower color and size, or floral scents impact visitation by pollinators. But what about other modalities, such as sound? Do plants and pollinators have an ongoing dialogue that communicates their status (e.g., healthy/unhealthy, nectar/no nectar, pollinator presence/or no present, etc…). This is the focus of my current experiments to examine the role of acoustic sound communication in the perception and decision making by plants and insects (pollinators and non-pollinators).
Related peer reviewed publications
In prep: Minahan et al. Anemone flowers grow larger and have longer flower lifespan in response to pollinator sound
In prep: Rogovin et al. Anesthesia alters the sounds produced, photosynthetic activity, and leaf movement patterns of tomato plants
BOOK CHAPTERS AND NON-PEER REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS
Brunet, J. and Minahan, D. (2023). Interaction with flowers and other foraging resources. in Purdy, J. (editor) The foraging behavior of the honey bee (Apis mellifera). Elsevier
Danny Minahan 