Rachel Nichols

Rachel recently submitted her PhD Thesis on identifying and amending agri-environment schemes to better support wild bees and other insect pollinators on farmland. She identified several key wildflower species to include in future seed mixes for maximum wild bee diversity during a large-scale field trial. She is experienced in setting up farm-level field experiments, and conducting wildflower and insect pollinator surveys, with a specialisation in solitary bee identification. During her PhD she also trialled a potential novel agri-environment scheme by creating fresh “scrapes” in field margins, successfully attracting ground-nesting bees and wasps to make nests in the scrapes. Prior to commencing her PhD, Rachel completed a Masters in Evolutionary and Behavioural Ecology, conducting a behavioural foraging experiment on bumblebees and honeybees.