Hanna Thosteman

I am a pollination ecologist with broad interest in plant-insect interactions, but with a particular passion for plants and floral trait evolution in relation to pollinators. I defended my PhD thesis titled "Floral Scent in a Generalized Pollination System" at Lund university in December 2024 where I also did my bachelor's and masters' degrees. During my PhD explored the relationship between floral signals (floral scent in particular) and pollinators, and specifically how and why floral scent varies at small (geographic and tissue specific) spatial scales also among conspecific plant populations. My thesis won the Swedish Phytogeographical Society's Award for Outstanding Doctoral Thesis in 2024.

I have developed a great interest in using my knowledge on how plants and pollinators interact in a more applied context. In February of 2025 I joined SLU to work on a project where we try to bridge the gap between basic/fundamental research and applied practices, in an attempt to provide new methods for agricultural stakeholders. Specifically, the project aims to enhance pollination on strawberries by honeybees, using a multifaceted approach where we introduce various types of olfactory stimuli and diet manipulations. However, the goal is to develop a method applicable to multiple crop species.

In my research I am primarily curiosity-driven and I have a need to understand how things work. If you do not find me in my office, I can be spotted growing different types of yeasts and yeast-like fungi, sampling strawberry flowers or tending to honeybees.

At SLU, my research is open to masters and bachelor students! If you are interested in working with crop pollination, honeybee behavioural studies, plant cultivation and more, please do not hesitate to send me a message.

• Crop pollination by honeybees - enhancing precision pollination to target crops
• Floral scent in apple and pear orchards - understanding how cultivar scent variation relates to pollination efficiency (in collaboration with NIBIO, Bergen, Norway)
• Floral evolution in relation to pollinator interactions

Supervising degree students at all levels.

Lecturer at BI1366 Växtskydd och mikrobiologi.