Towards 'crop-pollinating' landscapes: quantifying pollen supply and demand to manage wild pollinators for their benefits to food production

迈向“作物授粉”景观：量化花粉供应和需求，以管理野生授粉媒介，使其对粮食生产有利

基本信息

批准号：
NE/N014472/2
负责人：
Lynn Dicks
金额：
$ 29.91万
依托单位：
University of Cambridge
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Fellowship
财政年份：
2019
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2019 至无数据
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FN014472%2F2
关键词：
Towards crop pollinating landscapes quantifying

项目摘要

Three quarters of the world's important crops, or 35% of all food produced by volume, depends on animal pollinators. This includes many fruits, vegetables, nuts and oils. Recently, scientists have found that most crop pollination in the world is carried out by a small group of bee species, called the 'dominant crop pollinators'. In the UK, no more than 20 species are doing most of the work. One is the honey bee, kept by beekeepers. The others are wild species found commonly in farmland.Yet numbers of wild bee species found in each place are declining. One of the main reasons for this decline is loss of wild flowers in the countryside, which was dramatic in the twentieth century in the UK. In particular, the loss of flowering plants in the pea and bean family, which have protein-rich pollen, is thought to have caused trouble for wild bee species. Bees rely entirely on food from flowers - nectar and pollen - to survive and raise their young. Nectar is a sugar syrup, and provides them energy to fly and grow. Pollen provides most of the protein, a crucial resource for growing larvae. One way to help pollinators is by planting extra flowers. This has been shown to increase the numbers of dominant crop pollinators, and can even lead to improvements in crop yield. At the moment scientists don't know how much, or what types of pollen wild bees need to survive at different times of year, and have very little idea how much pollen is already supplied by existing landscapes. Some think there are particular times of year, such as early spring or late summer, when pollen is especially limiting, and adding flowers would really help bees.This research uses very new scientific techniques to quantify the demand for and supply of pollen in farmland. One exciting development is that scientists have just made a library of DNA sequences from all 1,479 of UK native plants. This makes it possible to identify plant species in bee-collected pollen, by putting the pollen into a sequencing machine. It's called DNA metabarcoding. Early results for honey bees show that pollen from trees could be more important at the start of the year than was previously thought. This research will document all the plants that red-tailed and early bumblebee colonies use over at least two years.A series of experiments with bumblebees in the laboratory will test how much and what kind of pollen are needed to raise individual larvae, or supply a healthy colony. Combining this information with the pollen sources they choose in real landscapes will allow me to accurately calculate pollen demand by these crop-pollinating bumblebees.To quantify pollen supply in an area of farmland, I will use image processing techniques borrowed from cell biology to measure how many flowers of each type there are through spring, summer and autumn, using photographs. The idea is to build an easy-to-use piece of software to tell farmers exactly what flowers to plant so their farm supports a thriving wild pollinator community that provides reliable pollination to their crops. The software will compare pollen supply with pollen demand on a monthly basis.Being able to measure pollen supply and demand in an area of farmland will allow scientists to answer a fundamental question central to ongoing debates about pollinators: What currently limits wild pollinator populations? Is available protein (pollen) the main limiting factor, or is it carbohydrate (nectar), nesting sites, overwinter mortality or negative impacts of pesticides or disease? The overall aim of my research is to test the hypothesis that pollen is the limiting factor in agricultural landscapes. If correct, then the best thing we can do for pollinators is plant flowers. If it is wrong, and something else is limiting pollinator numbers or causing declines, then different strategies will be necessary to retain viable communities of hard-working wild pollinators that support food production.

世界上重要的农作物的四分之三，或数量产生的所有食物的35％取决于动物传粉媒介。这包括许多水果，蔬菜，坚果和油。最近，科学家发现，世界上大多数农作物的授粉都是由一小群蜜蜂物种（称为“主要的农作物授粉剂”）进行的。在英国，大部分工作都在进行大部分工作。一个是蜜蜂，由养蜂人保留。其他是在农田中通常发现的野生物种。在每个地方发现的野生蜜蜂物种数量正在下降。这种下降的主要原因之一是乡村流失了野花，这在英国二十世纪是戏剧性的。特别是，豌豆和豆类家族中开花植物的损失被认为造成了野生蜜蜂物种的麻烦。蜜蜂完全依靠花朵的食物 - 花蜜和花粉 - 生存并抚养年轻。花蜜是一种糖浆，为它们提供了飞行和生长的能量。花粉提供大部分蛋白质，这是生长幼虫的关键资源。帮助传粉媒介的一种方法是种植多余的花朵。已显示这可以增加主要的作物传粉媒介的数量，甚至可以改善作物产量。目前，科学家不知道在一年中的不同时间生存多少，或者需要哪种类型的花粉野生蜜蜂，也很少知道现有景观已经提供了多少花粉。有些人认为，一年中有特定的时间，例如早春或夏末，当花粉特别有限，而添加花确实有助于蜜蜂。这项研究使用非常新的科学技术来量化农田对花粉的需求和供应。一个令人兴奋的发展是，科学家刚刚制作了所有1,479家英国本地植物的DNA序列库。这使得通过将花粉放入测序机器中，可以鉴定出蜜蜂收集的花粉中的植物物种。这就是DNA元法编码。蜜蜂的早期结果表明，在今年年初，树木的花粉比以前想象的要重要。这项研究将记录至少两年来红尾和早期大黄蜂菌落使用的所有植物。实验室中的大黄蜂进行了一系列实验，将测试增加单个幼虫或提供健康的菌落所需的花粉和哪种花粉。将这些信息与他们在实际景观中选择的花粉源相结合将使我能够通过这些作物粉的大黄蜂来准确计算花粉需求。为了量化农田领域的花粉供应，我将使用细胞生物学借用的图像处理技术来测量每种类型的花朵的春季，夏季和夏季，使用照片，使用照片，使用照片。这个想法是建立一块易于使用的软件，以告诉农民到底要种什么花朵，以便他们的农场支持蓬勃发展的野生传粉媒介社区，为农作物提供可靠的授粉。该软件将每月将花粉供应与花粉的需求进行比较。能够衡量农田领域的花粉供应和需求将使科学家回答有关传粉媒介正在进行的辩论的基本问题：哪些目前限制了野生传粉媒介人群？可用蛋白质（花粉）是主要限制因素，还是碳水化合物（花蜜），筑巢地点，越冬死亡率或农药或疾病的负面影响？我的研究的总体目的是检验以下假设：花粉是农业景观的限制因素。如果正确，那么我们可以为传粉媒介做的最好的事情是植物花。如果这是错误的，而其他事情正在限制传粉者数量或导致下降，那么将需要采取不同的策略来保留支持粮食生产的勤奋野生传粉媒介的可行社区。

项目成果

期刊论文数量（10）

专著数量（0）

科研奖励数量（0）

会议论文数量（0）

专利数量（0）

Characterization Factors to Assess Land Use Impacts on Pollinator Abundance in Life Cycle Assessment.

DOI：
10.1021/acs.est.2c05311
发表时间：
2023-02-28
期刊：
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
影响因子：
11.4
作者：
Alejandre, Elizabeth M.;Scherer, Laura;Guinee, Jeroen B.;Aizen, Marcelo A.;Albrecht, Matthias;Balzan, Mario V.;Bartomeus, Ignasi;Bevk, Danilo;Burkle, Laura A.;Clough, Yann;Cole, Lorna J.;Delphia, Casey M.;Dicks, Lynn V.;Garratt, Michael P. D.;Kleijn, David;Kovacs-Hostyanszki, Aniko;Mandelik, Yael;Paxton, Robert J.;Petanidou, Theodora;Potts, Simon;Sarospataki, Miklos;Schulp, Catharina J. E.;Stavrinides, Menelaos;Stein, Katharina;Stout, Jane C.;Szentgyorgyi, Hajnalka;Varnava, Androulla I.;Woodcock, Ben A.;van Bodegom, Peter M.
通讯作者：
van Bodegom, Peter M.

Mapping nectar-rich pollinator floral resources using airborne multispectral imagery.