The extent of our reliance on animal pollination for world crop production for human food has not previously been evaluated and the previous estimates for countries or continents have seldom used primary data. In this review, we expand the previous estimates using novel primary data from 200 countries and found that fruit, vegetable or seed production from 87 of the leading global food crops is dependent upon animal pollination, while 28 crops do not rely upon animal pollination. However, global production volumes give a contrasting perspective, since 60% of global production comes from crops that do not depend on animal pollination, 35% from crops that depend on pollinators, and 5% are unevaluated. Using all crops traded on the world market and setting aside crops that are solely passively self-pollinated, wind-pollinated or parthenocarpic, we then evaluated the level of dependence on animal-mediated pollination for crops that are directly consumed by humans. We found that pollinators are essential for 13 crops, production is highly pollinator dependent for 30, moderately for 27, slightly for 21, unimportant for 7, and is of unknown significance for the remaining 9. We further evaluated whether local and landscape-wide management for natural pollination services could help to sustain crop diversity and production. Case studies for nine crops on four continents revealed that agricultural intensification jeopardizes wild bee communities and their stabilizing effect on pollination services at the landscape scale.

/pdf/importance-of-pollinators-in-changing-landscapes-for-world-2j8o9ygr29.pdf

Importance of pollinators in changing landscapes for world crops

Pollinators are a key component of global biodiversity, providing vital ecosystem services to crops and wild plants. There is clear evidence of recent declines in both wild and domesticated pollinators, and parallel declines in the plants that rely upon them. Here we describe the nature and extent of reported declines, and review the potential drivers of pollinator loss, including habitat loss and fragmentation, agrochemicals, pathogens, alien species, climate change and the interactions between them. Pollinator declines can result in loss of pollination services which have important negative ecological and economic impacts that could significantly affect the maintenance of wild plant diversity, wider ecosystem stability, crop production, food security and human welfare.

/pdf/global-pollinator-declines-trends-impacts-and-drivers-5gfi4zur4k.pdf

Global pollinator declines: trends, impacts and drivers.

Bees are subject to numerous pressures in the modern world. The abundance and diversity of flowers has declined, bees are chronically exposed to cocktails of agrochemicals, and they are simultaneously exposed to novel parasites accidentally spread by humans. Climate change is likely to exacerbate these problems in the future. Stressors do not act in isolation; for example pesticide exposure can impair both detoxification mechanisms and immune responses, rendering bees more susceptible to parasites. It seems certain that chronic exposure to multiple, interacting stressors is driving honey bee colony losses and declines of wild pollinators, but such interactions are not addressed by current regulatory procedures and studying these interactions experimentally poses a major challenge. In the meantime, taking steps to reduce stress on bees would seem prudent; incorporating flower-rich habitat into farmland, reducing pesticide use through adopting more sustainable farming methods, and enforcing effective quarantine measures on bee movements are all practical measures that should be adopted. Effective monitoring of wild pollinator populations is urgently needed to inform management strategies into the future.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/early/2015/02/25/science.1255957.full.pdf

Bee declines driven by combined stress from parasites, pesticides, and lack of flowers

https://www1.montpellier.inra.fr/lameta/articles/5.4.2_POLLINATION.pdf

Economic valuation of the vulnerability of world agriculture confronted with pollinator decline

Plant essential oils for pest and disease management

We examined two aspects of package honey bee, Apis mellifera L., production in southwestern British Columbia, Canada: 1) timing of production in spring and 2) use of two-queen management as a method of increasing colony growth following package removal. In the first study, three 0.9-kg packages were removed from colonies at various intervals ranging from all three packages shaken on 7 April to one shaken on 15 April and two on 24 April. In the second study, a group of colonies was managed using two queens following package shaking. In both studies, we measured brood, honey, and pollen areas, colony population and weight, and surplus honey production; profit per colony was also calculated following these manipulations. For the timing experiment, only the treatment in which three packages were shaken on 7 April was not suitable for package production. All other treatments showed no significant differences in colony performance, and per-colony profits from package-producing colonies were more than double those of control colonies. This result demonstrated that packages can be produced in British Columbia during most of April, when they are required to stock hives in the northern United States and Canada. For the two-queen experiment, colonies managed with two queens following package shaking were superior to single-queen colonies in brood areas and adult populations at the end of the season, but additional cost, extra labor, and decreased profit did not justify use of this technique.

Timing of Package Honey Bee (Hymenoptera: Apidae) Production and Use of Two-queen Management in Southwestern British Columbia, Canada

http://www2.unb.ca/~watmough/papers/pheromoneBMB1998.pdf

Distinguishing the Effects of Dilution and Restricted Movement on the Intra-nest Transmission of Honey-Bee Queen Pheromones

The moth Vitula edmandsae: a pest of honeybee combs.

SummaryColony characteristics and profitability were examined for 3 systems of honeybee management in the North Okanagan Valley, British Columbia, Canada: (1) moving bees for pollination (current system), (2) honey production without pollination, and (3) package and nucleus production with and without pollination, A total of 60 colonies were used, divided equally into 6 management systems. Gross profit/colony was highest ($109 or $104)* for colonies used for pollination and from which a nucleus or package was removed. The lowest profit ($14.36) was for colonies managed solely for honey production. Measurements of colony weight, sealed worker brood area and surplus honey production indicated that management systems which involve the most intensive colony management for pollination, honey production and bee production do not detract from overall colony vigour and yield the best income, and also can provide a new source of income through the sale of packages and/or nuclei.

Honeybee Colony Characteristics and Profitability of Pollination Management Systems

The performance of two tasks, wax production and foraging, was compared between colonies founded by prime swarms and afterswarms of honey bees Workers began foraging at older ages in afterswarms and this delay was generally coupled with a longer duration of wax production Differences in task performance between swarm types demonstrate the integration of a flexible behavioral caste system into life history No relationships were found between swarm population size and ages of task performance, suggesting that breaks in brood rearing and upward shifts in worker age distribution were responsible for delays in the ontogeny of temporal castes in afterswarm-founded colonies

Mark L. Winston

Papers

Timing of Package Honey Bee (Hymenoptera: Apidae) Production and Use of Two-queen Management in Southwestern British Columbia, Canada

Distinguishing the Effects of Dilution and Restricted Movement on the Intra-nest Transmission of Honey-Bee Queen Pheromones

The moth Vitula edmandsae: a pest of honeybee combs.

Honeybee Colony Characteristics and Profitability of Pollination Management Systems

Effects of swarm type on temporal caste polyethism in the honey bee,Apis mellifera L. (Hymenoptera: Apidae)