Collaborative Research:Reassembling pollinator communities to promote pollination function at the landscape scale

授粉者为全球约35%的作物产量和75%的作物类型提供了更高的水果和种子产量。 野生传粉者种群目前正遭受栖息地丧失，而半驯化传粉者，特别是最广泛使用的作物传粉者欧洲蜜蜂，由于疾病，农药和未知原因，在北美和欧洲正在减少。 这些损失在某些地区已达到严重程度。 随着授粉服务的减少，人类的饮食可能会变得缺乏水果和蔬菜，这些水果和蔬菜为我们提供了必需的维生素和微量营养素。 依赖传粉者繁殖的野生植物种群（大多数开花植物）也可能受到影响，对其他野生动物产生潜在的连锁反应。 这项研究将利用多管齐下的方法来了解景观中栖息地斑块的分布如何支持农业地区的野生传粉者社区，从而确保持续为作物提供授粉服务。 这种综合方法包括在加州的中央谷进行实地观测和实验，开发数学模型以了解空间授粉服务，并将这些模型应用于地球仪周围的授粉研究。 提高对授粉服务的认识可以通过确定恢复农业授粉者多样化社区的途径来造福社会，从而有助于减少过度依赖蜜蜂作为农业生产关键投入的风险。 这项研究还将有助于从根本上了解景观尺度上不断变化的生境分布与它们产生的生态系统服务之间的关系。三名博士后科学家将在这个项目中接受指导和培训，沿着的还有许多本科生。研究结果将通过与Xerces协会的互动促进公众宣传，Xerces协会与加州和美国各地的农民合作，保护本地传粉者社区，使农业受益。将通过伊利诺斯州的林肯公园动物园进行额外的宣传，以增加对公民科学授粉计划的参与。

Pollinators provide enhanced fruit and seed production for roughly 35% of global crop production and 75% of crop types. Wild pollinator populations are currently suffering from habitat loss, while semi-domesticated pollinators, particularly the most widely used crop pollinator, the European honey bee, are declining in North America and Europe due to diseases, pesticides and unknown causes. These losses have reached critical proportions in some areas. As pollination services decline, human diets could become impoverished in fruits and vegetables that provide us with essential vitamins and micro-nutrients. Wild plant populations that depend on pollinators for reproduction (the majority of flowering plants) may also suffer, with potential cascading effects on other wildlife. This research will utilize a multi-pronged approach to understand how the distribution of habitat patches in a landscape can support wild pollinator communities in agricultural regions and thus ensure the continued delivery of pollination services to crops. This comprehensive approach includes field observations and experiments in the Central Valley of California, development of mathematical models for understanding pollination services across space, and application of these models to pollination studies from around the globe. The increased understanding of pollination services can benefit society by identifying pathways for restoring a diverse community of pollinators to agriculture, and thus helping to reduce the risk of over-reliance on honey bees as a critical input to agricultural production. This research will also contribute to the fundamental understanding of the relationship between changing habitat distributions at the landscape scale and the ecosystem services they produce. Three postdoctoral scientists will be mentored and trained in this project, along with numerous undergraduate students. Results will contribute to public outreach through interactions with the Xerces Society which works with farmers in California and across the U.S. to conserve native pollinator communities to benefit agriculture. Additional outreach will be conducted through the Lincoln Park Zoo in Illinois to increase participation in a citizen science pollination program.