Collaborative Research: Effects of pulsed floral resources on pollinator population dynamics

合作研究：脉冲花卉资源对传粉昆虫种群动态的影响

• 批准号: 1354022
• 负责人: Neal Williams
• 金额: $ 43.72万
• 依托单位: University of California-Davis
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-08-15 至 2020-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1354022&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Effects; pulsed; floral

This research will explore how one result of landscape change, the timing and availability of flowers, affects populations of bumble bees, a prominent group of native bees that pollinate many crops and wildflowers in North America. Bumble bees are important because more than one-third of the food we eat comes from crops that depend to some degree on the type of pollination they provide. Although non-native honey bees remain a cornerstone of agricultural pollination, native bees are increasingly the focus of agricultural attention in light of ongoing challenges facing honey bees. Healthy populations of native bees rely on continuous supplies of pollen and nectar. However, the availability of these floral resources has been dramatically altered by unpredictable weather associated with changing climate, and by human activities, including intensive agriculture. The investigators will study how changes in the timing and availability of flowers affect the number of bumble bees. This research is a significant advance over past studies, which used patterns of bee visits to flowers to make broad conclusions about the overall health of bee populations and communities. In contrast, the current study will focus on reproductive success of bee hives. The results will be key to developing strategies to promote robust populations of bees and ensure food security, as well as to conserve biological diversity. Specifically, the project combines manipulative field experiments and original demographic population models to assess effects of within-year resource variation (resource pulses) on population dynamics of bumble bees. The experiments will be conducted with Bombus vosnesenskii, a dominant bumble bee species in Northern California. Investigators will conduct experiments in which flower availability and timing are systematically altered. They will then measure how vital rates of individual colonies (e.g., worker production, worker survival, and queen production) depend on the availability of floral resources at different times in the colony life cycle. To ensure a consistent baseline of hive quality, all measurements will be made on lab-reared colonies started from wild-collected queens. Experimental results will be combined with demographic models to predict long-term population viability of bees under different landscape conditions. This research will answer questions about how ongoing landscape change will affect Bombus vosnesenskii and other bee species. It also will provide a previously-missing framework for population viability analysis of bees and other social insects.

这项研究将探讨景观变化的结果，即开花的时间和可用性，如何影响大黄蜂的种群，大黄蜂是为北美许多农作物和野花授粉的重要本土蜜蜂群体。 大黄蜂很重要，因为我们吃的食物中有三分之一以上来自农作物，而这些农作物在某种程度上取决于它们提供的授粉类型。 尽管非本地蜜蜂仍然是农业授粉的基石，但鉴于蜜蜂面临的持续挑战，本地蜜蜂日益成为农业关注的焦点。本地蜜蜂的健康种群依赖于花粉和花蜜的持续供应。 然而，这些花卉资源的可用性已因气候变化带来的不可预测的天气以及包括集约农业在内的人类活动而发生了巨大的变化。 研究人员将研究开花时间和可用性的变化如何影响大黄蜂的数量。 这项研究比过去的研究取得了重大进展，过去的研究利用蜜蜂访问花朵的模式来得出有关蜜蜂种群和群落整体健康状况的广泛结论。 相比之下，目前的研究将重点关注蜂箱的繁殖成功率。研究结果对于制定促进蜜蜂数量强劲、确保粮食安全以及保护生物多样性的战略至关重要。 具体来说，该项目结合了现场操作实验和原始人口种群模型，以评估年内资源变化（资源脉冲）对熊蜂种群动态的影响。 这些实验将在北加州的主要熊蜂物种沃斯内先斯基熊蜂 (Bombus vosnesenskii) 中进行。 研究人员将进行实验，系统地改变花朵的可用性和时间。然后，他们将测量单个菌落的活力率（例如，工蜂产量、工蜂存活率和蜂王产量）如何取决于菌落生命周期中不同时期花卉资源的可用性。 为了确保蜂巢质量基线一致，所有测量都将从野生采集的蜂王开始，在实验室饲养的蜂群上进行。 实验结果将与人口统计模型相结合，以预测不同景观条件下蜜蜂的长期种群生存能力。 这项研究将回答有关持续的景观变化将如何影响沃斯内先斯基熊蜂和其他蜜蜂物种的问题。它还将为蜜蜂和其他社会性昆虫的种群生存力分析提供以前缺失的框架。