Collaborative Research: Quantifying the Critical Importance of Insect-mediated Pollination Service for the U.S. Economy

对国家经济至关重要的生态支持服务之一是昆虫（包括管理和野生物种）提供的授粉。然而，近年来，栖息地丧失加剧、可用饲料来源减少、气候变化、单一饮食、压力大的管理做法以及易受害虫侵害等因素对传粉媒介物种造成了更大的压力。了解由管理和野生传粉媒介提供的授粉服务的经济价值，将突出美国经济对传粉媒介的重要性和依赖性，以及传粉媒介在维持人类和工业活动中发挥的关键作用。全面评估传粉媒介的经济贡献将有助于为确定保护它们的优先事项提供基础。该项目汇集了可持续性科学与工程（PI Khanna）和传粉者生物学和健康（PI Grozinger）方面高度互补的专业知识，以了解和量化美国经济对昆虫媒介授粉服务的直接和间接经济依赖，并确定最容易受到昆虫媒介授粉服务减少影响的工业部门和工业社区（密切相关的部门组）。在这个项目中，将开发一个新的框架来量化美国经济和工业部门对昆虫授粉服务的直接和间接经济依赖。所开发的数据和方法将广泛适用于评估授粉服务对世界经济的经济重要性，以及评估其他生态系统产品和服务。该框架将有助于确定因授粉服务减少而面临最大风险或可能遭受最大破坏的工业部门。通过量化农业部门对昆虫传粉媒介的直接依赖和美国非农业经济对昆虫传粉媒介的间接依赖，将全面了解传粉服务在产品和工业生命周期中所起的作用。此外，在框架中建立一个新的环境影响类别将有助于更容易地在生命周期基础上量化经济商品和服务对授粉服务的依赖，并特别关注蜜蜂。该项目的目标是在理解昆虫授粉服务对美国经济的关键作用方面发挥关键作用，就农业产出以及对工业部门和更大经济的级联效应而言。本研究结果将有助于进一步认识生态系统产品和服务在经济产品和服务的生命周期中的作用，并有望对研究人员、利益相关者、政策制定者、昆虫学家、保护主义者、工业生态学家和LCA从业者在授粉服务的经济作用方面发挥重要作用。教育展览和模块旨在吸引数百名工程和科学学生，同时计划为K-12学生和市民开展公共宣传活动。这些研究将教育下一代科学和工程工作者昆虫和授粉的重要性，这是一个具有重大社会意义的话题。

1603667 (Khanna) and 1605669 (Grozinger)One of the critical ecological supporting services for the nation's economy is pollination provided by insects (both managed and wild species). However, in recent years, increased habitat loss, reduction in available forage sources, climate change, monotonous diets, stressful management practices and vulnerability to pests has placed heightened stress on pollinator species. Understanding the economic value of pollination services attributable to managed and wild pollinators will highlight the critical importance and dependence of the U.S. economy on pollinators, and the key role played by pollinators in sustaining human and industrial activity. Comprehensively assessing the economic contribution of pollinators will help provide a basis for setting priorities for their conservation. This project brings together highly complementary expertise in sustainability science and engineering (PI Khanna) and pollinator biology and health (PI Grozinger) for understanding and quantifying the direct and indirect economic dependencies of the U.S. economy on insect-mediated pollination services, and identifying the industry sectors and industrial communities (group of closely linked sectors) that are most vulnerable to reductions of insect-mediated pollination service. In this project, a a novel framework will be developed for quantifying the direct and indirect economic dependencies of the U.S. economy and industry sectors on insect-mediated pollination service. The data and methods developed will be broadly applicable for evaluating the economic importance of pollination services to the world economy, as well as evaluating other ecosystem goods and services. The framework will help identify industrial sectors that are at most risks or likely to experience the most disruption arising from a reduction of pollination services. By quantifying both the direct dependencies of the agricultural sectors and the indirect economic dependencies of non-agricultural of the U.S. economy on insect pollinators, a holistic understanding will be gained of the role that pollination services play in product and industrial life cycles. Additionally, the creation of a new environmental impact category in the framework will facilitate easier quantification of the dependence of economic goods and services on pollination services on a life cycle basis with a specific focus on honey bees. The project is targeted to play a pivotal role in understanding the critical role of insect pollination services for the U.S. economy, in terms of agricultural output as well as cascading effects on industrial sectors and the larger economy. The insights resulting from this work may lead to greater appreciation of the role of ecosystem goods and services in the life cycle of economic products and services, and is anticipated to play an important role for educating researchers, stakeholders, policy makers, entomologists, conservationists, industrial ecologists, and LCA practitioners on the economic role of pollination services. Educational exhibits and modules are designed to engage hundreds of engineering and science students, while public outreach activities are planned for K-12 students and citizens. These studies will educate the next generation of the science and engineering workforce on the importance of insects and pollination, a topic of significant societal relevance.