INNOVATION FOR IMPROVED STRAWBERRY POLLINATION BY COMMERCIAL BUMBLEBEES USING CAFFEINE

利用商业大黄蜂利用咖啡因改善草莓授粉的创新

• 批准号: BB/P007589/1
• 负责人: Philip Stevenson
• 金额: $ 23.17万
• 依托单位: University of Greenwich
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2017 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=BB%2FP007589%2F1
• 关键词: INNOVATION; IMPROVED; STRAWBERRY; POLLINATION; COMMERCIAL

Efficient pollination by insects, especially bees, is critical to ensuring food security and yields of many crops. Production of soft fruit such as strawberries in the UK is worth around £360m annually, is growing year on year but depends heavily upon pollination by insects, particularly bees. When pollination is inadequate it frequently results in misshapen fruit. Owing to inadequate numbers of wild pollinators in agricultural ecosystems, strawberry growers rely heavily on commercially-bought colonies of bumblebees to try to improve pollination, but this is not always sufficient. Misshapen fruit must still be harvested despite poor sales potential in order to control pest insects that otherwise build up on them, so under-pollination causes a significant unwanted cost to growers.Successful fruit production requires bees to carry pollen between flowers of the same crop species. Foraging bees often specialise on one species, which helps ensure this pollen transfer. Plants encourage this by providing distinctive cues such as unique flower odours, colours or shape which bees remember. Low doses of caffeine make bees remember cues such as floral odour more accurately, and increase bees' foraging activity. This project will investigate whether it is possible to prime managed bumblebees on strawberry farms to prefer foraging on the flowers of the crop, in order to pollinate them more effectively.The project will carry out experiments to test the ability of caffeine to improve crop pollination in field and laboratory settings. Bumblebees will be provided experimentally with caffeinated nectar alongside a synthetic strawberry flower's scent. Since caffeine improves bees' memory for the scents of flowers, the project will test whether these bees show increased foraging activity and attraction to strawberry flowers when they receive this priming treatment. We predict that if the preference of commercial bumblebees for strawberries is improved, the bees will visit more flowers, be more efficient at pollinating the crop and thus will enable the production of higher-quality, more valuable fruit.Field tests of this technology will be performed on working farms using bumblebees to pollinate their strawberry crop, measuring fruit quality and yield resulting from this bumblebee-priming technology. The outdoor trials will also be supported by laboratory and semi-field experiments that optimise this system to get the best dose and timing of the priming system. A final economic assessment in consultation with the projects collaborative private sector stakeholders who have invested in this research will consider the potential financial benefits to the farmer of using caffeine-primed bees.We anticipate that evidence for enhanced pollination services delivered by bumblebees will provide a compelling commercial opportunity that adds value to bee colony provision and could ultimately lead to enhanced pollination and fruit set in other pollinator dependent crop species.

昆虫，特别是蜜蜂的有效授粉，对于确保粮食安全和许多作物的产量至关重要。在英国，草莓等软水果的产量每年价值约3.6亿英镑，每年都在增长，但在很大程度上取决于昆虫，特别是蜜蜂的授粉。当授粉不充分时，它经常导致畸形的果实。由于农业生态系统中野生授粉者数量不足，草莓种植者严重依赖商业购买的熊蜂群体来改善授粉，但这并不总是足够的。尽管销售潜力很低，但畸形水果仍然必须被收获，以控制害虫，否则会在水果上积聚，因此授粉不足会给种植者带来大量不必要的成本。成功的水果生产需要蜜蜂在同一作物品种的花朵之间携带花粉。觅食的蜜蜂通常专注于一个物种，这有助于确保花粉的传递。植物通过提供独特的线索，如蜜蜂记住的独特花香、颜色或形状，鼓励蜜蜂这样做。低剂量的咖啡因使蜜蜂更准确地记住花香等线索，并增加蜜蜂的觅食活动。该项目将研究是否有可能在草莓农场引导管理的熊蜂更喜欢在作物的花朵上觅食，以便更有效地授粉。该项目将在田间和实验室环境中进行实验，以测试咖啡因改善作物授粉的能力。大黄蜂将实验性地提供含咖啡因的花蜜和合成草莓花的香味。由于咖啡因可以改善蜜蜂对花香的记忆，因此该项目将测试这些蜜蜂在接受这种引发治疗时是否表现出增加的觅食活动和对草莓花的吸引力。我们预测，如果商业熊蜂对草莓的偏好得到改善，蜜蜂将访问更多的花朵，更有效地为作物授粉，从而能够生产更高质量，更有价值的水果。这项技术的田间试验将在使用熊蜂为草莓作物授粉的农场进行，测量这种熊蜂引发技术带来的水果质量和产量。室外试验还将得到实验室和半现场实验的支持，这些实验将优化该系统，以获得预充系统的最佳剂量和时间。与投资于本研究的项目合作私营部门利益相关者协商的最终经济评估将考虑使用咖啡因对农民的潜在经济利益-我们预计，熊蜂提供的增强授粉服务的证据将提供一个引人注目的商业机会，增加蜂群供应的价值，并最终导致其他蜜蜂授粉和坐果的增强。依赖传粉者的作物种类。

项目成果

For antagonists and mutualists: the paradox of insect toxic secondary metabolites in nectar and pollen

• DOI: 10.1007/s11101-019-09642-y
• 发表时间: 2019-08
• 期刊: Phytochemistry Reviews
• 影响因子: 7.7
• 作者: P. Stevenson

Effects of short-term exposure to naturally occurring thymol concentrations on transmission of a bumble bee parasite

短期暴露于天然存在的百里酚浓度对熊蜂寄生虫传播的影响

• DOI: 10.1111/een.12631
• 发表时间: 2018
• 期刊: Ecological Entomology
• 影响因子: 2.2
• 作者: Rothchild K

Detection rates of aphid DNA in the guts of larval hoverflies and potential links to the provision of floral resources.

食蚜蝇幼虫肠道中蚜虫 DNA 的检出率以及与花卉资源供应的潜在联系。

• DOI: 10.1017/s0007485321001115
• 发表时间: 2022
• 期刊: Bulletin of entomological research
• 影响因子: 1.9
• 作者: Hodgkiss D

Syrphine hoverflies are effective pollinators of commercial strawberry

食蚜蝇是商业草莓的有效传粉者

• DOI: 10.26786/1920-7603(2018)five
• 发表时间: 2018
• 期刊: Journal of Pollination Ecology
• 作者: Hodgkiss D

A comparison of coffee floral traits under two different agricultural practices.

两种不同农业实践下咖啡花性状的比较。

• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-43753-y
• 发表时间: 2019
• 期刊: Scientific reports
• 影响因子: 4.6
• 作者: Prado SG