Optimization of pollination of greenhouse-grown tomatoes by bumblebees

蜜蜂作为大多数水果和蔬菜作物的传粉者起着至关重要的作用。温室种植的番茄需要主动的花粉传递，要么通过机械手段，要么通过像家养大黄蜂这样的觅食蜜蜂。在温室中，由大黄蜂授粉的西红柿比机械授粉的西红柿果实更大，每公顷产量更高。然而，使用大黄蜂有一些缺点。种植者被限制使用黄尾大黄蜂的英国本土亚种，B. terrestris audax，以防止疾病传播给野生大黄蜂。然而，这些菌落通常在放置2-4周内下降，并且在软质水果和蔬菜作物上表现出相对较差的授粉率，包括具有商业价值的番茄品种。他们表现不佳的原因尚不清楚。目前，种植者把菌落放在温室里，没有对菌落进行任何直接监测。除了计算来访的蜜蜂在花上留下的咬痕外，他们也没有办法将蜜蜂的行为与实际的授粉率和番茄产量联系起来。在这里，我们提议与英国最大的温室番茄种植商Thanet Earth（肯特郡）和基于传感器的蜜蜂技术公司bee - ops合作，开发方法来监测和改善对英国种植番茄的b.s terrestris audax的管理。本项目主要有四个目标：(1)测量温室番茄作物中大黄蜂群体的授粉效率；(2)确定群体阶段和营养状况对大黄蜂群体寿命和觅食率的影响；(3)通过在群体内暴露花的化学信号，提高番茄的传粉能力；(4)利用obs 1-3的数据创建优化授粉率的改进蜂群管理策略。在项目1中，通过与Bee-Ops合作，我们将采用最新的人工智能和传感器技术来监测Thanet Earth商业温室中b.s terrestris audax菌落的活动。传感器技术将使我们能够为种植者提供有关授粉现状的重要数据：从他们首选的供应商那里收到的菌落质量评级，以及关于特定品种的花朵访问和菌落觅食率及其在特定条件下（例如，一年中的时间，温度）对产量的影响的高分辨率信息。在Obj 2中，我们将全面测试引入温室的群体的发育阶段对觅食率的影响。利用Wright和Stevenson实验室开发的一种优化的大黄蜂花粉替代品，我们的目标是通过研究群体发育早期营养干预如何影响群体规模和觅食率来提高群体寿命。在Obj 3中，我们将测量番茄花香释放的挥发性化合物。使用史蒂文森实验室开发的方法，我们将通过将蜜蜂暴露在与含咖啡因的花蜜相关的番茄花香中来训练蜜蜂学习朝向番茄花香。这些数据将构成Obj 4中设计的策略的基础，以显示特定干预措施如何提高大黄蜂对特定番茄品种的授粉效率。与我们的项目伙伴一起，我们将为最佳的番茄授粉设计新的策略。我们预测，通过本提案开发的方法组合将推广到大黄蜂在温室或综合隧道中种植的其他水果和蔬菜作物的授粉。

Bees play a critical role as pollinators of most fruit and vegetable crops. Greenhouse grown tomatoes require active pollen transfer, either through mechanical means or by foraging bees such as the domesticated bumblebee, Bombus terrestris. In greenhouses, tomatoes pollinated by bumblebees have larger fruit and greater yield per hectare than those pollinated mechanically. However, using bumblebees has some drawbacks. Growers are limited to use the UK native subspecies of the buff-tailed bumblebee, B. terrestris audax, to prevent the spread of disease to wild bumblebees. However, these colonies generally decline within 2-4 weeks of placement and exhibit relatively poor pollination rates on soft fruit and vegetable crops including commercially-valuable tomato varieties. The reasons for their poor performance are unknown. At the present, growers place colonies in glasshouses without any direct monitoring of the colonies. With the exception of counting bitemarks on flowers left by visiting bees, they also have no way to relate the behaviour of the bees to actual pollination rate and yield of tomatoes. Here, we propose to develop methods to monitor and improve the management of B.terrestris audax on UK grown tomatoes in collaboration with the UK's biggest glasshouse tomato grower, Thanet Earth (Kent) and sensor-based bee technology company, Bee-Ops.Our project has four main objectives: (1) To measure the pollination efficiency of bumblebee colonies in tomato crops in greenhouses (2) To identify how colony phase and nutritional state influence colony longevity and foraging rate of bumblebee colonies; (3) To improve the pollination of tomatoes by B. terrestris audax through in-colony exposure to floral chemical cues; (4) To create a strategy for improved colony management that optimizes pollination rate using data from Objs 1-3.In Obj 1, through collaboration with Bee-Ops, we will employ the latest AI and sensor technology to monitor the activity of B.terrestris audax colonies in commercial glasshouses at Thanet Earth. Sensor technology will enable us to provide the growers important data about the current state of pollination: a rating of the quality of the colonies received from their preferred suppliers and high resolution information about floral visitation and foraging rate of colonies for specific varieties and its influence on yields under particular conditions (e.g. time of year, temperature). In Obj 2, we will comprehensively test how the developmental phase of the colony introduced to the glasshouse influences foraging rate. Using an optimized pollen substitute for bumblebees developed by Wright and Stevenson's laboratories, we aim to improve colony longevity by studying how nutritional intervention early in colony development affects the colony's population size and foraging rate. In Obj 3, we will measure the volatile compounds emitted by tomato floral odours. Using methods developed in Stevenson's laboratory, we will train bees to learn to orient towards tomato floral scents by exposing bees in colonies to tomato floral scent in association with caffeinated nectar. These data will form the basis of a strategy devised in Obj 4 to show how specific interventions improve the pollination efficiency of bumblebees on specific tomato varietals. Together with our project partners, we will devise new strategies for optimal tomato pollination. We predict that the combination of methods we develop through this proposal will generalize to bumblebee pollination of other fruit and vegetable crops grown in greenhouses or polytunnels.