Determining optimal wildflower patch arrangements to maximize pollination services by wild bees in cultivated blueberry

确定最佳野花斑块布置，以最大限度地提高野生蜜蜂在栽培蓝莓中的授粉服务

• 批准号: 506922-2017
• 负责人: Tyson, Rebecca
• 金额: $ 6.02万
• 依托单位: University of British Columbia
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Strategic Projects - Group
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2017-01-01 至 2018-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=641978
• 关键词: Determining; optimal; wildflower; patch; arrangements

One in every three bites of food on the North American table exists only because a bee moved pollen from one flower to another. These ``pollination services'' are largely provided by domestic honeybees, but wild bees have an important role. Our focus here is on the pollination services provided to the extensive and economically important cultivated blueberry crops grown in Canada, particularly in the Fraser Valley (BC). Many blueberry varietals are adapted to `buzz pollination,'' a service provided only by wild bees. Wild bee populations, however, are in dramatic decline across the globe, with subsequent reductions in crop productivity.Research suggests that habitat enhancements in the form of wildflower patches could attract and support wild bee populations. Currently, however, the available research can only be used to make very general recommendations, and it is unclear exactly what modifications would most benefit an individual farm. Consequently it is difficult for Fraser Valley blueberry growers to justify investing in expensive and/or time-consuming landscape manipulations. There is thus a need for modelling work, informed by parallel field work, to provide a quantitative means of comparing different wildflower planting arrangements in different agricultural landscapes. Our goal is to use field work and mathematical tools to develop a biologically-informed model that can be used to determine what arrangements of wildflower patches will yield the greatest crop yield in a given agricultural landscape for a given grower. Since recent research has shown that the mechanisms behind pollen deficits vary from one region to another, it is important that we select a particular region for our modelling study. We focus on the Fraser Valley, as this is the largest blueberry growing region in Canada, and pollination deficits in this region are significant (as high as 30%). Our modelling approach and tools, however, will establish a template that can be used to address the same research questions in other blueberry growing regions (e.g. Nova Scotia, Ontario) and in other wild bee-pollinated crops.

北美餐桌上三分之一的食物的存在只是因为蜜蜂将花粉从一朵花转移到另一朵花。这些“授粉服务”主要由家养蜜蜂提供，但野生蜜蜂也发挥着重要作用。我们的重点是为加拿大，特别是弗雷泽河谷（BC）种植的广泛且具有重要经济意义的栽培蓝莓作物提供授粉服务。许多蓝莓品种都适应“蜂鸣授粉”，这种服务只能由野生蜜蜂提供。然而，全球范围内的野生蜜蜂数量急剧下降，农作物生产力随之下降。研究表明，以野花斑块的形式改善栖息地可以吸引和支持野生蜜蜂数量。然而，目前现有的研究只能用于提出非常笼统的建议，并且尚不清楚哪些修改最有利于单个农场。因此，弗雷泽河谷蓝莓种植者很难证明投资昂贵和/或耗时的景观改造是合理的。因此，需要通过平行实地工作进行建模工作，以提供比较不同农业景观中不同野花种植布置的定量方法。我们的目标是利用实地工作和数学工具开发一个生物学模型，该模型可用于确定野花斑块的哪种排列方式将在给定的农业景观中为给定的种植者带来最大的作物产量。由于最近的研究表明花粉缺乏背后的机制因地区而异，因此我们选择特定地区进行建模研究非常重要。我们重点关注弗雷泽河谷，因为这里是加拿大最大的蓝莓种植区，而且该地区的授粉不足非常严重（高达 30%）。然而，我们的建模方法和工具将建立一个模板，可用于解决其他蓝莓种植地区（例如安大略省新斯科舍省）和其他野生蜂授粉作物的相同研究问题。