Challenges and opportunities for the Quebec cranberry industry: towards better management of wild pollinators

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Declines in pollinator diversity and abundance can be attributed to multiple environmental stressors, including climate change, disease spread, and land use change. Recent studies have shown that agricultural intensification greatly reduces pollination services, but research is needed to identify specific agronomic practices that lead to greater impacts, or conversely, promote pollinator communities. Cranberry is an important crop in Canada, and the industry is rapidly growing in Québec. Cranberry production depends on pollination services provided by insects, and growers mostly rely on managed bees, such as bumble and honey bees. Managed pollinators, however, are in decline and increasingly costly, threatening the industry's prospects. Enhancing wild pollinators could reduce dependence on manages bees, but their persistence in agroecosystems depends both on local management practices and the maintenance of high-quality habitats around farms. Cranberry production practices that enhance wild pollinators could strengthen the industry's resilience against managed bees decline and decrease the costs associated with renting or purchasing managed pollinators.Understanding basic evolutionary and ecological aspects of the pollination services required in cranberry production can also inform how to make the industry more sustainable and reduce the crop's ecological impact on biodiversity. This project will assess how different farm management practices affect wild pollinator communities, and how pollinator phylogenetic diversity translates to functional diversity'which ultimately mediates ecosystem services. Multiple studies have quantified changes in the functional and phylogenetic diversity of pollinators due to land-use change, but few have attempted to identify specific agronomic practices driving these changes. This knowledge could inform growers, stakeholders, and policy makers on more sustainable cranberry practices that maintain desired crop yield while simultaneously increasing native pollinator services and decreasing bumble and honey bee density.The role of landscape simplification and agricultural intensification on reducing pollinator diversity is well known, but few studies have examined the relationships among pollinator phylogeny, environment, functional traits, and pollination services. Innovative aspects of this project include: (i) integrating taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic diversity; (ii) linking the functional ecology of wild pollinators to farm management practices and need for managed bees; and (iii) utilizing modern genomic and statistical methods for robust estimates of phylogeny and functional diversity. Insects sampled in this project will be prepared for long-term archival at the McGill Lyman Entomological Museum using the requested critical point dryer. This instrument prevents shrivelling of specimens while also preserving their DNA, thus facilitating their identification and the acquisition of functional traits and genomic data for phylogeny estimation. By investigating the effect of farm management practices on the native pollinator communities in and around cranberry fields, project outcomes will provide a direct channel to stakeholders and policy makers in Quebec and beyond. We will assess linkage between taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic diversity, exploring multiple biodiversity facets for a comprehensive understanding of cultural practices conducive to increasing pollinator diversity and ecosystem services in agroecosystems. This research will inform stakeholders and policy makers on more sustainable and pollinator-friendly cranberry practices that enhance farm profitability, industry resilience, and promote better management of agroecosystems.