Community-mediated mechanisms to stabilize pollination of agricultural production highly dependent on shrinking honey bee populations under global change

加州的杏仁代表了一个农业生态系统，仅由单一物种授粉，欧洲蜜蜂，一个物种，正变得越来越困难和昂贵的管理，由于大量的，不可预测的死亡率。因此，可持续和高产量生产需要采取更加综合的办法，使授粉来源多样化。为此，我们需要了解多样性如何稳定授粉的详细数据。该项目将确定替代的野生授粉物种，并收集高质量的数据，有助于我们了解多样性（花粉和昆虫）如何在稳定和不稳定的气候条件下支持蜜蜂授粉。这项研究将在北方加州的杏仁果园进行，这些果园要么是传粉者物种丰富（多达30种），要么是缺乏传粉者（仅蜜蜂）。传粉者多样性的复制极端代表了一个独特的机会，结合实验室和温室实验，在真实的农业生态系统中研究多样性对传粉的影响。总体目标是提供基础研究，这对于我们全面了解昆虫多样性如何影响土地利用和气候变化下的高质量授粉至关重要。

Almond in California represents an agroecosystem pollinated solely by a single species, the European honey bee, a species that is becoming increasingly difficult and expensive to manage due to substantial, unpredictable mortality. Therefore, sustainable and high output production require a more integrated approach that diversifies sources of pollination. For this purpose, detailed data of our understanding how diversity can stabilize pollination are required. The project will identify alternative wild pollinator species and collect high quality data contributing to our understanding of how diversity (pollen and insects) can bolster honey bee pollination during stable and unstable climatic conditions. The research will be carried out on almond orchards in Northern California known to be either pollinator species rich (up to 30 species) or depauperate (honey bees only). The replicated extremes in pollinator diversity represent a unique opportunity to study the effects of diversity on pollination in real agroecosystems combined with laboratory and glasshouse experiments. The overall goal is to provide basic research that is essential for our general understanding of how insect diversity can affect high-quality pollination under land use and climate change.