Collaborative Research: Reassembling pollinator communities to promote pollination function at the landscape scale

传粉者提高了全球约35%的作物产量和75%的作物类型的果实和种子产量。野生传粉者种群目前正遭受栖息地丧失的痛苦，而半驯化传粉者，特别是最广泛使用的作物传粉者欧洲蜜蜂，由于疾病、杀虫剂和未知原因，在北美和欧洲正在减少。在一些地区，这些损失已经达到了关键的比例。随着授粉服务的减少，人类的饮食可能会变得贫乏，因为水果和蔬菜为我们提供了必要的维生素和微量营养素。依赖传粉者繁殖的野生植物种群(大多数开花植物)也可能受到影响，对其他野生动物可能产生连锁影响。这项研究将利用多管齐下的方法，了解景观中生境斑块的分布如何支持农业区的野生传粉者群落，从而确保继续向农作物提供授粉服务。这一综合方法包括在加利福尼亚州中央山谷进行实地观察和实验，开发数学模型以了解太空中的授粉服务，并将这些模型应用于全球各地的授粉研究。对授粉服务的更多了解可以通过确定使不同的传粉者群体恢复农业的途径来造福社会，从而有助于减少过度依赖蜜蜂作为农业生产的关键投入的风险。这项研究还将有助于从根本上理解景观尺度上生境分布的变化与其所产生的生态系统服务之间的关系。三名博士后科学家将在这个项目中接受指导和培训，还有许多本科生。结果将通过与Xerces协会的互动来促进公众宣传，Xerces协会与加利福尼亚州和美国各地的农民合作，保护本土传粉者社区，使农业受益。将通过伊利诺伊州的林肯公园动物园进行更多的外联活动，以增加对公民科学授粉计划的参与。

Pollinators provide enhanced fruit and seed production for roughly 35% of global crop production and 75% of crop types. Wild pollinator populations are currently suffering from habitat loss, while semi-domesticated pollinators, particularly the most widely used crop pollinator, the European honey bee, are declining in North America and Europe due to diseases, pesticides and unknown causes. These losses have reached critical proportions in some areas. As pollination services decline, human diets could become impoverished in fruits and vegetables that provide us with essential vitamins and micro-nutrients. Wild plant populations that depend on pollinators for reproduction (the majority of flowering plants) may also suffer, with potential cascading effects on other wildlife. This research will utilize a multi-pronged approach to understand how the distribution of habitat patches in a landscape can support wild pollinator communities in agricultural regions and thus ensure the continued delivery of pollination services to crops. This comprehensive approach includes field observations and experiments in the Central Valley of California, development of mathematical models for understanding pollination services across space, and application of these models to pollination studies from around the globe. The increased understanding of pollination services can benefit society by identifying pathways for restoring a diverse community of pollinators to agriculture, and thus helping to reduce the risk of over-reliance on honey bees as a critical input to agricultural production. This research will also contribute to the fundamental understanding of the relationship between changing habitat distributions at the landscape scale and the ecosystem services they produce. Three postdoctoral scientists will be mentored and trained in this project, along with numerous undergraduate students. Results will contribute to public outreach through interactions with the Xerces Society which works with farmers in California and across the U.S. to conserve native pollinator communities to benefit agriculture. Additional outreach will be conducted through the Lincoln Park Zoo in Illinois to increase participation in a citizen science pollination program.