Investigating the Mechanics of Buzz Pollination: A Structural Dynamics Perspective

这笔赠款将资助研究，使人们能够更好地了解蜜蜂如何从花朵中提取花粉，并应用于人工授粉系统的设计，以降低成本，提高依赖自然授粉者数量减少的农作物产量，从而促进科学进步，促进国家繁荣和福利。番茄、辣椒和茄子等具有经济价值的作物依靠当地蜜蜂种群进行繁殖，这种行为称为蜂音授粉，蜜蜂降落在花蕊（雄性生殖器官）上，并迅速振动它以释放花粉。这些花粉收集在蜜蜂的腹部，并可能转移到另一朵花的雌蕊（雌性生殖器官），因为蜜蜂继续觅食。蜂音授粉对粮食安全至关重要，但人们对花释放花粉的机械过程知之甚少。这种知识差距阻碍了新技术的发展，这些技术可能会补充农业环境中的自然授粉者。在这个项目中，这一挑战是克服了高保真，数据驱动的模型的结构力学的可变形雄蕊和花粉排出的动力学，使用物理实验和先进的计算分析系统的发展。同时为公众开发蜂音授粉工作坊、视频和其他资源将增加本研究的可及性，本研究旨在量化蜜蜂引起的动态载荷下花雄蕊的结构变形响应，以及随后由于雄蕊振动和诱导的空气动力学流动而导致的花粉排出。这个项目将提供关键的洞察力如何振动力传授蜂授粉优化，以最大限度地释放花粉。 首先，将进行实验研究，以量化蜜蜂授粉的蜜蜂所赋予的力量，并测量花蕊如何对这种力量作出反应。然后，将创建和完善雄蕊的微元模型，以便它们准确地预测先前测量的动态响应。最后，花粉排出的计算模型将开发使用离散元方法和移动边界条件规定的有限元建模的雄蕊。这些花粉驱逐模型将考虑颗粒动力学，粘附，摩擦和粘性空气动力学。花粉颗粒参数将通过原子力和光学显微镜的组合来识别。参数研究将揭示哪些物理现象对花粉排出最关键。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This grant will fund research that enables a better understanding of how bees extract pollen from flowers, with application to the design of artificial pollination systems for reducing costs and enhancing yields of agricultural crops that depend on dwindling numbers of natural pollinators, thereby promoting the progress of science and advancing the national prosperity and welfare. Economically valuable crops such as tomatoes, chilies, and eggplant rely for reproduction on native bee populations performing a behavior called buzz pollination, in which a bee lands on a flower stamen (male reproductive organ) and rapidly vibrates it to release its pollen. This pollen is collected on the bee’s abdomen and may be transferred to the pistil (female reproductive organ) of another flower as the bee continues to forage. While buzz pollination is critical to food security, the mechanical processes by which pollen are released by the flower are poorly understood. This knowledge gap stands in the way of the development of new technologies that may supplement natural pollinators in agricultural settings. In this project, this challenge is overcome by a systematic development of high-fidelity, data-driven models of the structural mechanics of deformable stamens and the dynamics of pollen expulsion using physical experiments and advanced computational analysis. Concurrent development of buzz pollination workshops, video, and other resources for the public will increase the accessibility of this research.This research aims to quantify the structural deformation response of floral stamens under dynamic loads induced by a bee and the subsequent expulsion of pollen due to stamen vibrations and induced aerodynamic flows. This project will provide critical insight into how the vibratory forces imparted by buzz-pollinating bees are optimized to maximize pollen release. First, experimental studies will be conducted to quantify the forces imparted by buzz-pollinating bees and to measure how floral stamens respond to such forces. Finite-element models of stamens will then be created and refined such that they accurately predict previously measured dynamic responses. Finally, computational models of pollen expulsion will be developed using the discrete-element method and moving boundary conditions prescribed from finite element modeling of the stamen. These pollen expulsion models will consider particle kinetics, adhesion, friction, and viscous aerodynamics. Pollen particle parameters will be identified via a combination of atomic force and optical microscopy. Parametric studies will reveal which physical phenomena are most critical to pollen expulsion.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.