PollenNet: Using pollinators to increase farm resilience

COVID19大流行加剧了持续不断的挑战，需要满足授粉需求，以确保果树和许多其他作物的最佳作物产量。由于从南欧进口的蜜蜂在封锁期间被禁止，养蜂人一直无法补充蜜蜂数量。迫切需要创新，使我们的授粉服务更具弹性。支持和增加野生传粉者丰度的农业管理做法将减少对进口蜜蜂的依赖，并导致更具弹性的作物生产。对传粉者生态的良好理解是促进野生传粉者的管理策略的基础。然而，昆虫生物多样性监测计划遭遇了挫折，因为它们中的大多数依赖于志愿者的监测，而这些监测在封锁期间被搁置。为了应对这些挑战，PollenNet项目将试验一种创新的新设备，用于低成本地自动监测果树传粉者的丰度。对传粉者的自动化监测是农艺管理中的一项进步，每天连续统计整个农场的昆虫访问情况，使农民更容易获得有关传粉者访问的信息。有了这些信息，农民就可以决定是否购买蜜蜂，转移现有的蜜蜂栖息地，理想情况下，创造栖息地来鼓励野生传粉者，减少对购买蜜蜂的依赖。因此，实施自动授粉监测有助于缓解挑战，确保足够的信息支持新冠肺炎大流行带来的有效授粉和传粉者管理。

The COVID19 pandemic has exacerbated ongoing challenges with meeting pollination needs to ensure optimal crop yields in fruit trees and many other crops. Bee farmers have been unable to replenish bee populations as imports of bees from southern Europe were stopped in the lockdown. Innovations that make our pollination services more resilient are urgently needed. Agricultural management practices that support and increase the abundance of wild pollinators will reduce reliance on imported bees and result in more resilient crop production. A good understanding of pollinator ecology underpins management strategies to promote wild pollinators. However, insect biodiversity monitoring programmes have suffered setbacks as most of them rely on volunteer surveillance which were on hold during the lockdown.To address these challenges, the PollenNet project will pilot an innovative new device for low-cost automated monitoring of pollinator abundance on fruit crops. Automated monitoring of pollinators is a step-change in agronomic management with continuous daily counting of insect visitation across a farm making information on pollinator visitation more accessible to farmers. With this information, farmers can make decisions about whether to purchase bees, move existing bee habitats and ideally, create habitats to encourage wild pollinators, reducing reliance on purchased bees. As such, implementation of automated pollination monitoring helps to mitigate challenges with ensuring sufficient information supports effective pollination and pollinator management presented by the covid-19 pandemic.