Managing the Activity of Pollinators in Protected Cropping Systems (MAPP-CS)

背景：英国每年生产约6亿英镑的软水果，其中包括65万吨水果。通过垂直农场、封闭式大棚和大棚/温室等封闭系统进行的生产正在增加，并且完全依赖于管理授粉者为坐果提供花粉转移。随着能源、水、肥料和劳动力成本的增加和可用性的提高，商业种植者面临着保持盈利的巨大挑战。因此，种植者必须提高生产效率，以应对这些挑战。政策和对水果数量和质量的影响是实现这一目标的主要途径。当软果（例如草莓）得到最佳授粉时，它具有更高的产量，质量和营养状况，因此利润更高。花粉通常由管理的熊蜂传递到室内作物（欧洲的熊蜂，包括英国），但其他商业生产的传粉者也可用（蜜蜂，石匠蜜蜂，hoverflies）.挑战：PACE生长系统的传粉者表现不佳，因为传粉昆虫不太活跃，死亡率较高，大黄蜂经常不返回巢穴，导致较低的果实产量和质量以及蜂巢更快地过期。这对种植者有很大的经济影响。这些行为的原因可能与环境光和其他环境因素有关。重要的是要理解挑战的作用，例如：高度同质的作物外观和气味，导致传粉者努力寻找方向并找到回家的路;日出/日落作为一个模糊的，部分扩散的点源出现，扰乱方向;和辅助照明干扰导航和任务-由于蜜蜂不熟悉的光谱特性或使搜索任务更加困难，因此，我们将研究封闭系统中传粉者表现不佳的驱动因素，包括照明和导航因素，并尝试一系列负担得起的干预措施，以改善传粉者的活动并降低死亡率。实验将包括受控实验室条件下的生物测定和种植者现场的大规模试验，以确定并测试改善作物生产力和授粉者健康的干预措施。主要目标是：计算授粉不足对种植者的影响;评估补充授粉的表现（如气吹和食蚜蝇）评估高度创新的光衰减薄膜和其他负担得起的干预措施，以改善授粉者作物的重点和授粉的最终效果，包括：干预措施的适用性和权衡与作物性能如何优化授粉者福利和性能的环境在整个季节和不同年份之间的干预措施的寿命应用和效益：通过确定授粉者死亡和作物重点不佳的原因，并评估负担得起的解决方案，农场将看到减少浪费管理授粉者，并改善授粉，从而提高水果质量和产量。这将减少水果浪费，提高生产效率和可持续增长，因为用更少的投入生产更多的产量。种植者的收入将从产量的提高中增加，推动英国国内的进一步投资和生产，随着国内产量的增加，对进口的需求将减少。英国消费者将受益于质量更好的水果，而不会提高价格。

Context: The UK produces around £600m of soft-fruit annually, comprising 650,000 tonnes of fruit per year. Production via enclosed systems such as vertical farms, enclosed polytunnels, and poly-houses/glasshouses is increasing and completely dependent on managed pollinators to provide pollen transfer for fruit-set. Commercial growers are facing large challenges to maintain profitable with increasing energy, water, fertiliser, and labour costs and availability. Growers therefore must increase production efficiency to meet these challenges. Pollination and the impact on fruit quantity and quality is a major route to achieving this. When soft-fruit (e.g. strawberry) is optimally pollinated it has higher yield, quality and nutritional profile, and so is more profitable. Pollination is usually delivered to indoor crops by managed bumblebees (Bombus terrestris in Europe, including UK), but other commercially produced pollinators are available (honeybees, mason bees, hoverflies).Challenge: PACE growing systems suffer from poor pollinator performance because pollinating insects are less active, have higher mortality and bumblebees often do not return to the nest, resulting in lower fruit yields and quality and the hive expiring more quickly. This has significant economic impacts on growers. The reasons for these behaviours may relate to the ambient light and other environmental factors. It is important to understand the role of challenges such as: the highly homogeneous crop appearance and scent, causing pollinators to struggle orient and find their way home; rising/setting sun appearing as an indistinct, partly-diffused point-source that disrupts orientation; and supplementary lighting interfering with navigation and task-focus due to light spectral properties that are unfamiliar to bees or that make search tasks more difficult.Aims and objectives: We will research the drivers of pollinator underperformance in enclosed systems, including lighting and navigational factors, and trial a range of affordable interventions to improve pollinator activity and reduce mortality. Experiments will include both bioassays in controlled laboratory conditions and larger-scale trials on growers' sites, to identify and then test interventions to improve crop productivity and pollinator health.The main objectives are to:Calculate the impacts of under-pollination for growers;Assess the performance of complementary pollination (e.g. air-blowing, and hoverflies) in target crops on commercial sites (poly-houses/glasshouses and vertical farms);Evaluate highly innovative light-attenuating films and other affordable interventions to improve pollinator crop-focus and the resultant efficacy of pollination including:interventions for suitability and trade-offs with crop performancehow to optimise the environment for pollinator welfare and performancelongevity of interventions through the season and between yearsApplications and benefits: By identifying causes of pollinator mortality and poor crop-focus, and assessing affordable solutions, farms will see reduced waste of managed pollinators, and improve pollination and thus fruit quality and yield. This will result in lower fruit waste, and increased production efficiency and sustainable growing as more yield is produced with fewer inputs. Grower revenues will increase from the improved yields, driving further investment and production within the UK, and with greater domestic production the need for imports will be reduced. UK consumers will benefit from better quality fruit without increasing prices.