Sustainable Apiculture: the impact of hive density on honeybee productivity and native biodiversity

除了南极洲以外，蜜蜂已被引入各大洲的生态系统，用于授粉和蜂蜜生产。然而，众所周知，蜜蜂有可能与本地野生传粉者争夺食物。例如，据计算，一个蜂房使用的花蜜和花粉可以养活38,400只大黄蜂。鉴于野生传粉媒介承担了大部分作物传粉工作，如果要实现农业的可持续发展，以一种与野生传粉媒介的保护和利用相兼容的方式管理养蜂业是相当重要的。酸性土壤上的农田和自然栖息地（例如用于羊和牛肉生产的沼地和石南地）为英国养蜂人提供了重要的蜜蜂饲料，在英国，石南蜂蜜是一种优质产品。它们还支持大量和高度多样化的野生传粉媒介。然而，这些栖息地对养蜂的承载能力在很大程度上仍然未知。因此，迫切需要更好地了解蜜蜂与本地传粉媒介之间的相互作用，以便为可持续养蜂实践提供信息，并尽量减少对当地生物多样性的不利影响。这个学生项目将从关注英国的养蜂业开始，但它将产生可持续养蜂业的知识和创新，然后将在南非应用。该项目的数据和结论将直接纳入南非当地合作组织向土地所有者提供的养蜂场管理建议。这项研究有四个目标：1)评估整个觅食季节英国沼地对蜜蜂生产的承载能力；2)测试蜜蜂和本地传粉媒介是否存在资源竞争；3)应用在英国产生的知识，为南非的可持续蜂蜜生产提供证据基础；4)构建社会生态网络，确定养蜂人对生物多样性的影响。通过与布里斯托尔大学和卡迪夫大学的多学科团队合作，以及与南非的合作者合作，成功的申请人将受益于多样化的培训。候选人将在这两个国家开展实地工作，与当地养蜂人密切合作，与利益相关者面谈，收集有关授粉网络、开花物候学和社会生态网络的实地数据，并进行实地实验。

The honeybee has been introduced to ecosystems on every continent except Antarctica for pollination and honey production. It's well known however that honeybees have the potential to compete with native wild pollinators for food. For example, it has been calculated that the nectar and pollen used by a single apiary could support 38,400 bumblebees. Given that wild pollinators carry out the bulk of crop pollination, managing apiculture in a manner compatible with the conservation and utilization of wild pollinators is of considerable importance if agriculture is to be sustainable. Farmland and natural habitats on acid soils (e.g. moorlands and heathland, used for sheep and beef production) provide important honeybee forage for beekeepers in the UK where Heather Honey is a premium product. They also support a large abundance and a high diversity of wild pollinators. However, the carrying capacity of these habitats for beekeeping remains largely unknown. There is therefore an urgent need to better understand the interactions between honeybees and the native pollinators to inform sustainable beekeeping practices and to minimise any adverse impacts on local biodiversity. This studentship will start by focusing on UK apiculture, but it will generate knowledge and innovation in sustainable apiculture which will then be applied in South Africa. The data and conclusions of this project will feed directly into apiary management recommendations provided to landowners by a local partner organisation in South Africa. This studentship has four objectives: 1) to evaluate the carrying capacity of UK moorland for honeybee production over the whole foraging season; 2) to test whether honeybees and native pollinators are competing for resources; 3) to apply the knowledge generated in the UK to provide the evidence base for sustainable honey production in South Africa; and 4) to construct socio-ecological networks to determine the impact of beekeepers on biodiversity. The successful applicant will benefit from a diverse training through working with a multi-disciplinary team based at the University of Bristol and at Cardiff University, and working with collaborators in South Africa. The candidate will carry outfieldwork in both countries working closely with local beekeepers using stakeholder interviews, collecting field data on pollination networks, flowering phenology and socio-ecological networks, and running field experiment.