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Non-bee insects are important contributors to global crop pollination.

ABSTRACT: Wild and managed bees are well documented as effective pollinators of global crops of economic importance. However, the contributions by pollinators other than bees have been little explored despite their potential to contribute to crop production and stability in the face of environmental change. Non-bee pollinators include flies, beetles, moths, butterflies, wasps, ants, birds, and bats, among others. Here we focus on non-bee insects and synthesize 39 field studies from five continents that directly measured the crop pollination services provided by non-bees, honey bees, and other bees to compare the relative contributions of these taxa. Non-bees performed 25-50% of the total number of flower visits. Although non-bees were less effective pollinators than bees per flower visit, they made more visits; thus these two factors compensated for each other, resulting in pollination services rendered by non-bees that were similar to those provided by bees. In the subset of studies that measured fruit set, fruit set increased with non-bee insect visits independently of bee visitation rates, indicating that non-bee insects provide a unique benefit that is not provided by bees. We also show that non-bee insects are not as reliant as bees on the presence of remnant natural or seminatural habitat in the surrounding landscape. These results strongly suggest that non-bee insect pollinators play a significant role in global crop production and respond differently than bees to landscape structure, probably making their crop pollination services more robust to changes in land use. Non-bee insects provide a valuable service and provide potential insurance against bee population declines.

SUBMITTER: Rader R

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4711867 | biostudies-other | 2016 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Non-bee insects are important contributors to global crop pollination.

Rader Romina R Bartomeus Ignasi I Garibaldi Lucas A LA Garratt Michael P D MP Howlett Brad G BG Winfree Rachael R Cunningham Saul A SA Mayfield Margaret M MM Arthur Anthony D AD Andersson Georg K S GK Bommarco Riccardo R Brittain Claire C Carvalheiro Luísa G LG Chacoff Natacha P NP Entling Martin H MH Foully Benjamin B Freitas Breno M BM Gemmill-Herren Barbara B Ghazoul Jaboury J Griffin Sean R SR Gross Caroline L CL Herbertsson Lina L Herzog Felix F Hipólito Juliana J Jaggar Sue S Jauker Frank F Klein Alexandra-Maria AM Kleijn David D Krishnan Smitha S Lemos Camila Q CQ Lindström Sandra A M SA Mandelik Yael Y Monteiro Victor M VM Nelson Warrick W Nilsson Lovisa L Pattemore David E DE Pereira Natália de O Nde O Pisanty Gideon G Potts Simon G SG Reemer Menno M Rundlöf Maj M Sheffield Cory S CS Scheper Jeroen J Schüepp Christof C Smith Henrik G HG Stanley Dara A DA Stout Jane C JC Szentgyörgyi Hajnalka H Taki Hisatomo H Vergara Carlos H CH Viana Blandina F BF Woyciechowski Michal M

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20151130 1

Wild and managed bees are well documented as effective pollinators of global crops of economic importance. However, the contributions by pollinators other than bees have been little explored despite their potential to contribute to crop production and stability in the face of environmental change. Non-bee pollinators include flies, beetles, moths, butterflies, wasps, ants, birds, and bats, among others. Here we focus on non-bee insects and synthesize 39 field studies from five continents that di ...[more]

PMID: 26621730

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Project description:Multiple interacting factors drive recent declines in wild and managed bees, threatening their pollination services. Widespread and intensive monitoring could lead to more effective management of wild and managed bees. However, tracking their dynamic populations is costly. We tested the effectiveness of an inexpensive, noninvasive and passive acoustic survey technique for monitoring bumble bee behavior and pollination services. First, we assessed the relationship between the first harmonic of the flight buzz (characteristic frequency) and pollinator functional traits that influence pollination success using flight cage experiments and a literature search. We analyzed passive acoustic survey data from three locations on Pennsylvania Mountain, Colorado to estimate bumble bee activity. We developed an algorithm based on Computational Auditory Scene Analysis that identified and quantified the number of buzzes recorded in each location. We then compared visual and acoustic estimates of bumble bee activity. Using pollinator exclusion experiments, we tested the power of buzz density to predict pollination services at the landscape scale for two bumble bee pollinated alpine forbs (Trifolium dasyphyllum and T. parryi). We found that the characteristic frequency was correlated with traits known to affect pollination efficacy, explaining 30-52% of variation in body size and tongue length. Buzz density was highly correlated with visual estimates of bumble bee density (r = 0.97), indicating that acoustic signals are predictive of bumble bee activity. Buzz density predicted seed set in two alpine forbs when bumble bees were permitted access to the flowers, but not when they were excluded from visiting. Our results indicate that acoustic signatures of flight can be deciphered to monitor bee activity and pollination services to bumble bee pollinated plants. We propose that applications of this technique could assist scientists and farmers in rapidly detecting and responding to bee population declines.

Dataset Information

Non-bee insects are important contributors to global crop pollination.

Publications

Non-bee insects are important contributors to global crop pollination.

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