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Pollination is an essential process for almost all crops and plants, playing a vital role in ensuring a successful crop yield with improved quality of fruits, seed and produce. For several years, honeybees have been the primary pollinators in most agricultural systems under open field conditions, including greenhouses and net houses up to some extent. Honeybees, especially Apis mellifera and Apis cerana indica are highly effective pollinators in natural environments, where they are able to freely forage and access flowers. However, they may not be efficient pollinators under closed environmental conditions such as greenhouses and net houses. In large areas, honeybees have shown reluctance to work under protected structures, and this has led to a decline in pollination efficacy under these environments and conditions. As a result, research on the use of alternative pollinators like bumblebees, carpenter bees, stingless bees, syrphid flies, etc. has been conducted under different structures. Henceforth pollination management under greenhouses and net houses using alternative pollinators, have been discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the research results in the design of a radio frequency module to send humidity and temperature data to a Host-Local for management of information in a database. The operability of the system was achieved through the design of a Graphical User Interface, which was designed in JAVA language. The emitter module is installed on the back of a hexapod robot, designed for complex walks in agricultural lands, which in the future has the mission of carrying out artificial pollination processes. The technical objectives of the project are referred, as well as the maps of the software design through the UML diagram resource, the description of the layers of the software architecture for sending data, the design of the GUI and its connection with the local database created in MySQL. Finally, the graphic evidence of the operation of the system, the assembly in the hexapod robot and the technical conclusions with goals to work on future results are shown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conservation status of pollinators and pollination in Latin America (LA) is reviewed. The knowledge regarding native and managed pollinators (e.g., honeybee and stingless bees) and pollination services was synthetized, and the guidelines to improve the opportunities for conservation are provided, considering the threats to pollinators and the perspectives from traditional and local knowledge. The analysis indicates that diverse threats (e.g., large-scale agriculture, deforestation, overuse of agrochemicals) are linked with pollination and pollinator decline, which affect the reproduction of most native plants and the yields of many crops. LA harbours the highest bee diversity worldwide, with 26% of the total recorded species, and it is a biodiversity hotspot of vertebrate pollinators, including hummingbirds, perching birds, nectarivorous bats and other mammal pollinators. Specific recommendations to conserve native pollinators and to improve pollination services are provided, which could be considered by stakeholders and governments aiming to elaborate biocultural conservation. For example, introducing policies and legal responses for incentives to help farmers maintain natural habitats and forests, to replace or reduce agrochemicals and to improve diversified crop production with agroecological practices; refining agrochemical regulations to minimize the exposure of pollinators to insecticides and herbicides; improving knowledge and education on pollinators and pollination gives societies worldwide the opportunity to change current hegemonic agricultural practices and consumption patterns; integrating different land ethical views of ethnic minorities on a sustainable relationship between production and biodiversity. A wider view combining social, ecological, cultural dimensions may support better decision making. This holistic socio-agroecological perspective is urgently needed to conserve and manage pollinators at different spatial and temporal scales, and to integrate pollination services, pollinator-friendly habitat management approaches and diversified farming systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecosystem services (ES) provide a range of benefits to people, but landowners that produce ES are often separate from those receiving benefits. As a result, landowners bear the costs of managing ecosystems, but often share the benefits with others. Accounting for these private and external costs and benefits would improve the effectiveness of payments for ES management.We develop a spatially explicit ES modelling approach to evaluate the alignment of private and external benefits resulting from habitat enhancement for pollinators. After testing the model on synthetic landscapes, we applied it to Yolo County, California, using information on crop type, value per acre and dependence on pollination. Detailed data on parcel ownership allowed us to distinguish private and external costs and benefits of enhancing habitat on any parcel.We found that around 13% of the landowners would generate private benefits that exceed private costs, 47% would generate external benefits greater than private costs, and the remaining 40% would generate neither private nor external benefits greater than private costs. Landowners generating private net benefits had larger fields, more valuable crops and more pollinator‐dependent crops than the other owners.These results reveal mis‐alignments between private and external incentives. Just over half of the Yolo County landowners' pollinator enhancements would produce external benefits, but only 25% of these would have private incentives to do so. We estimated that enhancements by those acting privately could increase the private net present value of crops by $495,309 and provide a total external benefit of $1,193,345. The remaining 47% of landowners' enhancements generated $1,409,247 in additional net external benefits.Accounting for heterogeneity in enhancement benefits due to ownership and crop characteristics allows one to distinguish contexts where enhancements should be managed by groups as a common‐pool resource or by individuals. Rather than fund a PES program to pay for enhancements, effort could be directed towards communicating with landowners about potential private benefits and facilitating common‐pool resource management. Overall, this analysis reveals the importance of partitioning private and external benefits of actions designed to provide ES. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We tested the effect of commercial bumblebees on strawberry pollination and quality. • Commercial bees increased high grade fruit by 25% in an early-flowering variety. • In two other varieties commercial bees had no effect on fruit quality. • Commercial bumblebees do not always provide the benefit they are assumed to. • Commercial bumblebees can be very effective when used in the right circumstance. Both wild and managed pollinators significantly contribute to global food production by providing pollination services to crops. Colonies of commercially-reared honey bees and bumblebees are two of the largest groups of managed pollinators. Bumblebees in particular are increasingly used on soft fruit crops, such as strawberry, an economically important crop globally. Despite the use of commercial bumblebees in strawberry crops, there is little quantitative evidence that they provide a benefit to farmers. Given the negative impacts that commercial colonies can have on wild bee populations, it is vital that the benefits of commercial bumblebees are quantified, so reasoned management decisions can be made that provide maximum benefit to both farmers and wild bees. In this study, commercial colonies of the UK native subspecies Bombus terrestris audax were placed into June-bearer (flowering March-April, varieties 'Malling Centenary' and 'Flair') and everbearer (flowering May-June) strawberry polytunnels on a soft-fruit farm in the south east of England, and opened and closed at weekly intervals. The flower-visiting assemblage inside polytunnels was quantified, and fruit was harvested and quality assessed. In the June-bearer variety Malling Centenary, the presence of commercial bumblebees increased the amount of high commercial grade fruit by 25%. In contrast, no benefit of commercial bees on pollination or fruit quality was observed in the June-bearer variety Flair and the everbearer crop. The increase in quality of fruit in the Malling Centenary crop may be driven by the higher B. terrestris audax flower visitation rates seen in this crop in combination with varietal differences in pollination dependency. The number of flower visits by wild pollinators was not a well-supported predictor of strawberry quality, thus the benefit they provide in this system remains to be elucidated. The results presented here suggest that commercial bumblebees can greatly increase the quality and subsequent value of a strawberry crop, when deployed on a suitable variety at a time when wild pollinator numbers are low. However, the results also raise the possibility that commercial colonies do not always provide the benefits to strawberry crops that they are thought to. For growers to make informed decisions on commercial bumblebee use, further research is required into the effect of commercial bumblebees on the major strawberry varieties, in different locations and seasons. This study is an important step in gaining this understanding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urbanization has detrimental effects on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, as agricultural and semi-natural habitats are converted into landscapes dominated by built features. Urban agricultural sites are a growing component of urban landscapes and have potential to serve as a source of biodiversity conservation and ecosystem service provisioning in urban areas. In 19 urban agricultural sites, we investigated how surrounding land cover and local site variables supported bees and pollination services. We found the abundance of bees differentially responded to landscape and local scale variables depending on body size and nesting habit. Large-bodied bees, Bombus and Apis species, were positively associated with increasing amounts of impervious cover, while the abundance of small-bodied soil nesting Halictus species increased as the proportion of flower area, a local variable, increased. Bee richness declined with increasing levels of impervious cover, while bee community composition changed along a gradient of increasing impervious cover. Pollination services, measured at each site using sentinel cucumber plants, declined as hardscape, a local variable, increased. To improve bee conservation and pollination services in urban agricultural sites, our results suggest urban planning strategies should minimize impervious cover at large spatial scales while land managers should focus locally on incorporating floral resources, which increases food and nesting resources especially for smaller bee species. Local site design coupled with regional urban planning can advance the success of urban agriculture, while benefiting biodiversity by creating opportunities for pollinator conservation in urban landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Most crops grown in Europe, including sunflower (Helianthus annulus L.), benefit from insect pollination. However, valuing this benefit is not straightforward since estimates of the increase in sunflower yield vary from 18% to 100%. Most estimates have, moreover, been performed at plant scale, a scale that is not relevant for farmers who calculate at the field scale. In this four-year study, we quantified the contribution of insect pollination to sunflower yield at field and plant scales in working farm fields distributed along a gradient of pollinator diversity and abundance. Pollinators were found to increase field yield up to 40% (i.e. 0.7 t/ha) and by 31.3% at plant scale; the magnitude of effect on yield being therefore similar at both scales. The pollinators increased the yield by increasing the number of fertilized seeds per plant with no significant effect on the unit mass of the seeds although there was a trade-off between number of seeds and unit mass. Among pollinators, honeybees were the main taxon impacting sunflower yield. Sunflower plant density was a strong determinant of yield, with higher numbers attracting increased numbers of honeybees. Using pollinator and wind exclusion, we finally quantified the relative contributions of self-pollination (∼40%), insect pollination (∼35%) and wind pollination (∼20%). Our results show, to the best of our knowledge, the first evidence of the key role of pollinators in sunflower production at field scale in real farming conditions, and underscore the need to maintain suitable conditions for pollinators in agricultural landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Distribution of consumers in a patch of vegetation can be predicted by resource availability and explained by the resource-concentration and optimal-foraging hypotheses. These hypotheses have not been explored for flower-visiting Orthoptera because they are deemed less economically or ecologically important. Some flower-visiting orthopterans can provide pollination services, which warrants more attention. We studied a Singaporean, floriphilic katydid, Phaneroptera brevis, to investigate the following questions: 1) how frequently does P. brevis visit flowers compared to other flower visitors and 2) what factors predict the abundance of P. brevis? We collected abundance data for P. brevis and other flower-visiting arthropods and quantified seven environmental parameters, including flower abundance and host-plant species richness. We found that P. brevis frequents flowers significantly more often than some common and expected flower visitors such as hoverflies. In line with the prediction of the resource-concentration hypothesis, the abundance of P. brevis was positively correlated with a higher flower abundance. Owing to the limited information on unexpected wild flower visitors and pollinators, especially from the understudied tropics of Southeast Asia, we propose that P. brevis can be a model organism for future studies to answer fundamental questions on flower visitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study utilized the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) pollination model to investigate the impacts of using field data on ecosystem services mapping studies by using potential pollination services in Cumberland and Colchester counties in Nova Scotia, Canada, as a case study. The model was run using two different sources of data to inform the floral resource component of the model. First, the model was run driven by proxies and approximate values gathered from the literature. The second iteration of the model utilized field-based data to generate floral resource abundance and distribution values. Both models utilized honey bee-specific species preference data drawn from field observations and expert opinion in the literature. Results indicated an 8.1% increase in the amount of land designated as high quality when the model was informed by field-based data. Such discrepancies are important when considering the potential implications of ecosystem services mapping studies on policy. As a tool, ecosystem services mapping provides the opportunity to spatially evaluate the impact that different land-use planning regimes could have on the supply and provision of various ecosystem services. However, as its popularity rises, it is important to keep in mind the accuracy and resolution of the data used to inform the modelling process. EDITED BY Edmundo [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The magnitude and the stability of pollination services in entomophilous crops both depend not only on honeybee management but also on the diversity of wild pollinators, which enables additive contributions and replacement of species. This work evaluated the functional niche of cider apple pollinators in Spain and found a highly heterogeneous community of pollinators in taxonomic and functional terms. Through different niche dimensions, our results suggest complementarity (i.e. niche differentiation) in the contribution of the various groups to pollination, through differences in abundance, foraging behaviour, diet and daytime and canopy distribution patterns, as well as redundancy (i.e. niche similarity) in their responses to environmental conditions. Thus, quantitative and qualitative complementarity would promote an additive effect of different insects on pollination, while similarity in environmental response would provide insurance against potential honeybee loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the early 2000s, there has been a resurgence in shade coffee production on the island of Puerto Rico. The newly restored specialized shade canopy consists of four native tree species, three of which are nitrogen fixers, and is intended to provide 30% shade cover once the trees are matured. Though much is known about the benefits of rustic and traditional shade plantations to coffee production, there is little information available for specialized shade plantations. Here, we investigate the ways in which fruit set, seed predation, bean weight, proportion of peaberries (i.e., malformed fruits), and beverage quality differ between sun and specialized shade plantations of Coffea arabica and Coffea canephora . Additionally, to assess whether coffee plants were pollen limited, we conducted a pollen supplementation experiment in which we compared pollen deposition and berry production on hand-pollinated branches to those of naturally, open-pollinated ones. We found that there was no evidence of pollen limitation on fruit set between sun and specialized shade plantations of C. arabica or C. canephora . We found that specialized shade benefits the proportion of C. arabica fruit set, without compromising bean weight or the proportion of peaberries produced. In comparison, C. canephora showed no improvement in the proportion of fruits set with specialized shade; however, beans from open-pollinated flowers weighed more in specialized shade than sun. Beverage quality was marginally better under shade, and for hand-pollinated flowers. Our results add to the limited body of work investigating the benefits of specialized shade coffee plantations on ecosystem services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: An accurate imposing of broad nulls in the side lobe levels of radiation pattern of the symmetric time modulated linear antenna array (STMLAA) is proposed in this article. The broad nulls are intended to be imposed in the range of the angular sector of 40° to 70° of angle of arrival in θ plane which is symmetrical to the main beam of the radiation pattern. The metaheuristic evolutionary algorithm with the hybridization of flower pollination algorithm with Nelder‐Mead simplex method called memetic flower pollination algorithm is used uniquely for the application of pattern synthesis to serve this purpose. The optimized results obtained by using memetic flower pollination algorithm are validated by using Computer Simulation Technology Microwave Studio by taking practical elements of microstrip patch antenna. From algorithm's point of view, the superiority of the adopted algorithm has been justified by the statistical analysis performed along with the basic algorithms, like real‐coded genetic algorithm, particle swarm optimization, and differential evolution. 16‐, 32‐, and 64‐element STMLAA are realized to demonstrate the proposed concept. Broad nulls are aimed to be obtained by the optimal perturbations of switching time sequences and the interelement separations of the elements having symmetricity with respect to the main beam of the radiation pattern. Moreover, the maximum side lobe level is also reduced as compared with that of the uniform linear antenna array for the same element. The microstrip patch antenna with operating frequency of 5.85 GHz has been designed, which is applicable for Wi‐Max application. The concept of pattern multiplication is applied to multiply the element pattern of patch antenna and the array factor of STMLAA of isotropic elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Wild bees are declining in intensively farmed regions worldwide, threatening pollination services to flowering crops and wild plants. To halt bee declines, it is essential that conservation actions are based on a mechanistic understanding of how bee species utilize landscapes. We aimed at teasing apart how foraging resources in the landscape through the nesting season affected nesting and reproduction of a solitary bee in a farmland region. We investigated how availability of floral resources and potentially resource‐rich habitats surrounding nests affected nest provisioning and reproduction in the solitary polylectic bee Osmia bicornis. The study was performed in 18 landscape sectors dominated by agriculture, but varying in agricultural intensity in terms of proportion of organic crop fields and seminatural permanent pastures. Pasture‐rich sectors contained more oak (Quercus robur), which pollen analysis showed to be favored forage in early season. More oaks ≤100 m from nests led to higher proportions of oak pollen in nest provisions and increased speed of nest construction in early season, but this effect tapered off as flowering decreased. Late‐season pollen foraging was dominated by buttercup (Ranunculus spp.), common in various noncrop habitats. Foraging trips were longer with more oaks and increased further through the season. The opposite was found for buttercup. Oak and buttercup interacted to explain the number of offspring; buttercup had a positive effect only when the number of oaks was above the mean for the studied sectors. The results show that quality of complex and pasture‐rich landscapes for O. bicornis depends on preserving existing and generating new oak trees. Lignose plants are key early‐season forage resources in agricultural landscapes. Increasing habitat heterogeneity with trees and shrubs and promoting suitable late‐flowering forbs can benefit O. bicornis and other wild bees active in spring and early summer, something which existing agri‐environment schemes seldom target. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the shadow value of resilience in complex natural lands acting as wild pollinator habitats. We capture the linkage between pollination services in crop production and habitat conditions in the surrounding natural land with a bioeconomic model. Our case study is buckwheat, which is produced in the hilly and mountainous region of central Japan and is greatly dependent on diverse fauna for pollination services. We model the mechanism of regime shifts in ecosystems consisting of buckwheat fields and the surrounding natural land with a threshold estimation model. We then find that the forest around the crop fields, which serves as a habitat for wild pollinators, is a determinant of an ecological threshold that causes regime shifts. We calculate the shadow value of resilience provided by forest habitat around a unit of buckwheat field to be $9,796, implying that the total value of resilience in complex natural land amounts to half of the stock price of buckwheat land. This overlooked value gives us useful insights on the sustainable use of ecosystems, including both pollinator-mediated crop fields and habitats for pollinators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much of the honey sold in Italy, as in the rest of Europe, comes from abroad, especially from Argentina and Hungary, where it can be produced at lower costs. Italian producers have higher production costs, mainly related to labour. It could therefore be interesting to analyze the results obtained from different types of beekeepers, in order to understand their economic results and to identify any possible opportunities for improvement, with the aim of verifying the reproducibility of these results. In this frame, we have considered the introduction of pollination service and identified all the costs and related revenues. In recent years, there has been an increase in the pollination demand, and this increase in interest could lead to an interesting source of income diversification and represent an opportunity in marginal areas. The work has highlighted the economic sustainability of beekeeping in rural areas, at different production scales, both in mountainous and hilly areas, and has proved that the introduction of pollination service could further improve the economic results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pollination services are compromised by habitat destruction, land-use intensification, pesticides, and introduced species. How pollination services respond to such stressors depends on the capacity of pollinator assemblages to function in the face of environmental disruption. Here, we quantify how pollination services provided to a native plant change upon removal of the non-native, western honey bee ( Apis mellifera)-a numerically dominant floral visitor in the native bee-rich ecosystems of southern California. We focus on services provided to clustered tarweed ( Deinandra fasciculata), a native, annual forb that benefits from outcross pollination. Across five different study sites in coastal San Diego County, tarweed flowers attracted 70 insect taxa, approximately half of which were native bees, but non-native honey bees were always the most abundant floral visitor at each site. To test the ability of the native insect fauna to provide pollination services, we performed Apis removals within experimental 0.25 m plots containing approximately 20 tarweed plants and compared visitation and seed set between plants in removal and paired control plots ( n = 16 pairs). Even though 92% of observed floral visits to control plots were from honey bees, Apis removal reduced seed production by only 14% relative to plants in control plots. These results indicate that native insect assemblages can contribute important pollination services even in ecosystems numerically dominated by introduced pollinators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pollination Investigators is a citizen science program designed to quantify the pollination service provided within home gardens. The goal of our initial study year was to develop and evaluate an experimental protocol using a survey to gather participant feedback. At three workshops held in the spring of 2014 we distributed sampling protocols along with eight (two of each species) sweet pepper, cucumber, tomato, and sunflower seedlings to 64 volunteers. Volunteers established the seedlings in their home garden and compared fruit weight and seed set among open pollinated flowers with flowers bagged to exclude insect visitors. At the end of the season only 14.1% of volunteers submitted any pollination services data. Using a follow-up survey, we identified the steps within our protocol that prevented volunteers from continuing with the project, and prescribe protocol revisions to improve volunteer retention when measuring garden pollination services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Management decisions underpinning availability of ecosystem services and the organisms that provide them in agroecosystems, such as pollinators and pollination services, have emerged as a foremost consideration for both conservation and crop production goals. There is growing evidence that innovative management practices can support diverse pollinators and increase crop pollination. However, there is also considerable debate regarding factors that support adoption of these innovative practices. This study investigated pollination management practices and related knowledge systems in a major crop producing region of southwest Michigan in the United States, where 367 growers were surveyed to evaluate adoption of three innovative practices that are at various stages of adoption. The goals of this quantitative, social survey were to investigate grower experience with concerns and benefits associated with each practice, as well as the influence of grower networks, which are comprised of contacts that reflect potential pathways for social and technical learning. The results demonstrated that 17% of growers adopted combinations of bees (e.g. honey bees, Apis mellifera , with other species), representing an innovation in use by early adopters; 49% of growers adopted flowering cover crops, an innovation in use by the early majority 55% of growers retained permanent habitat for pollinators, an innovation in use by the late majority. Not all growers adopted innovative practices. We found that growers' personal experience with potential benefits and concerns related to the management practices had significant positive and negative relationships, respectively, with adoption of all three innovations. The influence of these communication links likely has different levels of importance, depending on the stage of the adoption that a practice is experiencing in the agricultural community. Social learning was positively associated with adopting the use of combinations of bees, highlighting the potentially critical roles of peer-to-peer networks and social learning in supporting early stages of adoption of innovations. Engaging with grower networks and understanding grower experience with benefits and concerns associated with innovative practices is needed to inform outreach, extension, and policy efforts designed to stimulate management innovations in agroecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional tropical agriculture often entails a form of slash-and-burn land management that may adversely affect ecosystem services such as pollination, which are required for successful crop yields. The Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico has a >4000 year history of traditional slash-and-burn agriculture, termed 'milpa'. Hot 'Habanero' chilli is a major pollinator-dependent crop that nowadays is often grown in monoculture within the milpa system., We studied 37 local farmers' chilli fields (sites) to evaluate the effects of landscape composition on bee communities. At 11 of these sites, we undertook experimental pollination treatments to quantify the pollination of chilli. We further explored the relationships between landscape composition, bee communities and pollination service provision to chilli., Bee species richness, particularly species of the family Apidae, was positively related to the amount of forest cover. Species diversity decreased with increasing proportion of crop land surrounding each sampling site. Sweat bees of the genus Lasioglossum were the most abundant bee taxon in chilli fields and, in contrast to other bee species, increased in abundance with the proportion of fallow land, gardens and pastures which are an integral part of the milpa system., There was an average pollination shortfall of 21% for chilli across all sites; yet the shortfall was unrelated to the proportion of land covered by crops. Rather, chilli pollination was positively related to the abundance of Lasioglossum bees, probably an important pollinator of chilli, as well indirectly to the proportion of fallow land, gardens and pastures that promote Lasioglossum abundance., Synthesis and applications. Current, low-intensity traditional slash-and-burn ( milpa) agriculture provides Lasioglossum spp. pollinators for successful chilli production; fallow land, gardens and pasture therefore need to be valued as important habitats for these and related ground-nesting bee species. However, the negative impact of agriculture on total bee species diversity highlights how agricultural intensification is likely to reduce pollination services to crops, including chilli. Indeed, natural forest cover is vital in tropical Yucatán to maintain a rich assemblage of bee species and the provision of pollination services for diverse crops and wild flowers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The negative effects of climate change on cocoa production are often enhanced through agricultural intensification, while research institutions and enterprises try to minimize yield gaps with production strategies mitigating climate risk. Ecological intensification is such a production strategy, whereby yield increase is promoted through reduced agrochemical inputs and increased regulating ecosystem services such as pollination. However, we still know little about cocoa pollination ecology and services, although they appear to be key to understand yield functions. Here, we provide an extensive literature review on cocoa pollination focusing on three main aspects: non-plant (external) and plant regulated (internal) factors affecting pollination, pollinator agents, and ecological intensification management for enhancing pollination success and yield. Pollination services by many arthropod groups such as ants, bees, and parasitic wasps, and not only ceratopogonids, may be a way to increase cocoa productivity and secure smallholders income, but their role is unknown. Several environmental and socioeconomic factors can blur potential pollination benefits. Current knowledge gaps preclude our understanding of how to (i) identify the major pollinator species, (ii) disentangle the direct or indirect role of ants in pollination, (iii) design effective habitat improvements for pollination (by litter and shade management), and (iv) quantify the yield gaps due to pollination limitation. Optimizing cocoa pollination alone appears to be a powerful ecological tool to increase the yield of smallholders, but experimental research is required to validate these results in a realistic setting. In general, industry, governments and smallholders need to develop more joined efforts to ecological production strategies. In particular, farm-base management innovations based on robust scientific evidence must be designed to meet the increasing demand for chocolate and to mitigate cocoa yield gaps. This review suggests that diversified systems and associated ecosystem services, such as pollination, can help to achieve such goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing body of evidence suggests that wild bees play an important role in agricultural pollination. It is very difficult, however, to accurately quantify the contribution of wild bees relative to honeybees in most crop systems. We quantified the relative contribution of honeybees and wild bees to the pollination of an economically important, insect-pollinated crop (apple). We use an empirical dataset to identify which of three functional traits (body size, pollen load purity, and flower handling behavior) contribute significantly to seed set. We find that flower handling behavior and abundance were the only functional traits that significantly predict seed set. When we take into account flower handling behavior and abundance, wild bees contributed significantly more to seed set than honeybees in the apple orchards we surveyed. Our findings suggest that land managers may benefit from focusing on supporting communities of wild bees, rather than investing in honeybee hive rental. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pollination by insects is key for the productivity of many fruit and non-graminous seed crops, but little is known about the response of pollinators to landscapes dominated by small-holder agriculture. Here we assess the relationships between landscape context, pollinator communities (density and diversity) and pollination of oilseed rape in 18 landscapes with proportions of small-holder farming ranging from 10% to 70% in southern China. To quantify the contribution of pollinators to oilseed rape yield, we manipulated pollinator access in a focal oilseed rape field in each landscape using open and closed cages. The pollinator communities in the focal fields were sampled using pan traps. The abundance of wild pollinators increased significantly with the proportion of cultivated land, but the diversity of the wild pollinator communities declined. The responses of pollinator abundance and diversity to cultivated land were best explained at scales of around 1000 m. The abundance of the unmanaged honey bee Apis cerana was positively associated with the proportion of cultivated land, whereas the abundance of the managed A. mellifera was not. A pollination services index (PSI) was calculated by comparing the reproductive investment in seeds between plants with or without pollinator access. PSI was positively correlated with wild pollinator abundance, but not with the abundance of honeybee species. PSI was also not significantly correlated with the area proportion of cultivated land. Our results indicate that crop dominated landscapes with numerous small fields supported an abundant, but relatively species poor bee community that delivered pollination services to oilseed rape. Conservation of (semi-)natural habitats, however, is important for maintaining the diversity of wild pollinators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We briefly review current understanding of wild pollinators and pollination services on farmlands., We consider how concepts in plant ecology - community assembly and functional trait diversity - may be applied to create diverse, wild pollinator communities across scales in agroecosystems., We also make recommendations for best practices to enhance pollination services and create more sustainable food production systems under changing environmental conditions, including creating greater landscape connectivity, embracing pollinator dynamics, and providing incentives and other motivations to support these practices., Synthesis. We highlight the opportunity for agricultural lands to serve a dual role for both food production and pollinator conservation, and conclude by posing unanswered questions and top priorities for future studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between biodiversity and the stability of ecosystem function is a fundamental question in community ecology, and hundreds of experiments have shown a positive relationship between species richness and the stability of ecosystem function. However, these experiments have rarely accounted for common ecological patterns, most notably skewed species abundance distributions and non-random extinction risks, making it difficult to know whether experimental results can be scaled up to larger, less manipulated systems. In contrast with the prolific body of experimental research, few studies have examined how species richness affects the stability of ecosystem services at more realistic, landscape scales. The paucity of these studies is due in part to a lack of analytical methods that are suitable for the correlative structure of ecological data. A recently developed method, based on the Price equation from evolutionary biology, helps resolve this knowledge gap by partitioning the effect of biodiversity into three components: richness, composition, and abundance. Here, we build on previous work and present the first derivation of the Price equation suitable for analyzing temporal variance of ecosystem services. We applied our new derivation to understand the temporal variance of crop pollination services in two study systems (watermelon and blueberry) in the mid-Atlantic United States. In both systems, but especially in the watermelon system, the stronger driver of temporal variance of ecosystem services was fluctuations in the abundance of common bee species, which were present at nearly all sites regardless of species richness. In contrast, temporal variance of ecosystem services was less affected by differences in species richness, because lost and gained species were rare. Thus, the findings from our more realistic landscapes differ qualitatively from the findings of biodiversity-stability experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of climate change on wild bee communities is of major concern since the decline of bee species could imperil the provision of pollination services. Additionally, habitat loss and fragmentation are major threats to wild bee populations, but improvements to the landscape structure could also improve the general conditions for wild bees. However, potential interactive effects of climate change and landscape structure on wild bee communities remain unknown., In this study, we assessed the potential of semi-natural areas to maintain robust communities under changing weather conditions. We used bee monitoring data from six 4 × 4 km field sites across Germany. Almost 30 000 bee specimens were collected from 2010 to 2012 in 16 local communities per site at six sampling occasions per year. Following a multimodel inference approach, we identified the most important weather and landscape variables as well as interaction terms that affect wild bee species richness and total abundance., Correcting for overall phenology, we found a strong negative relationship between bee species richness and temperature, indicating that future increasing temperatures will lead to a decrease in species richness. However, a high proportion of semi-natural habitats can considerably decrease the detrimental effect of warmer temperatures on bee species richness and abundance., Synthesis and applications. Semi-natural areas and green infrastructure elements within agricultural landscapes become even more important under changing temperature conditions to mitigate the negative effects of increasing temperatures on wild bee species richness and total abundance. This has important implications for conservation decision making, suggesting that maintaining or restoring a fair amount of semi-natural areas could serve as a countermeasure against climate change for wild bees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding how climate change may affect species distribution helps predict how ecosystem services, such as pollination, could be impaired in the future. We examine the potential consequences of climate change on the geographical distribution of five native bee species and estimate the possible effects of bee distribution shifts on tomato crops in Brazil. Ensemble forecasting was implemented through five algorithms in two carbon emission scenarios to predict range shifts for five tomato-visiting bee species for the year 2100. We then calculated the total tomato crop area in the cells with at least 50% bee suitability, for each bee species, in each scenario. Results showed that all species will undergo a reduction in suitable areas in both scenarios. Bombus morio had the greatest area reduction in 2100 under the optimistic and pessimistic scenarios: near 38% and 71%, respectively. Centris tarsata had the smaller area reduction under the same scenarios: 8.5% and 19.5% respectively. The high agreement between tomato crops and bee distribution observed in the present will also be reduced in both scenarios for all species, especially in the pessimistic scenario. B. morio had the highest reduction in range due to habitat suitability and will be restricted to some parts of southeastern and southern Brazil. Over 60% of the tomato crop area presently within the distribution of B. morio will become climatically unsuitable in the pessimistic emission scenario. This study indicates that the predicted climate change may negatively impact several species associated with tomato crops in Brazil by the year 2100. This is troubling, as it could result in tomato production losses, which would bring economic and environmental losses to the tomato-producing regions with implications for pollinator conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pollinator-dependent growers seek alternative pollination models as pollination-security concerns grow. Pollination reservoirs, set-aside bee foraging areas, may offer growers a practical tool for increasing wild bee populations and decreasing reliance on managed bees. We review the literature on pollination reservoirs regarding a) effectiveness, b) reservoir-to-crop ratios, and c) costs and benefits. We discuss the relevant aspects of d) plant–pollinator relationships, e) landscape context, f) wild bees as pollinators, g) flower selection, and h) limitations. Recent research clearly suggests that pollination reservoirs can increase wild bee populations, crop yield, and profit. Last, we identify gaps that require additional research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Context: The positive correlation between landscape area of semi-natural habitat and wild pollinator richness and abundance in agroecosystems has been well studied. However, we lack a deep understanding of local scale floral resource and nest provisioning for wild bees necessary to optimize implementation of pollinator conservation practices. Objectives: The primary objective of this study was to use a spatially interactive landscape pollination model (hereafter, the Lonsdorf model) to represent field scale spatial patterns of wild bee abundance and richness within a heterogeneous landscape in the mid-Atlantic USA. Methods: We parameterized the Lonsdorf model with high resolution aerial imagery and insight from a previously published floristic study. To test the Lonsdorf model predictions, field studies were conducted to measure wild bee abundance and species richness in apple orchards as a function of distance from a forest edge. Results: Field measurements indicated apple pollinator abundance and species richness significantly decreased with increasing distance from the forest edge. The Lonsdorf model pollination service score was highly sensitive to changes in resource provisioning in orchard and non-crop areas, and including resource rich forest and forest edge habitats in the model significantly improved pollination service estimates. Conclusions: We demonstrated a novel application of the Lonsdorf model at a field scale to predict trends in pollination service provisioning as a factor of local habitat features. With sufficiently detailed inputs, the Lonsdorf model is a promising tool to quantify field scale pollination service deficits, guiding more cost effective habitat supplementation and other conservation efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effective conservation management of declining pollinators requires evidence-based policy and planning. In Ontario, Canada, pollinator-relevant policy and management plans are currently being developed by various ministries with diverse mandates. This review gathers relevant scientific findings to help guide policy decisions and implementation, focusing on the available information for wild bumble bees. Species that occur in Ontario also occur elsewhere in Canada and the United States. Thus, relevant studies from other jurisdictions are also included if they consider species that occur in Ontario. Evidence for declines, review of known and suspected threats, and management recommendations based on this information are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pollination services provided by the western honeybee (Apis mellifera) are critical for agricultural production and the diversity of wild flowering plants. However, honeybees suffer from environmental pollution, habitat loss, and pathogens, including viruses that can cause fatal diseases. Israeli acute bee paralysis virus (IAPV), from the family Dicistroviridae, has been shown to cause colony collapse disorder in the United States. Here, we present the IAPV virion structure determined to a resolution of 4.0 Å and the structure of a pentamer of capsid protein protomers at a resolution of 2.7 Å. IAPV has major capsid proteins VP1 and VP3 with noncanonical jellyroll β-barrel folds composed of only seven instead of eight β-strands, as is the rule for proteins of other viruses with the same fold. The maturation of dicistroviruses is connected to the cleavage of precursor capsid protein VP0 into subunits VP3 and VP4. We show that a putative catalytic site formed by the residues Asp-Asp-Phe of VP1 is optimally positioned to perform the cleavage. Furthermore, unlike many picornaviruses, IAPV does not contain a hydrophobic pocket in capsid protein VP1 that could be targeted by capsid-binding antiviral compounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The expansion of pollinator-dependent crops, especially in the developing world, together with reports of worldwide pollinator declines, raises concern of possible yield gaps. Farmers directly reliant on pollination services for food supply often live in regions where our knowledge of pollination services is poor. In a manipulative experiment replicated at 23 sites across an Ethiopian agricultural landscape, we found poor pollination services and severe pollen limitation in a common oil crop. With supplementary pollination, the yield increased on average by 91%. Despite the heterogeneous agricultural matrix, we found a low bee abundance, which may explain poor pollination services. The variation in pollen limitation was unrelated to surrounding forest cover, local bee richness and bee abundance. While practices that commonly increase pollinators (restricted pesticide use, flower strips) are an integral part of the landscape, these elements are apparently insufficient. Management to increase pollination services is therefore in need of urgent investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pollination services are increasingly threatened by the loss and modification of natural habitats, posing a risk to the maintenance of both native plant biodiversity and agricultural production. In order to safeguard pollination services, it is essential to examine the impacts of habitat degradation on the population dynamics of key pollinators and identify potential 'rescue pollinators' capable of persisting in these human-altered landscapes. Using a landscape genetic approach, we assessed the impact of landscape structure on genetic differentiation in the widely-distributed tropical stingless bee Trigona spinipes (Apidae: Meliponini) across agricultural landscape mosaics composed of coffee plantations and Atlantic forest fragments in southeastern Brazil. We genotyped 115 bees at 16 specific and highly polymorphic microsatellite loci, developed using next-generation sequencing. Our results reveal that T. spinipes is capable of dispersing across remarkably long distances, as we did not find genetic differentiation across a 200 km range, nor fine-scale spatial genetic structure. Furthermore, gene flow was not affected by forest cover, land cover, or elevation, indicating that reproductive individuals are able to disperse well through agricultural landscapes and across altitudinal gradients. We also found evidence of a recent population expansion, suggesting that this opportunistic stingless bee is capable of colonizing degraded habitats. Our results thus suggest that T. spinipes can persist in heavily-altered landscapes and can be regarded as a rescue pollinator, potentially compensating for the decline of other native pollinators in degraded tropical landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural land management modify environments in such a way that ecosystem functions are impaired. The establishment of exotic plants, favoured by agricultural land management, may alter the foraging behaviour of native floral visitors and consequently the pollination service they provide. To determine whether agricultural land management affects the pollination service provided by floral visitors for the most abundant plant species in a Pampean grassland ecosystem, we compared the pollination service of native and exotic entomophilous plants in landscape fragments with or without current agricultural usage. Both the quantity (number of conspecific pollen grains deposited on stigmas) and quality (proportion of heterospecific pollen grains deposited on stigmas) of the pollination service was estimated for three to nine entomophilous plants in each landscape fragment. Agricultural land management reduced the quality of the pollination service due to an increase in the deposition of heterospecific pollen on stigmas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PREMISE OF THE STUDY: Geographic patterns of biodiversity have long inspired interest in processes that shape the assembly, diversity, and dynamics of communities at different spatial scales. To study mechanisms of community assembly, ecologists often compare spatial variation in community composition (beta-diversity) across environmental and spatial gradients. These same patterns inspired evolutionary biologists to investigate how micro- and macro-evolutionary processes create gradients in biodiversity. Central to these perspectives are species interactions, which contribute to community assembly and geographic variation in evolutionary processes. However, studies of beta-diversity have predominantly focused on single trophic levels, resulting in gaps in our understanding of variation in species-interaction networks (interaction beta-diversity), especially at scales most relevant to evolutionary studies of geographic variation. METHODS: We outline two challenges and their consequences in scaling-up studies of interaction beta-diversity from local to biogeographic scales using plant-pollinator interactions as a model system in ecology, evolution, and conservation. KEY RESULTS: First, we highlight how variation in regional species pools may contribute to variation in interaction beta-diversity among biogeographic regions with dissimilar evolutionary history. Second, we highlight how pollinator behavior (host-switching) links ecological networks to geographic patterns of plant-pollinator interactions and evolutionary processes. Third, we outline key unanswered questions regarding the role of geographic variation in plant-pollinator interactions for conservation and ecosystem services (pollination) in changing environments. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that the largest advances in the burgeoning field of interaction beta-diversity will come from studies that integrate frameworks in ecology, evolution, and conservation to understand the causes and consequences of interaction beta-diversity across scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Declining animal pollinator health and diversity in the U.S. is a matter of growing concern and has particularly gained attention since the emergence of colony collapse disorder (CCD) in 2006. Failure to maintain adequate animal-mediated pollination service to support increasing demand for pollination-dependent crops poses risks for the U.S. economy. We integrate the Economic Input-Output (EIO) model and network analysis with data on pollinator dependence of crops to understand the economic dependence of U.S. industrial sectors on animal-mediated pollination service. The novelty of this work lies in its ability to identify industrial sectors and industrial communities (groups of closely linked sectors) that are most vulnerable to scarcity of pollination service provided by various animal species. While the economic dependence of agricultural sectors on pollination service is significant (US$14.2-23.8 billion), the higher-order economic dependence of the rest of the U.S. industrial sectors is substantially high as well (US$10.3-21.1 billion). The results are compelling as they highlight the critical importance of animal-induced pollination service for the U.S. economy, and the need to account for the role of ecosystem goods and services in product life cycles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Flower Pollination Algorithm (FPA) is a novel bio-inspired optimization algorithm that mimics the real life processes of the flower pollination. In this paper, we review the applications of the Single Flower Pollination Algorithm (SFPA), Multi-objective Flower Pollination Algorithm an extension of the SFPA and the Hybrid of FPA with other bio-inspired algorithms. The review has shown that there is still a room for the extension of the FPA to Binary FPA. The review presented in this paper can inspire researchers in the bio-inspired algorithms research community to further improve the effectiveness of the PFA as well as to apply the algorithm in other domains for solving real life, complex and nonlinear optimization problems in engineering and industry. Further research and open questions were highlighted in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Load Balancing in Task Scheduling is a process of managing different tasks on the basis of their priority or job execution order. Jobs have to be acquired on different processors and load needs to be maintained for the execution. Task scheduling is considered to be one of the critical issues on the cloud environment as various users requests to access the data on the cloud environment. The jobs have to be allocated to the processors in such a manner so as to minimize the makespan and computation time. To achieve this objective various optimization techniques have been proposed which includes Genetic Algorithm in which initially dependency between the tasks are removed which are further executed using shortest job first and makespan is created. A new approach Pollination Based Optimization (PBO) is used to optimize the results of GA(Genetic Algorithm).The performance of these two techniques are then compared that will prove the effectiveness of the optimization methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a choice experiment survey this study examines the UK public's willingness to pay to conserve insect pollinators in relation to the levels of two pollination service benefits: maintaining local produce supplies and the aesthetic benefits of diverse wildflower assemblages. Willingness to pay was estimated using a Bayesian mixed logit with two contrasting controls for attribute non-attendance, exclusion and shrinkage. The results suggest that the UK public have an extremely strong preference to avoid a status quo scenario where pollinator populations and pollination services decline. Total willingness to pay was high and did not significantly vary between the two pollination service outputs, producing a conservative total of £379M over a sample of the tax-paying population of the UK, equivalent to £13.4 per UK taxpayer. Using a basic production function approach, the marginal value of pollination services to these attributes is also extrapolated. The study discusses the implications of these findings and directions for related future research into the non-market value of pollination and other ecosystem services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1. Below-ground competition is intense and may dramatically reduce plant performance. However, there is still no consensus on the best strategies plants should use to maximize competitive ability in soil. Some suggest plants should grow roots according to nutrient availability, while others suggest plants should grow roots taking into account both nutrients and neighbours. Unambiguously, testing between these two alternative hypotheses has been challenging. 2. This manuscript had three objectives. First, we presented a model of root growth under competition that is based on an ideal free distribution (IFD). Secondly, we develop the concept of the best response curve as a tool for clearer experimental tests of plant responses to neighbours. Thirdly, we test these ideas by growing fast cycling Brassica rapa either alone or with neighbours to examine this species' root growth strategy both alone and under competition. 3. We hypothesize that those plants with no direct response to neighbours should grow roots according to an IFD. This means that if plants produce x roots in a soil volume of quality R, they should produce x/n roots in a soil volume of quality R/n. The experimental data were consistent with this prediction. Growing plants with neighbours was statistically identical to growing them with half as many nutrients. Thus, the only effect of neighbours was to reduce nutrient availability. 4. This model provides an alternative to previous game theoretic models and suggests an experimental protocol based on the concept of the best response curve. We hope that testing the game theoretic model with a clear alternative model will guide experiment and debate. 5. Synthesis. The data in the literature are mixed, with species sometimes responding to nutrients only, and sometimes responding interactively to both nutrients and neighbours. At present, we lack a general understanding of the causes or consequences of this diversity of strategies. We suggest that a greater understanding of trade-offs among traits that are important for other biotic interactions (above-ground competition, enemy defence, mutualisms) will lead to a greater understanding of why some species over-proliferate roots when in competition but other species do not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1. Interactions among neighbouring plants are often mediated by foraging choices of pollinators. For example, the presence of a conspicuous species may increase the number of pollinators attracted to its vicinity, indirectly increasing visitation rates also to neighbouring plants. Because pollinator choices are frequently density-dependent, the presence of a conspicuous species at high densities may also increase competition for pollination services. Additionally, models predict that plant density will interact with spatial distribution in manipulating the pollinator behaviour, yet experimental evidence for this effect is missing. 2. We performed a field experiment in which we introduced a highly conspicuous species in different densities and spatial configurations in a full-factorial manner into a species-rich meadow and studied its effect on neighbouring plants. 3. We showed that the highly conspicuous species strongly contributed to the attractiveness of its local patch and thus benefited its neighbours. However, because of the strong density effect, the conspicuous species changed its role and became a competitor for pollinators when its density increased. 4. We supported our theoretical assumptions and showed that when the introduced conspicuous species was regularly distributed among other plants in the patch, it increased visitation rate, and in some cases also seed set, to conspicuous neighbours relative to when it was aggregated, at least at low densities. 5. Synthesis. We suggest that complex interactions between density and spatial distribution of plant species at the patch scale are highly relevant for the interpretation of pollinator behaviour and therefore should be treated as factors of floral attractiveness in future studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pollination is a critical ecosystem service affected by various drivers of land-use change, such as policies and programs aimed at land resources, market values for crop commodities, local land-management decisions, and shifts in climate. The United States is the world's most active market for pollination services by honey bees, and the Northern Great Plains provide the majority of bee colonies used to meet the Nation's annual pollination needs. Legislation requiring increased production of biofuel crops, increasing commodity prices for crops of little nutritional value for bees in the Northern Great Plains, and reductions in government programs aimed at promoting land conservation are converging to alter the regional landscape in ways that challenge beekeepers to provide adequate numbers of hives for national pollination services. We developed a spatially explicit model that identifies sites with the potential to support large apiaries based on local-scale land-cover requirements for honey bees. We produced maps of potential apiary locations for North Dakota, a leading producer of honey, based on land-cover maps representing (1) an annual time series compiled from existing operational products and (2) a realistic scenario of land change. We found that existing land-cover products lack sufficient local accuracy to monitor actual changes in landscape suitability for honey bees, but our model proved informative for evaluating effects on suitability under scenarios of land change. The scenario we implemented was aligned with current drivers of land-use change in the Northern Great Plains and highlighted the importance of conservation lands in landscapes intensively and extensively managed for crops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] Demand and supply of pollination in the European Union were mapped. [•] In half of the area with a high demand for pollination, the supply is low. [•] Green linear elements are highly important for providing pollination in agricultural landscapes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Declines in insect pollinators across Europe have raised concerns about the supply of pollination services to agriculture. Simultaneously, EU agricultural and biofuel policies have encouraged substantial growth in the cultivated area of insect pollinated crops across the continent. Using data from 41 European countries, this study demonstrates that the recommended number of honeybees required to provide crop pollination across Europe has risen 4.9 times as fast as honeybee stocks between 2005 and 2010. Consequently, honeybee stocks were insufficient to supply >90% of demands in 22 countries studied. These findings raise concerns about the capacity of many countries to cope with major losses of wild pollinators and highlight numerous critical gaps in current understanding of pollination service supplies and demands, pointing to a pressing need for further research into this issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] The simultaneous promotion of pollination services and species diversity was rapid. [•] Species of conservation concern showed a slow but steady increase. [•] Promotion of conservation was positively related to forested areas. [•] Wildflower strips are a flexible mitigation tool within agri-environmental schemes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Pollinators provide an important service in many crops. Managed honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) are used to supplement pollination services provided by wild bees with the assumption that they will enhance pollination, fruit set and crop yield beyond the levels provided by the wild bees. Recent declines in managed honey bee populations have stimulated interest in finding alternative managed pollinators to service crops. In the eastern U.S., managed hives of the native common eastern bumble bee (Bombus impatiens Cresson) may be an excellent choice. To examine this issue, a comprehensive 2-yr study was conducted to compare fruit yield and bee visits to flowers in pumpkin (Cucurbita pepo L.) fields that were either supplemented with A. mellifera hives, B. impatiens hives or were not supplemented. We compared pumpkin yield, A. mellifera flower visitation frequency and B. impatiens flower visitation frequency between treatments. Results indicated that supplementing pumpkin fields with either A. mellifera or B. impatiens hives did not increase their visitation to pumpkin flowers or fruit yield compared with those that were not supplemented. Next, the relationship between frequency of pumpkin flower visitation by the most prominent bee species (Peponapis pruinosa (Say), B. impatiens and A. mellifera) and fruit yield was determined across all pumpkin fields sampled. Fruit yield increased as the frequency of flower visits by A. mellifera and B. impatiens increased in 2011 and 2012, respectively. These results suggest that supplementation with managed bees may not improve pumpkin production and that A. mellifera and B. impatiens are important pollinators of pumpkin in our system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1. Plantings of pollinator-dependent crops vary from large, intensively managed fields to small fields that are managed less intensively, yet there is relatively little information on how pollinator populations and their contribution to crop productivity vary across this gradient. 2. We determined the relative importance of wild bees and managed honey bees Apis mellifera L. for crop pollination in the blueberry Vaccinium corymbosum L. system of Michigan, USA, by comparing bee communities in small, isolated blueberry fields with those in large blueberry fields (stocked with managed honey bee hives) and measuring the difference in yields of open-pollinated and pollinator-excluded clusters of flowers. We combined these assessments to calculate the contribution of bees to crop production in this system. 3. Wild bees were the dominant pollinators in small fields, comprising 58% of flower-visiting bees, whereas 97% of bees in large fields were honey bees. Large fields had four times as many bees visiting flowers than small fields, but only one-tenth as many bumble bees as small fields. 4. Levels of fruit set exceeded 85% in all fields and were similar between field sizes. Berry weight increased with flower exposure to pollinators and was positively correlated with bee abundance. Berry weights from open-pollinated flowers were twice as high in large fields compared with small fields. 5. By combining berry weight increases attributable to honey bees and wild bees in blueberry fields with measurements of the bee community adjusted for pollinator efficiency, we calculated the relative contributions of honey bees and wild bees to pollination of Michigan blueberries. We estimate that wild bees provide 82% of the pollination in small fields but only 12% of the total pollination services across this system, mostly through their secondary role in large fields. 6. Synthesis and applications. Wild bees are the primary pollinators of small blueberry fields, but these insects are at low abundance in large fields, perhaps due to a lack of nesting resources or competition for resources with honey bees. Our findings highlight the dependence of commercial fruit producers on honey bees and suggest that increasing the pollination contribution of other bees, particularly bumble bees, in large fields will require that growers adopt wild bee conservation strategies or stock their fields with managed colonies. Quantifying the contributions of managed and wild pollinating bees across the range of crop production scenarios will help to direct development of integrated crop pollination strategies to minimize the risk of pollination deficits affecting food production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pollinator populations are under severe pressure worldwide because of man-made intensification in land use, including the use of pesticides and fertilizers. The majority of wild and crop plants are fully or partially dependent on pollinators for their reproduction. Loss of pollinators has already caused measurable declines in the populations of many wild plants in Europe. Many Egyptian crops are fully or partially dependent on pollinators for their yields, and data exist on the market values of Egyptian crops. We therefore use these to estimate the 2004 costs to the Egyptian economy of a catastrophic loss of pollinators. The annual cost to the Egyptian economy of losing its pollinators would be approximately LE 13.5 billion ($2.4 billion), 3.3% of the 2003 GDP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Value estimates of ecosystem goods and services are useful to justify the allocation of resources towards conservation, but inconclusive estimates risk unsustainable resource allocations. Here we present replacement costs as a more accurate value estimate of insect pollination as an ecosystem service, although this method could also be applied to other services. The importance of insect pollination to agriculture is unequivocal. However, whether this service is largely provided by wild pollinators (genuine ecosystem service) or managed pollinators (commercial service), and which of these requires immediate action amidst reports of pollinator decline, remains contested. If crop pollination is used to argue for biodiversity conservation, clear distinction should be made between values of managed- and wild pollination services. Current methods either under-estimate or over-estimate the pollination service value, and make use of criticised general insect and managed pollinator dependence factors. We apply the theoretical concept of ascribing a value to a service by calculating the cost to replace it, as a novel way of valuing wild and managed pollination services. Adjusted insect and managed pollinator dependence factors were used to estimate the cost of replacing insect- and managed pollination services for the Western Cape deciduous fruit industry of South Africa. Using pollen dusting and hand pollination as suitable replacements, we value pollination services significantly higher than current market prices for commercial pollination, although lower than traditional proportional estimates. The complexity associated with inclusive value estimation of pollination services required several defendable assumptions, but made estimates more inclusive than previous attempts. Consequently this study provides the basis for continued improvement in context specific pollination service value estimates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]