Progress 09/01/13 to 08/31/16
Outputs
Target Audience:Fruit growers, extension educators, crop consultants, entomology researchers Changes/Problems:Due to lower funding than requested, we did not sammple natural enemies as part of this project. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?A MS student and multiple undergraduate students were trained with funding from this project, allowing opportunities for experience in agriculture, fieldwork, bee identification, and GIS methods. We have also used the information generated from this project, specifically the May et al. extension bulletin, to enhance the training programs for growers based around issues of bee conservation and pesticide safety How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Through scientific professional presentations, at extension workshops, via an extension bulletin that has been published and distributed widely and is available online for free at http://msue.anr.msu.edu/resources/minimizing_pesticide_risk_to_bees_in_fruit_crops What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Samples were collected for two seasons to measure the wild bee community at blueberry farms where a similar sample was taken a decade ago. There was minimal land use change in the last decade, but an increase in insecticide toxicity was found due to the need for management of the new invasive pest, spotted wing Drosophila. In general, solitary bee species had more negative responses to insecticide risk than social species. Bees responded most strongly to landscape composition at the smallest scale studied (300 m). Wild bee abundance declined with decreasing area of forest and the associated increase in settled areas, while bee richness and diversity declined primarily with insecticide risk. We also placed bumble bee colonies at different distances from a blueberry field into an adjacent wildflower planting, to examine colony performance. This indicated much higher exposure and negative effects on colonies immediately adjacent to the crop compared with those colonies placed further into a wildflower planting. From these results and other information, we developed an extension guide to assist fruit growers in selecting practices and products that can reduce the risk of negative effects of pesticides to wild and managed bees.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Submitted
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
May, E.A., Gibbs, J., Sardi�as, H.S., Isaacs, R. (in review) Perennial wildflower plantings enhance nest abundance of soilnesting
bees. Insect Conservation and Diversity.
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Progress 09/01/14 to 08/31/15
Outputs
Target Audience:Fruit growers, extension educators, crop consultants, entomology researchers Changes/Problems:Our project was funded at a level much lower than requested so we dropped the original plan for working on natural enemies. The original plan to conduct studies in cages was also reconsidered and changed due to the challenges of having bumble bee colonies enclosed. We therefore changed to looking at colonies placed in a wildflower planting with varying distance from crop fields. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?A MS student and multiple undergraduate students were trained with funding from this project, allowing opportunities for experience in agriculture, fieldwork, bee identification, and GIS methods. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Through scientific professional presentations, through a thesis defense talk, via an extension bulletin that has been published and distributed as well as being made available online for free at http://msue.anr.msu.edu/resources/minimizing_pesticide_risk_to_bees_in_fruit_crops What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?This project wil lbe completed by analysis and publication of the bumble bee data, publication of the work in the thesis of Emily May, and further distribution of the extension publication through talks at grower meetings
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Samples were collected for two seasons to measure the wild bee community at blueberry farms where a similar sample was taken a decade ago. There was minimal land use change in the last decade, but an increase in insecticide toxicity was found due to the need for management of the new invasive pest, spotted wing Drosophila. In general, solitary bee species had more negative responses to insecticide risk than social species. Bees responded most strongly to landscape composition at the smallest scale studied (300 m). Wild bee abundance declined with decreasing area of forest and the associated increase in settled areas, while bee richness and diversity declined primarily with insecticide risk. We also placed bumble bee colonies at different distances from a blueberry field, to examine colony performance. This indicated much higher exposure and negative effects on colonies immediately adjacent to the crop compared with those colonies placed further into a wildflower planting. From these results and other information, we developed an extension guide to assist fruit growers in selecting practices and products that can reduce the risk of negative effects of pesticides to wild and managed bees.
Publications
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2015
Citation:
May, E. (2015) Wild bee community responses to farm management practices, wildflower restorations, and landscape composition. Michigan State University, ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2015. 1587740.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2015
Citation:
May, E., Wilson, J.K. and Isaacs, R. (2015) Minimizing pesticide risk to bees in fruit crops. MSU Extension Bulletin E3245.
16 pp.
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Progress 09/01/13 to 08/31/14
Outputs
Target Audience: Fruit growers, extension educators, bee keepers, pollinator conservation groups Changes/Problems: There are a few changes to this project that have been made to gain the greatest amount of quality information from the resources provided. First, the original plan to work on natural enemies was dropped with agreement of the program manager, due to the more limited amount of funding available. After consultation with scientific advisors to this project, we changed the design of the field study from a cage-based study to the distance-based drift study under real conditions described above. This means that the treatments are not limited to zeta-cypermethrin and malathion as originally proposed, but rather they include the seasonal program applied at the field site. The design will still allow us to determine the extent of pesticide effects on bumble bee colonies. Finally, due to a change in the MSU Extension Fruit Team's planning process, we will not be holding a multi-speaker session on pollination at the 2014 GL EXPO. Instead, there will be pollinator protection information woven into the crop-specific sessions throughout the meeting for bee-dependent crops. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? A specific pollination session was held at the Great Lakes Expo conference in Grand Rapids, MI during December 2013. This included presenations on the status of honey bees (PA speaker), pollination in tree fruit (PA speaker), berries (MI speaker), and pumpkin (NY speaker). There was a very positive response to this session from the attending 60 growers. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? We have written 2 extension publications about pesticide safety for fruit crop audiences. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? We will continue to process samples from the 2014 field season and begin analyzing our data. The results will inform several talks to grower and extension audiences over the next 12 months. We will continue to work on the main Extension bulletin detailing best management practices for pollinator safety in North Central region fruit production.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
1. To determine whether the intensity of insecticide use in highbush blueberry affects the abundance, richness, or diversity of wild bees, we sampled bees at 15 highbush blueberry fields that span a gradient of pest management intensity in Allegan, Van Buren, and Ottawa counties in western Michigan. Bees were collected using a combination of elevated pan traps and insect netting three times at each site during blueberry bloom. A total of 423 and 659 wild bees were collected using these methods in 2013 and 2014, respectively. The species netted on blueberry flowers will be compared to the pan trapped species to assess the accuracy of the pan trapping method for estimating the pollinating bee community during bloom. An earlier dataset using similar collection methods will be used to determine whether there have been changes in bee abundance and richness over the past decade, and whether those changes are associated with the intensity of insecticide use at those sites. Individual-based rarefaction curves will be used to compare species richness across years. The abundance, richness, and diversity of bees will be analyzed as a function of insecticide program intensity for each year of the study. 2. To evaluate the effects of insecticide exposure on wild bees foraging and nesting in habitat adjacent to intensively managed fruit crops, we monitored the nest activity and measured the reproductive output of bumble bee (Bombus impatiens L.) colonies placed in a conventionally-managed blueberry field and at increasing distances away from the crop field into an adjacent wildflower planting. Research grade colonies (1 queen, 25 female workers) were obtained from Koppert Biological Systems (Howell, MI). Four parallel east-west transects were established from 25m into the crop field to 100m into the adjacent wildflower planting. Along each transect, one bumble bee colony was placed between bushes located 25m into the blueberry field, and one colony was placed at each of 0m, 25m, 50m, 75m and 100m distances into the wildflower planting adjacent to the crop field. Colonies were monitored biweekly for nest entrance activity and behavior over four weeks, then were freeze-killed and dissected in the lab to measure reproductive output. The experiment was conducted once during blueberry pre-harvest (July 2014), and once during blueberry harvest (August 2014), for a total of 48 monitored colonies. In addition to monitoring the colonies, all bees foraging on open flowers at each distance (25m into the crop field and 0m, 25m, 50m, 75m and 100m into the wildflower planting) were net collected for 10 minutes per distance once weekly to determine whether bee activity increases with distance from the managed crop field. The number of open flowers per flower species were recorded once weekly in five 1m2 quadrats at each distance within 1-2 days of bee collections to account for differences in floral availability by distance. 3. To determine the level and pattern of spray drift deposition in wildflower plantings adjacent to crop fields, we measured insecticide residues on filter paper placed on trays on top of the bumblebee colonies monitored for Obj. 2 (above). An 11cm diameter filter paper (Whatman 41) was placed on top of each colony one day prior to aerial insecticide application and collected following the re-entry interval for each application. Samples were stored at -20°C prior to extraction for GC/MS residue analysis, to be performed later this year. 4. To improve grower knowledge and awareness about the potential risks of insecticides to bees, we are working to prepare an Extension bulletin for the North Central fruit production region detailing the best practices for reducing risk of existing pest management programs to bees. This document is currently being drafted and will be sent out for review to appropriate experts by December 2014. We will also hold a series of workshops and trainings on beneficial insect conservation and pesticide safety for fruit growers, agricultural professionals, and a broad range of stakeholders in Michigan. 5. To evaluate project outcomes, we conducted an anonymous survey of apple, blueberry, and cherry growers attending the 2013 Great Lakes EXPO of grower pollination practices, knowledge, and research interests. We received questionnaire responses from 65 growers in 8 US states and 3 Canadian provinces, representing over 9,665 acres of total fruit production. We will be able to conduct this same survey at future Great Lakes EXPOs to determine whether we have achieved any measurable changes in grower knowledge and practices.
Publications
- Type:
Websites
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2014
Citation:
Isaacs, R., Gibbs, J., May, E., Hanson, E., and J. Hancock. 2014. Invest in pollination for success with highbush
blueberries. Michigan State University Extension News, 6 May 2014.
http://msue.anr.msu.edu/news/invest_in_pollination_for_success_with_highbush_blueberries
- Type:
Websites
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2014
Citation:
Wilson, J., Gut, L., Isaacs, R., and E. May. 2014. Minimizing pesticide exposure to bees in fruit crops. Michigan State
University Extension News, 29 April 2014.
http://msue.anr.msu.edu/news/minimizing_pesticide_exposure_to_bees_in_fruit_crops.
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