Recipient Organization
UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
G022 MCCARTY HALL
GAINESVILLE,FL 32611
Performing Department
Entomology and Nematology
Non Technical Summary
Pollinators are needed for the reproduction of three-fourths of the world's flowering plants which include a significant proportion of the food for wild vertebrate animals and two-thirds of the crop species. In the United States, more than a hundred crops require or benefit from pollinators. Because bees collect pollen as their source of protein, they are the most efficient and important pollinators. Much of the food supply for humans and domesticated animals is dependent on crop pollination by a few well-known managed species of bees, largely the social honey bee. Because of diseases, pests and insecticides, honey bee populations have declined severely. Recent studies have shown that native bees from natural areas extend into adjacent cultivated land and can provide adequate pollination even for some of the most demanding crops. However, natural bee populations are threatened by several factors, mainly the loss of habitat due to land development, especially agricultural intensification. Thus, preserving the diversity of native bees by the conservation and restoration of natural areas is a high priority. The pollination services needed for agriculture can be drawn from this bee diversity, to provide greater stability for the human food supply. Natural areas restored within the agricultural landscape, for enhancing bee populations, would increase continuity among conservation lands and would benefit other forms of wildlife. The objectives of this project coincide closely with recommendations made by the committee established by the National Research Council of the United States National Academies, to evaluate the status of pollinators in North America. The committee called for research on the basic biology and ecology of wild pollinators and emphasized the need for surveys and taxonomic expertise to document the diversity of pollinators.Bees are collected passively with colored cups containing soapy water and actively with nets and vacuum while foraging on flowers. Collections will be taken from Florida state preserves and other natural areas. Thus, the native bee fauna of the state will be further documented. Different compositions of bee species are expected to be found characteristic of different plant communities. Species not previously found in Florida or entirely new species may also be discovered. Squash is a major crop grown in Florida, and squash bees are the most efficient pollinators of this crop. Surveys specifically for squash bees will be conducted in farms across Florida to determine their distribution and abundance. Nesting blocks will be placed in different landscapes to further identify species that nest in wood burrows. Bee species that occupy such nests include those that are partly managed and used for significant agriculture pollination. Blueberry is another major crop in Florida. The unmanaged, ground-nesting, southeastern blueberry bee is the most effective pollinator. Farmers are being encouraged to provide supplemental flowering plants to attract pollinating bees to their crops, but such plants might also draw bees away from crop flowers. Blueberry bees, foraging on blueberries and two other plants on which they are known to forage, will be marked with different colors, and to what extent they move between the plants will be determined. The bees' switching, at some later time from one plant to another, would suggest that their attraction to a site by non-crop plants would benefit the crop. Attempts will be made to keep native large carpenter bees and the introduced giant resin bee alive and thriving in confinement, such as in large screened cages or greenhouses, as an initial step toward using them as managed pollinators. These large bees are the only effective pollinators in the southeastern US of sunn hemp, because of its flower structure. This plant, native to India, has great promise as cover crop, which cannot be realized due to the lack of pollinators and, therefore, seed availability. These two bee species have undesirable characteristics. If they can be used as beneficial pollinators in confinement, this would avoid enhancing populations in the open and damage that could result.
Animal Health Component
25%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
75%
Applied
25%
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
1. Expand general surveys of bees in Florida.2. Continue use of trap nests.3. Conduct specific surveys for squash bees in squash farms in different areas of Florida.4. Follow the foraging movement of blueberry bees between blueberry and nearby non-crop plants.5. Use emergence cages to verify a bee host-cleptoparasite association .6. Explore the ability to keep the large carpenter bee and the introduced giant resin bee alive in confinement as potential pollinators of crops such as sunn hemp.
Project Methods
Most of the outcomes of this project will be qualitative - identifying the species and counting their abundance in different plant communities, identifying species that occupy trap nests, determining the distribution and abundance of squash bees in Florida farms, verifying a bee host-cleptoparasite association, and a hopeful success keeping potential bee pollinators alive in confinement. Quantitative analyses from the surveys will include determinations of species richness, species diversity, and correspondence (cluster) analyses based on species' identity and numbers of each. Blueberry bees foraging on three different plants, including blueberry, marked with different colors, will be counted from the flowers and significance will be determined in the numbers on each type of plant over time and before and after each experimental manipulation involving relocating the plants.