Progress 06/01/17 to 01/31/18
Outputs
Target Audience:The technology developed by this project will increase fruit quality and crop yields for a variety of honeybee-pollinated crops, resulting in a positive economic impact for growers both in the US and worldwide. SPLAT Bloom will provide growers with an added level of management over honeybee colonies, allowing for increased flower visitation, maintenance of foraging bees within specific treated areas (increasing the efficiency/productivity of commercial hives), and a reduction in bee exposure to pesticides and pathogens. ISCA is concurrently developing SuperBoost, a hive insert that will be marketed to beekeepers that utilizes a synthetic brood pheromone blend to incite worker bees to forage at higher rates, increasing the productivity and health of treated hives. SPLAT Bloom and SuperBoost, marketed to both parties involved in commercial pollination, are able to work independently, but also synergistically, increasing both colony health and pollination rates in a net positive for beekeepers, growers, and the bees that serve them. The result of the successful development of SPLAT Bloom and SuperBoost will be more pollination in the target field, bees that are more productive, and stronger, healthier beehives, directly benefiting both growers and the beekeeping industry by enhancing on-farm environmental and economic sustainability, and by extension, increasing prosperity in rural communities. These benefits will also extend to the consumer market by minimizing the risks associated with pesticide residues on honey and beeswax (used in cosmetics, etc.), and by helping to maintain the affordability of locally grown, healthy foods dependent on bee pollination. Considering immense value of honeybee pollination (estimated at $17B in the US alone), and the large number of crops that depend honeybee pollination (~130 crops in the US), the potential markets for ISCA's proposed SPLAT Bloom + SuperBoost strategy are large, consisting of both organic and conventional agricultural producers, as well as apiculturists. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?
Nothing Reported
How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The work proposed here was begun in response to discussions between university and governmental fruit tree management specialists, apiculturists, growers, and crop consultants at regional meetings across the country, field visits and conference calls. Meetings with these stakeholders have led to a clear and open dialog about the priorities and approaches required to address the needs of pollination management programs in response to the decreasing number of honeybee hives across the country. Almond growers in particular are desperate for a solution to the shortage of beehives in early spring, and they see SPLAT Bloom as a potential tool to mitigate this problem. ISCA researchers and/or their collaborators attended several key stakeholder meetings over the course of Phase I, to present the concept of SPLAT Bloom and discuss with various stakeholder groups. At Driscoll's Grower's Bee Meeting (June 2017, Oxnard CA), Jimmy Glick, an entomologist at Driscoll's conducted a presentation and discussion with an audience of 50 California growers. Dr. Agenor Mafra-Neto, the PI for this project, presented a talk entitled, "SPLAT Bloom: A semiochemical solution for more effective pollination of honeybee-dependent crops," at the annual meeting of the Entomological Society of America (ESA) in November of 2017. William Urrutia, ISCA's Director of Business Development, also discussed SPLAT Bloom at the Raspberry and Blackberry Association Annual Meeting in February 2018. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
SPLAT Bloom was tested in field trials on almonds and raspberries. For these crops, SPLAT Bloom was evaluated for its ability to increase honeybee visitation, provide greater fruit set and produce crop yields of higher quality and quantity. Field trials in almonds were conducted in Bakersfield, CA, while raspberry trials were performed in Oxnard and Bakersfield, CA. The first trial, in almonds, was installed on plots of the Olam Farm, Le Grand, California, with 20 acres assigned to each of the two treatments: 1) SPLAT Bloom and 2) untreated control. In the SPLAT Bloom-treated plots (5 acres each), the formulation was applied at a rate of 750 g/acre (250 3-g dollops of SPLAT Bloom per acre). Bee hives were placed equidistant from the treatments, at a rate of two hives per acre. Crop yield measurements were taken at three distances from the hive: 45, 90, and 135 m. Results: Crop yield was higher in almond plots treated with SPLAT Bloom, at all three tested distances from the hive, with an overall increase in fruit set of 32% at 45 m (from 9% to 11.9%); of 39% at 90 m (from 6.9% to 9.6%), and 28% at 135 m (from 8% to 10.3%) from the hive. Raspberry trials were performed in two southern California locations, Oxnard and Bakersfield. At the former location, the same two treatments were assessed as in the almond field trial, with SPLAT Bloom applied at the same rate as in the almond trial, applied over 14 acres for each treatment. Two bee hives per acre were placed an equal distance from the two treatments, and the total yield of the crop was measured on five dates following application. Results of this trial were similar to those observed when SPLAT Bloom was applied in almonds: on each evaluation date except the first (February 25), yield was higher in treated raspberry crops than in untreated crops. On average, SPLAT Bloom treatment produced an overall yield increase of 1.5%, which translated into 32.1 additional kg of fruit per acre (79.3 kg/ha) compared to untreated crops. Driscolls estimates that the average farm gate price for raspberries was $9/kg, so the extra 79.3 kg/ha translated into an extra income of $714/ha to the grower using SPLAT Bloom. In the second trial in raspberries, set up on a Bakersfield raspberry farm, we assessed whether the presence of higher hive density would intensify the pollination enhancement effect observed in the previous field trials: eight hives were placed per acre, rather than two. Yield assessments following treatment applications revealed that the differences between SPLAT Bloom-treated and untreated crops were more pronounced, though increases in SPLAT Bloom plots were less consistent. Overall, however, the general trend was in favor of SPLAT Bloom treatment. Crops treated with ISCA's pollination enhancer improved crop yield in raspberries by an average of 14.9%, resulting in 79.2 additional kg of fruit produced per acre (195 kg fruit/ha). The extra 195 kg/ha translates into an extra income of $1,755/ha to the grower as a result of applying SPLAT Bloom. Because hive safety is a priority concern for our research on SPLAT Bloom, we have been working directly with beekeepers to monitor any unusual behavior (e.g., bees leaving the hive during poor weather, or at night, or more bees leaving the hive than returning), differential levels of parasitization, disease, and/or mortality (an indicator of colony stress) to determine relatedness, if any, to SPLAT Bloom treatment. To this end, we performed a field trial in Bakersfield, designed to determine the impact SPLAT Bloom has on the activity of a honeybee colony placed nearby. Six smart hive sensors were constructed and placed at clusters of honeybee hives near almond fields during peak bloom (late February 2018). The SPLAT Bloom trial consisted of an 89-acre treatment area, alongside a similarly sized control area. The hive sensors, developed in collaboration with Farmsense (http://www.farmsense.io/) comprise an array of four phototransistors and infrared emitters connected to an electronic board, designed to detect and record the partial occlusion of light caused when an insect crosses the infrared light beam. These fluctuations are captured by the phototransistor array as changes in current, and the electronic board filters and amplifies the signal. Each signal captured by the sensor is processed by a machine learning algorithm, to determine whether that signal has been produced by the target insect, in this case, Apis mellifera. The sensors were installed 4 days after SPLAT Bloom application (2 days after introduction of the hives to the field), and were left to operate for 7 days during peak almond bloom. Results: Differences in total bee activity counts were not significantly different, but activity levels recorded by treatment sensors were noticeably lower than those in the control group. This may be an effect of bees in the SPLAT Bloom treated field spending longer amounts of time away from the hive, pollinating more flowers and making fewer trips with more nectar and pollen per trip. The activity peaks and valleys in the SPLAT Bloom group show that bees in treated areas start foraging 1-2 hr earlier than bees in untreated areas, and that in SPLAT Bloom exposed bees go for significantly longer foraging trips, which likely allows them to visit flowers further from the hive and bring larger loads of pollen and nectar to the hive. Longer foraging flights might explain why SPLAT Bloom treated fields have shown more consistent pollination across the entire area than untreated fields, where pollination is very high close to the hive (within 45 m) and drops with increased the distance from the hive. ISCA and its research partners sought to develop a mechanized applicator to ensure that SPLAT Bloom is amenable to this type of application. The result of our Phase I applicator work is a mechanized applicator consisting of the following components: a pneumatic piston pump, a gas-powered air compressor, a pneumatic piston valve, a microcontroller, and solenoid valve, and a sonar sensor. The SPLAT Bloom applicator can be assembled on trucks or crossover gators, enabling the operator of the vehicle to turn the system on and off by simply turning the vehicles' lights on and off. When the system is on, the air-operated pump propels the SPLAT Bloom material to the pneumatic piston valve along a ¼" hose. The pneumatic piston valve reservoir can be calibrated to hold different amounts of SPLAT Bloom, and dispenses the product whenever the microcontroller turns the valve on. The microcontroller receives an analog signal from the sonar sensor, and sends a digital output to turn on the solenoid valve that controls the air-operated valve's behavior. The sonar sensor must be attached to the side of the truck, and is designed to recognize a tree and respond by sending an analog signal to the microcontroller when the tree is in the specified range (5-400 cm). The microcontroller then turns on a 12-V DC solenoid valve that controls the pneumatic valve. When the solenoid valve is on, the piston valve that is already filled with the SPLAT Bloom, shoots the formulation toward the tree, resulting in the deposition of small dollops that rest on the tree branches.
Publications
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