Status of Pollinators in North America (2007) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
6 Strategies for Maintaining Pollinators and Pollination Services
6 Strategies for Maintaining Pollinators and Pollination Services
Pages 155-195
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 155... ...
The development of methods that support the commercialization of non-Apis pollinator species is also a high priority. For wild, unmanaged pollinators, the most important goals involve conservation and restoration of habitat.
|
From page 156... ...
Also, economic and policy incentives would encourage the stewards of a wide range of urban and rural areas to adopt pollinator-friendly practices and also to encourage information exchange and outreach. The most effective and sustainable route to stability in pollination services is to identify and implement practices that promote the availability of diverse commercial and wild pollinators.
|
From page 157... ...
. A varroa-resistant stock of honey bees was developed at the U.S.
|
From page 158... ...
Moreover, the honey bee mating behavior presents a challenge to the development and maintenance of selected lines of honey bees. Honey bee queens are naturally polyandrous (Winston 1987)
|
From page 159... ...
, the queens often mate with drones from unselected stocks of local wild bees or from colonies belonging to other beekeepers. Thus, production queens will often produce hybrid workers that do not exhibit the desired traits or that do not exhibit those traits to the desired extent, depending on the genetic basis of the variation under selection (for example, dominance, additive, epistasis)
|
From page 160... ...
Maintaining selected stocks of honey bees is difficult because of the generally uncontrolled mating behavior of queens and because queens have relatively short and unpredictable lives of 1–3 years (Seeley, 1985)
|
From page 161... ...
The current effects of tracheal mites on honey bee populations are not known. Fortunately, several remedies are available for control of tracheal mites, including "grease patties" (made from vegetable shortening and granulated or powdered sugar)
|
From page 162... ...
The Federal Honey Bee Act of 1922 "prohibits the entry of honey bees from countries where diseases and parasites harmful to honey bees are known to exist" (USDA-APHIS, 2002)
|
From page 163... ...
Shipments of bees from countries or territories that have pests that are not already present throughout North America should not be permitted if long-term safeguarding of North American pollination capacity is a priority. APHIS should carefully assess the integrity of inspection in countries interested in supplying bees to North America, and it should collect and analyze samples of adult and immature honey bees from producers who wish to ship to North America.
|
From page 164... ...
provides a unifying framework for the management of many agricultural pests, including those of honey bees. IPM coordinates the use of several pest control methods for sustainable, economically feasible management.
|
From page 165... ...
Extension efforts directed toward queen breeders and commercial queen producers should emphasize methods for stock development and maintenance and the use of controlled mating, primarily through geographic isolation and drone saturation. ARS Honey Bee Research Much of the applied research on honey bees in the United States is conducted in ARS honey bee laboratories.
|
From page 166... ...
. However, government intervention could reduce volatility by encouraging research, extension, and certification efforts; by creating stricter controls for importation of honey bees from other countries; and by better monitoring of honey bee colonies and pollination services (Chapter 5)
|
From page 167... ...
Industry Initiatives Beekeepers and the crop producers who require pollination have a special interest in the health of honey bees. The main fundraising mechanism available to U.S.
|
From page 168... ...
, but it has not become established as a commercial pollinator. The alfalfa leafcutter bee, Megachile rotundata, introduced from Eurasia, is superior to honey bees for alfalfa pollination (Cane, 2002; Tepedino, 1997)
|
From page 169... ...
Bumble bees are susceptible to some of the same diseases and parasites that plague honey bees, and disease limits their utility as commercial pollinators. Infections of the bees can complicate long-term maintenance of captive colonies.
|
From page 170... ...
documented the transfer of pathogens from European to Japanese bumble bees, and comparable "pathogen spillover" might have caused or contributed to the recent decline and extirpation of several bumble bee species in the subgenus Bombus and to the likely extinction of B franklini (Chapter 3; Colla et al., 2006; Thorp, 2005; Thorp and Shepherd, 2005)
|
From page 171... ...
Species with long flight seasons are usually polylectic and include the long-lived carpenter bees and euglossine orchid bees, those that produce multiple generations within a season, and highly social bees with annual or permanent colonies (honey bees, bumble bees, stingless bees)
|
From page 172... ...
Nonsocial bees, waspsc Nesting sites or Bare ground, vertical cliffs or ditch substrates banks, adobe walls Large and small carpenter bees, Nesting sites or Soft woods, pithy twigs, beetle leafcutter bees, mason beesd substrates burrows Bumble beesa,e Nesting sites Rodent, mouse nests Flies Adult food Pollen, nectar Flies Larval food Insects, organic matter, water Leafcutter and mason bees Nesting sites Plant galls, snail shells (European) f Nonsocial bees, wasps Nesting sites Sand dunes, sand or burrow pits, gravel pits, quarries Highly eusocial bees, honey Building materials Glandular secretions (beeswax, bees, bumble bees, stingless exocrine secretions, Dufour's)
|
From page 173... ...
For social bees that overwinter as adults (bumble bees, honey bees) , the temperate bloom of fall-blooming asteraceous species (goldenrods)
|
From page 174... ...
. Social bees, including bumble bees, stingless bees (meliponines)
|
From page 175... ...
. Finally, conserving existing original habitats generally should take priority over restoration, because restored habitats might not replicate every component that is functionally significant to pollinator species (Zedler and Callaway, 1999)
|
From page 176... ...
The decline in the alkali bee industry probably was the result of pesticide use for controlling rangeland grasshoppers, competition from honey bees, and several rainy years, when the alkali bees' underground cells suffered unusually high mortality (Mayer and Johansen, 2003; Chapter 3)
|
From page 177... ...
. Cavity Nesters Nest boxes made of wood or Styrofoam with plastic or rubber hose entrance tunnels can be provided for bumble bee species that nest underground.
|
From page 178... ...
. Extensive work on the ˆ chemistry of bumble bee pheromones has been conducted for some species (Bergström et al., 1996; O'Neill et al., 1991)
|
From page 179... ...
• Growing polycultures rather than monocultures in a field results in a more diverse set of floral resources. Including flowers that bloom at different times of the year provides for and attracts a greater number of pollinator species, including those with long flight seasons.
|
From page 180... ...
The overall research program has several aims: • Quantify distribution shifts in key pollinator groups across Europe. • Measure biodiversity and assess economic risks associated with the loss of pollination services in agricultural and natural systems through the development of standardized tools and protocols.
|
From page 181... ...
• Grasslands sown with mixes that include pollen-and-nectar flowers can increase the diversity, abundance, and availability of forage re sources, and increases bumble bee diversity and abundance. • Careful management of hedgerows can create and protect habitats suitable for pollinators.
|
From page 182... ...
Examples include creating patches of bare ground for ground-nesting bees within perennial plantings, such as hedgerows, or mowing or weeding within pastures; leaving dead wood and standing snags, drilling holes in dead wood, and putting out trap nests for twig-nesting bees; providing a sand-loam mix for ground-nesting bees; putting out bumble bee nest boxes, buried or above ground; and creating specialized conditions for nesting aggregations (Box 6-2)
|
From page 183... ...
. Some pollinator species might not be killed outright by pesticide applications, but they could suffer sublethal effects, including reduced foraging ability, that ultimately hamper their productivity (Morandin et al., 2005; Vaughan et al., 2004)
|
From page 184... ...
In habitats where fire is the natural agent of disturbance, mowing or grazing can be more beneficial to the maintenance of pollinator habitats, particularly if habitat patches are small and isolated. In particular, pollinator species of interest suffer some larval or adult mortality from fire (Smallidge and Leopold, 1997)
|
From page 185... ...
Thus, grassland management protocols that are well adapted for Lepidoptera also should consider provisions for bee-nesting sites. Nesting sites can be provided by creating patches of bare ground or sand-loam mixes for ground-nesting bees; by maintaining a landscape mosaic of wooded and grassy areas, protecting some dead wood and standing snags and drilling holes in some dead wood; putting out trap nests for twig-nesting bees; and putting out bumble bee nest boxes, buried or above ground (Box 6-4)
|
From page 186... ...
. Commercial Pollinators Crops that require or are improved by animal pollination benefit from the services of commercially managed honey bees or other commercially managed bees.
|
From page 187... ...
, in general, the great advantage of using commercially managed pollinators is that service delivery can be controlled, or at least manipulated, by relative placement of pollinators and cultivars. Wild Pollinators It is far more difficult to ensure that services from wild pollinators are delivered to crops.
|
From page 188... ...
, also have statistically significant effects. Pollination services for wild plants that depend on or benefit from animal pollination are generally provided exclusively by wild pollinator populations, although managed honey bees often forage on wild plants and, thus, provide some services (Kremen et al., 2002)
|
From page 189... ...
or to maintain gene flow and population persistence for isolated populations of wild plants that are confined to fragments also is poorly understood. If wild pollinators in an area indeed depend on natural habitat fragments for nesting sites and critical floral resources, then crop pollination can benefit from a "service halo" around the habitat fragment corresponding to the foraging ranges of individual pollinator species (Ricketts, 2001; Ricketts
|
From page 190... ...
PUBLIC POLICY AND POLLINATOR POPULATIONS U.S. Endangered Species Act The Endangered Species Act (ESA)
|
From page 191... ...
3824, if it meets the NAS peer-review conditions set forth in the bill." Because of the paucity of data available for many pollinator species (Chapter 2) , assessments of species status often are based on information derived from population models or from genetic studies, which could be excluded if ESA is amended as proposed.
|
From page 192... ...
The program can be customized to include pollinator habitat through improvements in hedgerows, riparian buffer strips, tree and shrub planting, and wildlife habitat management. • The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP)
|
From page 193... ...
The inclusion of pollinator protection in the criteria for federal land leases for grazing and timber harvest also could encompass large areas of land. Some interstate highways already have wildflower plantings, which could be enhanced by purposeful selection of appropriate native plant species favored by wild pollinators.
|
From page 194... ...
. CONCLUSIONS This chapter presents various actions that could be taken to maintain commercial pollinators, wild pollinator species and communities, and pollination function.
|
From page 195... ...
• Integrate land management practices that encourage pollinator populations at the state level into existing Farm Bill conservation programs such as EQIP, WHIP, CRP, and CSP. • Conserve existing natural habitats in human-dominated landscapes.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.