The first study to show how many bees are needed to maintain crop yields was done by Rutgers University.
Scientists said in the paper that the bee population is critical to maintaining the function of crop pollination, which is critical to humanity's food supply.
Natalie Lemanski is a researcher in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources at the Rutgers School of Environmental andBiological Sciences. You need more bee species in order to get stable pollination services over a long period of time.
Many more bee species were needed over multiple years at many farms in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and California, according to a study done by a team of researchers.
The bees pollinated the same plants at different times of the year. Different bee species were the main pollinators on the same plants in different years. All bee species were needed to maintain a minimum threshold of pollination because of natural fluctuations in bee populations.
The deputy division director of the National Science Foundation's Directorate for Biological Sciences funded the study. Variety is needed to provide balance during a growing season and from year to year.
Lemanski said the study shows that the insurance hypothesis is valid. Naturediversifies the portfolio and supports multiple species of a category of a plant or animal, rather than relying on one dominant species.
Two to three times the number of bee species were needed to meet a target level of crop pollination compared to a single date, according to Lemanski. Over the course of six years, there were twice as many species that were needed to provide pollination.
The researchers based their analysis on their own extensive observations of bee visits to flowers and their measurement of the amount of pollen grains deposited on individual flowers over the course of several years. The data was collected at 36 watermelon farms in the Northern Central Valley of California and at 25 watermelon farms in central New Jersey.
When considering the same interval of time over multiple years, the magnitude of increase in species needed was remarkably consistent. The fact that the relationship between timescale and the number of species needed did not level off suggests that even longer time series, covering multiple seasons, may further bolster the need for biodiversity.
The senior author on the paper was a professor in the Rutgers Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources.
More information: Natalie J. Lemanski et al, Greater bee diversity is needed to maintain crop pollination over time, Nature Ecology & Evolution (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41559-022-01847-3 Journal information: Nature Ecology & Evolution
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