KindHarvest summary: A Rutgers-led study found that maintaining crop pollination across a full season and over several years requires many more bee species than a snapshot taken on one day would suggest. Different species become important at different times and in different years.
What the researchers found
The team combined observations of flower visits with measurements of pollen deposited on crops at blueberry farms in New Jersey and watermelon farms in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and California. The analysis showed that two to three times as many bee species were needed to meet a pollination target across a growing season as on a single date, and twice as many were needed across six years as in one year.
Species that were abundant or effective in one period were not always the dominant pollinators later. Diversity therefore acts as biological insurance: when some populations fluctuate or decline, other species can help maintain the ecosystem service.
Why it matters
For farms, pollinator habitat is about resilience as well as the number of bees seen at flowering. Maintaining varied habitat and reducing pressures on a broad range of native pollinators can support more reliable pollination through changing seasons and years.
Source and credit
This KindHarvest Team brief is based on a Rutgers University report by Kitta MacPherson, published 6 September 2022, covering research in Nature Ecology & Evolution. Read the original Rutgers article.