Jan.
14, 2013 — Agricultural demand for pollination is growing more quickly
than the supply of honey bees, the dominant species managed for crop
pollination. Increasing the efficiency of pollination represents a way of
increasing crop yield without any increase in agricultural intensity or area. A
study recently published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B:
Biological Sciences, shows that the pollination effectiveness of honey bees in
California almond orchards was greater in the presence of other bees.
Almond
is a crop highly dependent on honey bee pollination and is a $3 billion
industry in California. The study by researchers in Germany at Leuphana
University of Lüneburg and California at UC Berkeley and Davis found that where
other species of bees were present, honey bee behaviour changed and their
pollination effectiveness was greater than in orchards where other bees were
absent. Furthermore, orchards with wild bees had a greater proportion fruit
set. These findings show that wild pollinators not only contribute directly to
almond pollination, but also indirectly through increasing the pollination
service provided by the honey bees.
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