Farms, conservation lands, rural communities and urban greenways provide a wealth of opportunities for expanding regional biodiversity, climate change resilience, ecological health and food security through the implementation of native pollination systems corridors.

What happens (or doesn't happen) at the pollination scale has repercussions all the way up the food chain to wild predators and humans: over 80% of the flowering plants on earth depend upon insect-mediated pollination, and wild bees are twice as effective as honeybees in producing seeds and food crops, as well as assisting trees, shrubs, forbs and vines in reproduction.

As plummeting insect numbers threaten a global collapse of nature, it increasingly becomes clear that we have to work together, collaborating across sectors, geographic boundaries, socio-economic and political divides, to build functionally diverse, biologically integral and climate-resilient habitat. That is only possible if native pollination systems are considered first. Yet most efforts to restore pollination systems to date have focused on increasing the numbers of a few bee, butterfly and/or moth species, rather than on the range of wild pollinator species needed for ecosystem health and resiliency.

Wild pollinators are declining in abundance, species richness, and geographic distribution at an alarming rate worldwide. In Massachusetts alone, two out of 11 species of bumblebee have been extirpated and two other species are expected to be gone within the next decade; while MassWildlife lists 5 more bees and 44 butterflies and moths as Species of Greatest Conservation Need. These declines pose a significant threat to biodiversity and ecological resilience due to the important role that wild pollinators play in terrestrial ecosystems. As keystone species, wild pollinators provide food, shelter and nest sites to wildlife at other trophic levels through their interactions with native flowering plants. Protecting diversity of native pollinator-plant interactions, or ‘pollination systems’ is therefore critical for maintaining healthy and diverse ecosystems. Pollination systems include bees, butterflies and moths, birds, beetles and flies, and represent over 80% of plant species worldwide. 

The biggest threats facing pollinators are habitat loss and fragmentation, widespread insecticide use (particularly neonicotinoids) and climate change. The conversion of land to intensive agriculture, and the widespread use of pesticides in such practices, has been linked to the decline of over 40% of insect species globally. Eventually, the continued degradation of wild pollination systems will lead to ecosystem collapse. Animal and plant species diversity means ecological resiliency — crucial in an era of unpredictable climate and more frequent, intense and longer weather extremes. Importantly, diversity of native pollination systems also provides ecosystem services, which are defined as contributions of ecological processes to the well-being of humans and other species, including decomposition, water purification, carbon sequestration, and pollination. It is therefore imperative that we maintain a diversity of wild pollination systems in areas with high levels of human disturbance, such as farmland and regions of urban-suburban development.

By reconnecting existing natural habitat features with corridors comprised of the specific native plant species that support the particular native bees, butterflies and moths of a given region, we at Landscape Interactions propose to essentially recreate the ecosystem services that animals, plants and humans depend upon for survival. The impacts reach through every trophic level, and all the way up the food chain. In essence, the survival of most plant and animal species on the planet depends upon these native pollination ecosystems.

Age of the Anthropocene

Humanity’s impact on the Earth is now so profound that a new geological epoch has been declared. The Anthropocene began around 1950, defined by radioactive elements dispersed across the planet by nuclear bombs, plastic pollution, soot from power stations, and even domestic chicken bones. We are now in the midst of the worst spate of species die-offs since the loss of dinosaurs 65 million years ago. As many as 30 to 50 percent of all species are heading toward extinction by mid-century.

We need a coordinated, international effort to protect the living systems on earth that produce the air, water and food we need.

Entomologist Helen Spafford, University of Hawaii

Plummeting Insect Numbers “Threaten Collapse of Nature”

Of the three major direct threats to insects, habitat loss was cited as the most pressing problem right now.

The main cause of the decline is agricultural intensification…the world must change the way it produces food. Industrial-scale, intensive agriculture is the one that is killing the ecosystems…Farmers need to restore the landscape by planting trees and hedges around their fields, and flowers between crops to encourage pollinators and beneficial insects.

Francisco Sánchez-Bayo, University of Sydney

New classes of insecticides introduced in the last 20 years, including neonicotinoids and fipronil, have been particularly damaging as they are used routinely and persist in the environment. Neonicotinoids, applied to at least 90% of the corn grown in the U.S., are used widely on farms, as well as around our homes, schools, and landscapes. Extremely concerning is the prolific inclusion of them in home garden products. Nurseries often treat their plants as well.

Recently, the EPA under the Trump Administration approved a new bee-killing pesticide called Sulfoxaflor for use across 190 million acres of crops, including strawberries and watermelon. Around the same time, the European Union banned three controversial neonicotinoid pesticides from almost all crop uses.

Wild Pollination Presents a Solution

Diverse wild pollination systems are like spontaneous farms for wildlife. Just like humans, pollinators need nutrient-dense foods, shelter, and successful reproduction to thrive. This is not just about food security: it’s biodiversity, ecological strength and climate change resilience.

Many plants that are native to the Americas (including blueberries, cranberries and tomatoes) require “buzz pollination” at the right frequency to release pollen. It’s like a secret code known only by their favored partners. Native bees know it. Honeybees don’t.

Buzz pollination video by Karl Ford, University of Minnesota

A recent study of 41 farms on six continents growing almonds, blueberries, buckwheat, cherries, coffee, cotton, kiwi, mango, passionfruit, pumpkins, strawberries and watermelon found that wild insects increased fruiting in every single farm where they were present, but honeybees only produced a significant increase 14% of the time. Not a single crop had increased fruiting caused by honeybees over wild bees. On average, wild bees delivered twice the bump of honeybees.

Farming for Biodiversity

If you have more native bees, do you get more blueberries? And we’ve found the answer is yes.

  Taylor Ricketts, Director, Gund Institute for Environment

As wild habitats continue to diminish, farmers may need to start thinking differently about the fertility of their own land. In a recent study by the University of Vermont, blueberry farms surrounded by the least natural habitat averaged just a handful of pollinating visitors per square meter over a 10-minute period, while farms in more natural zones averaged 20 to 30 visits.

Despite the obvious importance of wild pollinator-plant diversity for humans, public concern over pollinator decline has focused mostly on the plight of managed honeybee populations. This concern is well-founded: honeybees pollinate many crop plants and contribute billions of dollars to the agro-economy each year. However, as a non-native species, honeybees do little to support biodiversity and ecosystem health. In fact, it may be quite the opposite: a new study by Alison Brody at UVM found that bumblebees near honeybee apiaries were more likely to have viruses and that the flowers near apiaries were crawling with bee viruses.

A delicate balance exists between native plants and their pollinators, relationships that co-evolved over millions of years. For many specialists, once their “partner” is missing from the landscape, they cannot reproduce. For example, approximately 15% of northeastern native bees are pollen specialists, meaning that they only gather pollen from one species or genus of plants. The numbers also add up globally: there are roughly 300,000 unique species of flowering plants worldwide, and 200,000 species of animals pollinators.

One major misconception about pollinator decline is that all species are declining at the same rate. In fact, many species are actually increasing in abundance and geographic distribution. “Seeing lots of bees” does not mean that your area is necessarily “pollinator friendly.”

Each species has a unique set of traits that determine where and when it can live, how it interacts with other species and how it contributes to ecosystem function, referred to as its niche. Functional diversity signifies the range of niches represented by all species in a given geographic area.

The single most important criteria for establishing and maintaining functionally diverse pollinator habitat is plant selection. Unfortunately, most pollinator conservation efforts are biased toward increasing populations of common species (abundance) at the expense of species at risk (functional diversity). What one bee wants or needs — be it for pollen, nectar or nesting — is not the same for every other bee species.

Landscape Interactions brings over two decades of research on the pollen, nectar and nesting preferences of native pollinators to all of our projects, whether we are designing habitat or planning for land use modification and maintenance. Our plant selection supports species richness across functional traits, trophic levels and animal groups (bee, butterfly, moth, bird). Science informs the design process, the plant selection and measures the results.

References:

Carrington, Damian. Plummeting Insect Numbers 'Threaten Collapse of Nature'. The Guardian, 10 Feb. 2019.

Conniff, Richard. How Attracting Wild Bees and Butterflies to Farms Can Save Farmers Money. TakePart, 14 Apr. 2014.

Hance, Jeremy. The Great Insect Dying: How to Save Insects and Ourselves. Mongabay Environmental News, 18 July 2019.

Ibid. and Thomas, et al. Extinction risk from climate change. Nature 427, 145–148 (2004).

Jacobsen, Rowan. Are We Handling The Bee Crisis All Wrong?. Huffington Post, 24 July 2019.

Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife. 2015. Massachusetts State Wildlife Action Plan 2015. Westborough, MA.

Sánchez-Bayo et al. Worldwide decline of the entomofauna: A review of its drivers. Biological Conservation 232, 8-27 (2019).

U.S. Forest Service. The simple truth: we can’t live without pollinators. U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Forest Service. Web. 2007.