Protect the variety of bees, essential to ensure crop pollination
Conserving bees is important but also ensuring that the population of these insects is diverse is essential to ensure the pollination of crops and maximize production, according to a study published in Science.
The work, led by researcher Rachael Winfree of Rutgers University (United States), concludes that studies on bees made to date have underestimated the number of species needed to ensure adequate pollination.
Previously, several studies had analyzed the influence of biodiversity on ecosystem functions such as nutrient cycling or pollination, but it remains to be seen that these findings actually apply to natural systems.
For example, a classic solution of agriculture to ensure pollination of crops is to use honey bee colonies but, by themselves, these bees are not enough to do so, but they need the help of wild bees, which are crucial for the proper functioning of ecosystems.
In this context, Rachael Winfree and her colleagues conducted a study on three types of crops (watermelon, currant and blueberry) of 50 agricultural farms to determine how many wild bee species are needed to maintain agricultural production.
The study, which took into account the amount of pollen that each bee was able to extract in each visit to a flower, found that of the more than one hundred species found in the crops, 55 was needed to ensure its pollination.
More than 20.000 species of bees
"Bees, of which there are more than 20.000 species (double that of birds, for example), have a key role for the ecosystem and for us", Highlights Ignasi Bartomeus, co-author of the work and researcher at the Doñana Biological Station of the CSIC.
"Each species plays its role in ecosystems, and the only way to ensure its proper functioning is to protect them all"He concludes.
Source: EFEfuturo
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