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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Stoneville, Mississippi » Pollinator Health in Southern Crop Ecosystems Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #405517
Research Project: Ecological Assessment and Mitigation Strategies to Reduce the Risks of Bees to Stressors in Southern Crop Ecosystems

Location: Pollinator Health in Southern Crop Ecosystems Research

Title: The nutritional landscape in agroecosystems: A review on how resources and management practices can shape pollinator health in agricultural environments

Author
item Lau, Pierre
item ESQUIVEL, ISSAC - University Of Florida
item Parys, Katherine
item HUNG, JAMES - University Of Oklahoma
item CHAKRABARTI, PRIYADARSHINI - Mississippi State University

Submitted to: Annals of the Entomological Society of America
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/25/2023
Publication Date: 8/6/2023
Citation: Lau, P.W., Esquivel, I.L., Parys, K.A., Hung, J., Chakrabarti, P. 2023. The nutritional landscape in agroecosystems: A review on how resources and management practices can shape pollinator health in agricultural environments. Annals of the Entomological Society of America. https://doi.org/10.1093/aesa/saad023.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/aesa/saad023

Interpretive Summary: Pollinators experience many stressors in their environment, including poor nutrition, pesticides, pests, and pathogens. The effects of these stressors are exacerbated in agricultural environments, as the landscape is typically cleared for a few crops that only bloom for a short window of time. The limited resources available can lead to interactive effects with other stressors on pollinator health. Understanding bee nutritional ecology in agricultural landscapes can lead to efforts improving bee health, pollination, and crop yields. This review on bee nutrition in agroecosystems highlight current knowledge and future directions for a holistic approach on bees in agriculture.

Technical Abstract: Pollinator nutrition is a highly complex subject that we are just starting to unravel, from the multidimensional chemical nature of bee forage (pollen and nectar) to how the agricultural environment can affect the resources available to bees. Doing so is of utmost importance, as improving pollinator resource availability and nutrition is one of the proposed mechanisms to improve populations and pollinator health. However, landscape change has changed the resources naturally available for pollinators. Farmland and cropping systems create a unique nutritional landscape for pollinators, with agroecosystems typically containing few crops dominating a landscape along with natural corridors containing non-crop plants. The types of crops planted, and the surrounding landscape will ultimately affect the nutritional landscape bees have access to. Even the management practices in agriculture with how pests are controlled will directly and indirectly affect bee health and nutrition. To better understand bee nutrition in agricultural ecosystems, this review will bridge research on the resources bees collect in agricultural landscapes to recent research on the nutritional ecology of bees.