Task force to make assessment about worldwide pollination

The first assessment by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services will be about pollinators, pollination and food production.

By Elton Alisson

Agência FAPESP – A group of 75 researchers from various member countries of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), which includes 121 nations from all the world’s regions, will perform a global assessment of pollinators, pollination and food production.

The scope of the project was presented on September 17, 2014 in São Paulo at a FAPESP auditorium meeting of members of the independent intergovernmental body, which aims to organize the world’s knowledge about biodiversity and ecosystem services.

“The idea behind the work is to assess the existing knowledge about worldwide pollination and identify necessary studies in the field to assist countries’ decision makers in formulating public policies for the preservation of these and other ecosystem services provided by animal pollinators,” said Vera Imperatriz Fonseca, of the Biosciences Institute at the University of São Paulo (USP) and the Vale Technological Institute for Sustainable Development (ITVDS), in comments to Agência FAPESP.

“We already have a better understanding of the problem [of the world’s pollination crisis]. Now, we need to identify solutions,” said the researcher, who is coordinating the assessment along with Professor Simon Potts from the University of Reading in the United Kingdom.

According to Fonseca, there are more than 100,000 species of invertebrate pollinators, of which 20,000 are bees. In addition to insect pollinators, the focus of the report, there are also close to 1,200 species of vertebrates, such as birds, bats and other mammals, and reptiles that act as pollinators.

It is estimated that 75% of the world’s crops and 78%–94% of the earth’s wildflowers depend on animals for pollination, the researcher noted.

“There are about 300,000 species of wildflowers that depend on insects for pollination,” Fonseca said. “The annual estimated value of this ecosystem service provided by insects in agriculture stands at US$ 361 billion. However, in terms of biodiversity maintenance, it is priceless,” she stated.

Recent years have seen an increase in the reported loss of native species of insect pollinators in the world, caused by deforestation of natural areas as well as other factors such as the development of plantations, the use of pesticides, and the emergence of pathogens.

If the decline in insect pollinator species becomes a trend, it could endanger agricultural productivity, and, as a result, food security in the coming decades, said Fonseca.

“The world’s population is expected to grow significantly by 2050, requiring increased agricultural yields to provide large quantities of food in a scenario compromised by climate change. Pollination by insects could help solve this problem,” Fonseca said.

According to an international study published in the journal Current Biology, it is estimated that bee management efforts by farmers for purposes of pollination — such as those involving Apis mellifera L. domestic bees, raised extensively all over the world – increased by nearly 45% between 1950 and 2000.

The agricultural areas that depend upon pollination, however, have also expanded by more than 300% during the same period, say the study’s authors.

“Despite having increased species management of pollinator bees, we need much more than we have at the moment to meet the needs of agriculture,” Fonseca stated.

The decline in pollinator species all over the world is stimulating manual pollination in many countries. In China, for example, pollen is often sold for this purpose, the researcher said.

“In the absence of animals to engage in pollination, important crops such as palm oil and apples have been pollinated by hand. In Brazil, manual pollination is used on passion fruit, tomatoes and other crops,” she said.

Lack of data

According to Fonseca, data are already available about the decline of species of bees, flower flies (Syrphidae) and butterflies in Europe, the United States, the Middle East and Japan.

An international study published in the Journal of Apicultural Research indicated losses on the order of nearly 30% in colonies of Apis mellifera L. as a result of infestation by the Varroa destructor mite that is reducing the lifespan of the bees and, consequently, reducing their flower-pollinating activity, particularly in the Northern hemisphere.

In Europe, the loss of bee colonies due to mites could reach 53%; in the Middle East, it could reach 85%, say the study authors. However, there are no estimates to date regarding the loss of colonies and species on continents such as South America and Africa and in Oceania.

“We don’t have data on those areas. We need objective information to feed a worldwide pollination database in order to define conservation strategies in each country,” Fonseca said. “We also need to assess the effects of pesticides on the disappearance of bees in agricultural areas, which has been the subject of studies and activities by regulatory bodies in Brazil.”

Another major gap to be filled is that of studies regarding the interactions between native species of pollinator bees and species such as Apis mellifera L. that are raised for pollination.

An international study published in 2013 indicated that when Apis mellifera L. and solitary bees are present in the same crop, the rate of pollination increases significantly because they avoid each other on the flowers and move more frequently from one food collection site to another, Fonseca explained.

According to the researcher, one solution for pollination in large agricultural areas has been the use of pollinator colonies derived from mass production of bee colonies, such as those of the bee Bombus terrestris, bred on a large-scale commercial basis and exported.

In 2004, one million colonies of these bees were raised for use in agriculture.

Chile was the first South American country to introduce these bees for fruit and vegetable pollination. In several of the areas to which it was introduced, this exotic species of bee has been shown to be invasive and to be highly capable of taking over new areas.

“We need to study the interaction between the species further to identify where they co-exist, what contribution each makes to pollination, and whether this interaction is positive or negative,” Fonseca said.

“Furthermore, disease propagation to native bee species raises concerns and should be a focus of research in the coming years,” she said.

Global problem

According to Fonseca, the IPBES assessment, titled “Pollinators, pollination and food production,” is currently being written and is expected to be completed by late 2015.

In addition to a technical report that includes six 30-page chapters, the assessment is also expected to produce a document aimed at public policy formulators with regard to this topic, she explained.

“The pollination assessment should help increase efforts to combat the global problem of vanishing pollinator species, which is critical and has significant political and economic significance because it affects food production,” she said.

The report will be the first thematic assessment performed by the IPBES and should be available to the general public in December 2015. In coming years, the panel plans to produce other similar surveys about topics such as invasive species, habitat restoration and biodiversity scenarios.

One strategy adopted to better integrate the thematic assessments was the establishment of task forces that aim to promote professional and institutional capacity building, improvements in the process of managing data and scientific information, and the integration of traditional indigenous and local knowledge perspectives to the scientific processes. These task forces are expected to help produce the final document.

“The IPBES works in partnership with FAO [United Nations Organization for Food and Agriculture], UNEP [United Nations Environment Program], the CBD [Convention on Biological Diversity], UNESCO [United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization] and all previous efforts regarding the topic of pollination,” Fonseca said.

Pollination was the first topic to be selected by the intergovernmental platform country members because, among other things, it is a global problem, and there have already been numerous studies performed on the subject, explained Carlos Joly, coordinator of the FAPESP Research Program on Biodiversity Characterization, Conservation, Restoration and Sustainable Use (Biota-FAPESP) and member of the IPBES Multidisciplinary Expert Panel.

“As there is already quite a large framework of data on this topic, we thought it would be possible to prepare an overview quickly. Furthermore, the topic has a very large global impact, particularly because it is associated with food production,” Joly explained.

The 75 researchers participating in the project were nominated by the IPBES Multidisciplinary Expert Panel based on nominations received from member countries and observers of the intergovernmental platform.

Two group members were selected to coordinate the work, one from a developed country and the other from a developing country.

“The invitation and selection of Prof. Vera Imperatriz Fonseca as assessment coordinator is a reflection of the quality of science conducted in this field in Brazil and of her experience in working with national assessments,” Joly said. “We would like to have more Brazilian researchers involved in preparing the IPBES assessments.”

Read more about the IPBES meeting at FAPESP headquarters at: http://agencia.fapesp.br/20025.