Setting priorities for managing pollinator habitat across the United States

About

At the core of our global food supply is the process of pollination - the transfer of pollen from the anther of a flower to the stigma - which allows the plant to bear fruit in the form of avocados, strawberries, and practically every type of produce you might see in your local supermarket. This fundamental process is the backbone of agriculture around the world, and up to 70% of all produce relies specifically on biodiverse animals like bees, insects, butterflies, and hummingbirds to perform this service (Baylis et al., 2021; Potts et al., 2016). Pollinating species depend on patches of natural habitat that are linked across agricultural landscapes to find both nesting sites and food. From a management perspective, if a farmer provides wild pollinator-friendly habitat, there can be spillover pollination occurring on nearby farms from species movement, or what in economics is called a positive externality, as neither party actively “paid” to provide this beneficial service. 

However, the wild pollinators (like native bees) that have historically provided this essential service are losing local habitat and face increasing stressors such as climate change, land-use change, pesticide exposure, and disease. As a result, the wild pollinators that support many of the world's most valuable crops, like fruits, tree nuts, and vegetables and squashes, are in decline. Simultaneously, the share of agricultural land dedicated to high-value crops requiring insect pollination has increased over the last 50 years (Aizen et al., 2019), increasing demand for pollination services. It is becoming clearer that we need to find innovative ways to protect and enhance wild pollinator habitat while effectively managing agricultural landscapes in the face of competing economic and environmental pressures. In this project, we are developing analytical methods, grounded in both economic and ecological theory, to determine 1) the value of pollination services provided by wild pollinators and 2) the efficient levels and locations of habitat preservation. We are then applying these methods to two important insect-pollinated crops across different agricultural regions in the United States: blueberries, a perennial crop with a short bloom window, and watermelons, an annual crop with an extended bloom time.

Approach

By developing an economic theoretical framework that treats pollination as an intermediate input into crop production, we are able to model how profit-maximizing growers can combine wild pollinator habitat with managed pollinators under varying ecological and economic conditions. This is calibrated by ecological data collected from crop field studies. Using this information in combination with geospatial data, ecological science, primary survey data, and USDA microdata, we will then characterize the types and distribution of wild pollinator habitat, managed pollinator use and stocking rates, and insect-pollination dependent crop yields. This geospatial and micro data, informed by the theoretical framework, allows us to estimate how surrounding landscapes as pollinator habitats affect crop yields. A key part of this process is gathering qualitative and survey data directly from blueberry and watermelon growers and beekeepers at commodity meetings (and online) to estimate demand curves for managed pollination and ground-truth our estimates. Finally, we will conduct cost-benefit analyses to evaluate key scenarios, such as how habitat loss and pollinator diseases change the value of wild pollinator services in relation to managed pollination. We will share our findings with blueberry and watermelon stakeholders in industry magazine articles (e.g. Good Fruit Grower), as well as attending and presenting at industry organizations and conferences (e.g.  North American Blueberry Convention). 

Team

Kathy Baylis (Principal Investigator), Erik Lichtenberg (Principal Investigator, University of Maryland), Elinor Lichtenberg (Principal Investigator, University of North Texas), Hunter Messick (MS Student, University of North Texas), Rin Futara (PhD Student, University of Maryland), and Gemma Del Rossi (PhD Student).

Partners

This project is in collaboration with the University of Maryland, University of North Texas, and funded by the United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA NIFA).