Pollination, Pollinators & Agriculture:

Canadian international leadership, then and now

Peter Kevan Canadian Pollination Initiative University of Guelph, Ontario

Pollination & Pollinator Shortages

• Since the dawn of agriculture

– Figs

– Dates

Amos of the Old Testament was a fig-piercer (2800 BP)

Herodotus 2500 BP

Babylonian date pollination by hand 3700 BP

Pollination & Pollinator Shortages Canadian Stories

• Canadian Examples: Canadian Leadership

– An Apple a Day

– Alfalfa Seeds, Forage, and Leafcutting Bees

– Blueberries, Bees, Business & Litigation

– Tomatoes & Bumblebees in the Greenhouse

– Pollinator Biocontrol Biovectoring

– Honeybees, Beekeeping … Honey, we got problems!

– Emerging problems & NSERC-CANPOLIN

Pollination & Pollinator Shortages: Canadian Stories – Apple

• Apple in the Canadian East

• Native bees (many species) &

effective (J. Macoun 1923, 1924)

• Insecticides problematic,

studies by W.H. Brittain

and team (1928-1932)

in Annapolis Valley, NS

• Solution

John Macoun

W. H. Brittain

• Honeybee husbandry

• Hive-mounted

pollen dispensers

Pollination & Pollinator Shortages: Canadian Stories – Apple

C. Jay, hive deployment studies in orchards

Nova Scotia Ag. College dispenser

R & D Needs for Pollination in Fruit Production

• R & D needs

– Pollination needs (crosses between cultivars)

– Pollinator behaviour

– Orchard design

– Pollinator diversification

– Wild pollinators

Pollination needs: Breeding System

• Apples are self-incompatible between cultivars

• Within cultivars, cross pollination does NOT result in fruit set

McIntosh pollen

G. Delicious

Idared, Spy,

etc.

McIntosh flower

Pollinator Behaviour: Pollen Pick-up & Delivery

Stigma touch/ Pollen collected ++++ Stigma touch/

Nectar collected +++

Stigma missed/ Nectar collected +/-

Stigma missed/ Anthers missed - -

Floral Form & Bee Behaviour

Mutsu – large gaps between filaments: bees can work from petals

Jona Gold – filaments tight together: bees have to work from top

Empire – filaments with small gaps

Pollination neighbourhood

Most pollen comes from within 20m of each tree

20m

Orchard Design: Gene Movement

Mixed pollens on one flower: better fruit-set Some cultivars have “stud-pollen”; others have “wimp-pollen”

Pollination & Pollinator Shortages Canadian Stories – Alfalfa

• Alfalfa in the Canadian West

• F.W.L. Sladen (1918) advocated

Megachile spp. for pollination

• To the 1940s, system seemed

effective (Salt 1940)

• High productivity of alfalfa

seed leads to expansion

of fields

• By 1950s, problems!

Pollination & Pollinator Shortages: Canadian Stories - Alfalfa

• Small fields merged into Huge fields,

no Megachile nesting habitat, except around edges

• Seed Yields drop:

1000 to 15 kg/ha (Stephen 1955)

• Solution

Pollination & Pollinator Shortages: Canadian Stories - Alfalfa

• Alfalfa leafcutting bee husbandry

• G. Hobbs, Lethbridge, AB (perfected by mid 1960s)

Gordon Hobbs

Value of Leafcutter Bee Industry in Canada (ca. 2009)

• 50,000 bees per ha = over 2.0 Billion bee population in SK alone (75% of Canada’s alfalfa seed production)

• 13.5 Million kg seed/yr = $40 Million

$25 Million/yr in exports

• Bees = 30+% of seed value

= $15 - 20 Million

Pollination & Pollinator Shortages: Canadian Stories - Lowbush Blueberries

• Maritimes & Quebec • Canadian production

– 300 Million kg/yr

• Exports = $323 Million

• Must be pollinated by bees – Buzz pollination – Wild bees (70+ species) – Honeybees

Pollination & Pollinator Shortages: Canadian Stories – Blueberries & the Forest

• Blueberry Pie Ecosystem & Pesticides

– During Fenitrothion

• This example: New Brunswick

• Other similar examples: Quebec, Ontario

Pollination & Pollinator Shortages: Canadian Stories – Blueberries & the Forest

New Brunswick’s Blueberries, Bees, & Pesticide Story

Crop loss ≈ 0.7 million kg/year !

Fenitrothion

• Solutions

– Litigation

– Restraining orders

– More science

• Other pesticides

• Other pollinators

• Other plants

• Other places

Pollination & Pollinator Shortages: Canadian Stories – Blueberries & the Forest

Disrupted ecosystem function

Reduced pollinator diversity and abundance

Reduced fruit / seed set

Kevan & Plowright, 1970 -

Pollination & Pollinator Shortages: Canadian Stories – The Forest

• Solution

– Tighter control on forest pesticide use

– More emphasis on biocontrol

– Recognition of pollinators in forest ecosystem function

New Brunswick blueberry story was at the start of a major trend in pollinator

conservation worldwide

Pollination & Pollinator Shortages: Canadian Stories – Greenhouse Tomatoes

• Still air

• Hand pollination – Labour costs $$$

–Reliability

–Timing

• Solution

Pollination & Pollinator Shortages: Canadian Stories – Greenhouse Tomatoes

• Bumblebee culture MB Plowright & Jay 1966

ON Kevan et al. 1991

BC Dogterom 1998

ON Morandin et al. 2001- 2

BC Winston team 2003-4

Value of Greenhouse Tomato Production (ca. 2009)

• 736 Acres in Ontario (75% of Canadian production)

• $290 Million/year

• Bumblebees @ 2 colonies/acre/month for 10 months

– 20 colonies @ $200 each/acre/year

– $3.7 Million/year in Canada

Pollinator Biocontrol Biovectoring

• Pollinators carry microorganisms (pollen incl.)

• Can Biocontrol agents be carried by pollinators?

• Yes!

– Entomopathogens of crop pest insects

• Lygus, thrips, aphids, whitefly, moths, beetles

– Fungal antagonists to plant pathogens

• Grey mould, mummy berry, Schlerotinia, Rhizopus, Phomopsis

Greenhouse Experimental set up

Each bumble bee hive

was equipped with an

inoculum dispenser.

Inoculum was placed

inside a removable tray.

Greenhouse results: Lygus mortality though bee vectored Beauvaria

TPB mortality

0

10

20

30

40

50

1st 2nd

Sampling date

% M

ort

ality

B. Bassiana + bumble bees Bumble bees only No treatment

Clonostachys on Blueberry Pollinating

Bumblebees for Mummyberry &

Greymould control

PEI Organic/Pesticide-

free Blueberry Farm,

2009 – 2012 trials

Value of Honeybees for Crop Pollination (ca. 2009)

• Est. value = $1.3 to $1.7 Billion annually in Canada – 300,000 colonies for hybrid canola seed

– 35,000 colonies for blueberries

– 15,000 colonies for fruit trees

– @ average $120/ colony = $42 Million in hive rentals/year

• Honey = $110 Million/year (28 Million kg)

Initiatives on Pollination & Pollinator Shortages: Canada at the Forefront

• NRCanada (1981) Pesticide Pollinator Interactions

• AgCanada (1989) National Workshop, Winnipeg

• ESC (1997) Pollinators & Mother Earth

• Canadian participation in International & US meetings (1992, 1995-2012)

• US NRC (2007) Status of Pollinators in North America

Recent Canadian Initiatives

• CPPI – January, 2007 in Ottawa • CANPOLIN – NSERC Strategic Network Proposal: submitted February 2008 ($5 million)

• City of Guelph Pollination Park 7 March 2008 • CPPI – Urban pollination, 8 March 2008 • National Wildlife Week, 30 April 2008 • Pollinator Conservation in Practice, 13 Nov. 2009

Funded Oct. 2008!