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Bee Pollination of Crops: A Natural and Cost-Free Ecological Service

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Entomovectoring for Precision Biocontrol and Enhanced Pollination of Crops

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Abstract

Insect pollination is an important ecosystem service for the production of many economically valuable crops. Managed honeybees as well as wild bees provide a pollination service for most pollinator dependent crops. Because of intensified agriculture, fragmentation of landscapes, increased use of pesticides, climate change, habitat loss etc. the abundance and species richness of wild bees has decreased and the pollination service is in jeopardy. The decline of pollinators has a direct impact for farmers because the yield of insufficiently pollinated plants decreases. In this chapter we highlight the widespread concerns about pollinator declines and thus the potential loss of pollination services. The public and scientists have realized that the naturally cost-free pollination services like they were available a century ago and not a topic of concern, must today be compensated by providing cost-intensive pollination services in many cases.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by institutional research funding IUT36-2 of the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lower Saxony State Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety, Institute for Apiculture, Celle, Germany

    Otto Boecking

  2. Department Plant Protection, Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Estonian University of Life Sciences, Tartu, Estonia

    Eve Veromann

Authors
  1. Otto Boecking
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  2. Eve Veromann
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Otto Boecking .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Plants and Crops, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

    Guy Smagghe

  2. Lower Saxony State Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety, Institute for Apiculture, Celle, Germany

    Otto Boecking

  3. Centro Agricoltura Ambiente “Giorgio Nicoli”, Crevalcore, Bologna, Italy

    Bettina Maccagnani

  4. Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Estonian University of Life Sciences, Tartu, Estonia

    Marika Mänd

  5. School of Environmental Sciences, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada

    Peter G. Kevan

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Boecking, O., Veromann, E. (2020). Bee Pollination of Crops: A Natural and Cost-Free Ecological Service. In: Smagghe, G., Boecking, O., Maccagnani, B., Mänd, M., Kevan, P. (eds) Entomovectoring for Precision Biocontrol and Enhanced Pollination of Crops. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18917-4_3

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