A Mathematical Model of the Interactions Between Pollinators and Their Effects on Pollination of Almonds

A Mathematical Model of the Interactions Between Pollinators and Their Effects on Pollination of Almonds
Author: Kamuela E. Yong
Publisher:
Total Pages: 69
Release: 2012
Genre: Almond
ISBN:

California's almond industry, valued at $2.3 billion per year, depends on the pollinator services of honey bees, although pollination by other insects, mainly solitary wild bees, is being investigated as an alternative because of recent declines in the number of honey bee colonies. Our objective is to model the movements of honey bees and determine the conditions under which they will forage in less favorable areas of a tree and its surroundings when other pollinators are present. We hypothesize that foraging in less favorable areas leads to increased movement between trees and increased cross pollination between varieties which is required for successful nut production. We use the Shigesada-Kawasaki-Teramoto model (1979) which describes the density of two species in a two-dimensional environment of variable favorableness with respect to intrinsic diffusions and intra- and interspecific interactions of species.

A Mathematical Model of the Interactions Between Pollinators and Their Effects on Pollination of Almonds

A Mathematical Model of the Interactions Between Pollinators and Their Effects on Pollination of Almonds
Author: Kamuela E. Yong
Publisher:
Total Pages: 69
Release: 2012
Genre: Almond
ISBN: 9781267463531

California's almond industry, valued at $2.3 billion per year, depends on the pollinator services of honey bees, although pollination by other insects, mainly solitary wild bees, is being investigated as an alternative because of recent declines in the number of honey bee colonies. Our objective is to model the movements of honey bees and determine the conditions under which they will forage in less favorable areas of a tree and its surroundings when other pollinators are present. We hypothesize that foraging in less favorable areas leads to increased movement between trees and increased cross pollination between varieties which is required for successful nut production. We use the Shigesada-Kawasaki-Teramoto model (1979) which describes the density of two species in a two-dimensional environment of variable favorableness with respect to intrinsic diffusions and intra- and interspecific interactions of species.

Pollination Markets and the Coupled Futures of Almonds and Honey Bees

Pollination Markets and the Coupled Futures of Almonds and Honey Bees
Author: Hyunok Lee
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2020
Genre:
ISBN:

Honey bees have garnered much attention in recent years. Concerns about long-term sustainability of pollinator populations have been coupled with concerns about implications for food supplies. We use a novel formulation of a multiple input, multiple output, two season equilibrium simulation model to explore economic linkages across the markets of buyers and sellers of pollination services and honey. We specify and calibrate in a tractable way the empirical relationships between pollinators and the crops they pollinate, especially almonds. Our model highlights the sequential nature of the pollination season and implication for revenue from pollination and honey production. We demonstrate how shifts in almond supply and demand and the much-discussed honey bee hive health problems cause price and quantity adjustments in horizontally and vertically related markets and quantify these effects. We show that the economic fortunes of the almond industry, including demand growth, cost concerns, and the potential for new almond varieties that use fewer bees, crucially affect the returns to beekeeping and the number of hives. These drivers of almond economics also have substantial effects on the cost of pollination for crops that are pollinated later.

Plant-pollinator Interactions in an Ecological and Evolutionary Context

Plant-pollinator Interactions in an Ecological and Evolutionary Context
Author: Eric Octavio Campos
Publisher:
Total Pages: 119
Release: 2017
Genre:
ISBN:

This dissertation concerns itself with the role of flower shape in affecting the foraging performance of pollinating animals. The pollinator used in this study is a model organism representing crepuscular hawkmoths in research involving the study of flight neuromuscular physiology and plant-pollinator interactions, Manduca sexta (hereafter Manduca). The broader goal of the work is to develop a new experimental framework for investigating the ecological and evolutionary consequences of plant-pollinator interactions. To that end, I have combined 3D-printing technology and mathematical modelling to construct artificial flowers, which can be manufactured with great precision and with objective, quantitatively describable shapes. First, I present a proof-of-concept study to demonstrate the feasibility of collecting foraging data from a real animal pollinator attempting to feed from 3D-printed artificial flowers. I show that Manduca’s foraging performance is extremely sensitive to variation in floral corolla curvature and nectary diameter. These results validate the experimental approach that I describe, justifying a large investment of time and financial resources into a major iterative improvement of my experimental apparatus. Next, I describe the improved experimental apparatus and use it to construct a performance landscape of Manduca’s innate foraging performance as a function of variation in flower morphology. This landscape suggests that Manduca’s foraging performance is contingent on a context-dependent interaction between corolla curvature and nectary diameter. Finally, I use data from infrared sensors attached to each artificial flower and custom computer vision software (both improvements over the proof-of-concept apparatus) to identify putative proxies of fitness for both the pollinator and the plant (artificial flower). The goal is to examine whether the pollination mutualism between Manduca and the flowers that it visits in nature could represent a scenario of evolutionary conflict or harmony. The results are inconclusive due to opposing conclusions that the various indirect proxies of flower fitness point to. As a result, I make suggestions for improving the experimental apparatus even further by including a physical touch-sensitive sensor into the design of the artificial flowers. Such a sensor would act as a physical analogue for a real flower’s reproductive structures, allowing the apparatus to yield a direct rather than indirect measure of flower fitness. Still, the general framework of using 3D-printed flower whose shapes are mathematically specified shows great promise for opening up new areas of experimental inquiry in the field of plant-pollinator interactions.

Status of Pollinators in North America

Status of Pollinators in North America
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 327
Release: 2007-05-13
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 0309102898

Pollinators-insects, birds, bats, and other animals that carry pollen from the male to the female parts of flowers for plant reproduction-are an essential part of natural and agricultural ecosystems throughout North America. For example, most fruit, vegetable, and seed crops and some crops that provide fiber, drugs, and fuel depend on animals for pollination. This report provides evidence for the decline of some pollinator species in North America, including America's most important managed pollinator, the honey bee, as well as some butterflies, bats, and hummingbirds. For most managed and wild pollinator species, however, population trends have not been assessed because populations have not been monitored over time. In addition, for wild species with demonstrated declines, it is often difficult to determine the causes or consequences of their decline. This report outlines priorities for research and monitoring that are needed to improve information on the status of pollinators and establishes a framework for conservation and restoration of pollinator species and communities.

Impacts of Shared Pollinators and Community Composition on Plant-pollinator Interactions and Their Fitness Consequences

Impacts of Shared Pollinators and Community Composition on Plant-pollinator Interactions and Their Fitness Consequences
Author: Gerard Smith
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2022
Genre:
ISBN:

The myriad ways species interact with each other have always captivated biologists. These interactions-predation, competition, parasitism, and mutualism-are fundamental to the stability of ecological communities and drive the evolution of species they contain. Some mutualistic systems consist of mutually dependent partners that strongly influence each other's survival, while other mutualistic systems consist of many, diffuse relationships between large assemblages of partners. Critical ecological processes like pollination and seed dispersal are prime examples of such complex systems. Plant-pollinator communities are characterized by extensive pollinator sharing among plant species. My dissertation explores some of the consequences of this reliance on shared pollinators on the structure of plant-pollinator interaction networks, the foraging decisions of pollinators, and the fitness outcomes of plant species. Through several comprehensive field studies, I contribute to our understanding of mutualist interaction patterns at multiple levels of biological hierarchy: the community, species, and individuals. My first chapter examines the forces driving the change in interaction patterns of an entire plant-pollinator community and individual species throughout the flowering season. Nearly all studies of plant-pollinator interaction networks ignore potential intra-annual variation, and in doing so may be missing critical mechanisms contributing to overall community stability. I find that the overall turnover of interactions is high and driven by a process of interaction rewiring in which species frequently shuffle between available partners. Furthermore, I distinguish pollinator species whose interactions are driven by an abundance-based neutral process versus those that change their interactions beyond what is predicted by a neutral, abundance-driven null model. My second chapter uses a network-based framework to consider the fitness consequences for plants participating in a diffuse plant-pollinator network. I analyze the relationship between plant species' network metrics and pollen deposition. Empirical examples that link patterns of interactions and functional outcomes (e.g., pollination) are scarce, but necessary to establish the utility of characterizing species interaction patterns. My final chapter explores how pollinator composition, local floral neighborhoods, and timing of flowering influence the pollination outcomes of individual Oenothera fruticosa flowers. I demonstrate extensive intraspecific variation in receipt of pollen from other species ('heterospecific pollen receipt') and find that this heterospecific pollen has a negative fitness effect if present in sufficiently high amounts. Together, the chapters of my thesis provide novel insights into the consequences of pollinator sharing among co-flowering plant species.

Ecological Risk Assessment for Chlorpyrifos in Terrestrial and Aquatic Systems in the United States

Ecological Risk Assessment for Chlorpyrifos in Terrestrial and Aquatic Systems in the United States
Author: John P. Giesy
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 282
Release: 2014-04-10
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3319038656

Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology attempts to provide concise, critical reviews of timely advances, philosophy and significant areas of accomplished or needed endeavor in the total field of xenobiotics, in any segment of the environment, as well as toxicological implications.

Pollination Biology

Pollination Biology
Author: Dharam P. Abrol
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 812
Release: 2011-10-05
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9400719426

This book has a wider approach not strictly focused on crop production compared to other books that are strictly oriented towards bees, but has a generalist approach to pollination biology. It also highlights relationships between introduced and wild pollinators and consequences of such introductions on communities of wild pollinating insects. The chapters on biochemical basis of plant-pollination interaction, pollination energetics, climate change and pollinators and pollinators as bioindicators of ecosystem functioning provide a base for future insights into pollination biology. The role of honeybees and wild bees on crop pollination, value of bee pollination, planned honeybee pollination, non-bee pollinators, safety of pollinators, pollination in cages, pollination for hybrid seed production, the problem of diseases, genetically modified plants and bees, the role of bees in improving food security and livelihoods, capacity building and awareness for pollinators are also discussed.

Environmental Fate and Effects of Pesticides

Environmental Fate and Effects of Pesticides
Author: Joel R. Coats
Publisher:
Total Pages: 322
Release: 2003
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

This is the third of three volumes based on the 2nd Pan-Pacific Conference on Pesticide Chemistry. The proposed title examines metabolism and residue analysis methods of environmental pesticides.