Invasive bees and their impact on agriculture

ARBETMAN, MARINA P.; PETER FEISINGER; MORALES CAROLINA L.; CHACOFF, NATACHA P.; GARIBALDI LUCAS A.; SÁEZ AGUSTÍN; AIZEN MARCELO A.; VANINA R. CHALCOFF; HARDER, LAWRENCE D.; ADAM J. VANBERGEN

The Future of Agricultural Landscapes

Elsevier

Lugar: London; Año: 2020; p. 1 - 302

Increasing honey demand and global coverage of pollinator-dependent crops withinthe context of global pollinator declines have accelerated international trade inmanaged bees. Bee introductions into agricultural landscapes outside their nativeranges have triggered noteworthy invasions, especially of the African honey bee inthe Americas and the European bumble bee Bombus terrestris in southern SouthAmerica, New Zealand, Tasmania, and Japan. Such invasions have displaced native beesvia competition, pathogen transmission, and invaders? capacity to exploit anthropogenic landscapes. At high abundance, invasive bees can degrade the mutualistic natureof many of the flower-pollinator interactions they usurp, either directly by affectingflower performance or indirectly by reducing the pollination effectiveness of otherflower visitors, with negative consequences for crop pollination and yield. We illustrate such effects with empirical examples, focusing particularly on interactions inthe Americas between B. terrestris and raspberry and between the African honey beeand coffee. Despite high bee abundance and flower visitation in crops, theoreticaland empirical evidence suggests that agricultural landscapes of pollinator-dependentcrops dominated by invasive bees will be less productive than landscapes with morediverse pollinator assemblages. Safeguarding future crop yield and aiding the transitionto more sustainable agricultural landscapes and practices require we address thisimpact of invasive bees. Actions include tighter regulation of the trade in bees to discourage further invasions, reducing invasive bee densities and dominance, and activeenhancement of ecological infrastructure from field to landscape scales to promotewild bee abundance and diversity for sustained delivery of crop pollination services.