Pollination Management:

        Pollination is a keystone process in both human managed and natural terrestrial ecosystems. It is critical for food production and human livelihoods, and directly links wild ecosystems with agricultural production systems. Pollinators are an element of crop associated biodiversity, and provide an essential ecosystem service to both natural and agricultural ecosystems. In the case of agricultural ecosystems, pollinators and pollination can be managed to maximize or improve crop quality and yield. Pollination depends to a large extent on the symbiosis between species, the pollinated and the pollinator, and often is the result of intricate relationships between plant and animal - the reduction or loss of either affecting the survival of both. The vast majority of flowering plant species only produce seeds if animal pollinators move pollen from the anthers to the stigmas of their flowers. Without this service, many interconnected species and processes functioning within an ecosystem would collapse. Many plants are wind pollinated, while animal pollinators include bees, and to a lesser extent butterflies, moths, flies, beetles and vertebrates.

      At least one-third of the world’s agricultural crops depend upon pollination provided by insects and other animals. As farm fields have become larger, and the use of agricultural chemicals increases, mounting evidence points to a potentially serious decline in pollinators. In Asia, the domesticated honeybee, Apis mellifera have been utilized to provide managed pollination systems, but for many crops, honeybees are either not effective or are optimal pollinators. The process of securing effective pollinators to service agricultural fields is not always easy, and there is a renewed interest in ensuring pollination services through practices that support wild pollinators.

     In order for society to be able to capitalize upon the value of bees in pollination and environmental monitoring, a variety of solutions to the taxonomic impediment will be required. Bees are essential components of almost all of the world’s terrestrial ecosystems. They provide both pollination services, and are excellent indicators of the state of terrestrial environments including responses to global warming. A major challenge to knowing how to manage wild bees for pollination services, or to using their occurrence as an indicator of ecosystem health is the taxonomic impediment to identifying the exact name of a pollinator.

     A decline in pollinator populations also affects plant biodiversity. Native pollinator species may decrease when their nesting habitats are destroyed, when they find less wild flowering plants to forage on throughout their life cycle, and when they are impacted by injudicious use of pesticides.

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