Canada’s Pioneering Roles in Protecting Pollinators Peter Kevan University of Guelph November 19, 2009 Canadian Club of Halton Peel
Canada’s Pioneering
Roles in Protecting
Pollinators
Peter Kevan
University of Guelph
November 19, 2009
Canadian Club of Halton Peel
Why Protect Pollinators?
• Food Security
• Fibre Production
• Vegetable Oils
• Seed Production
• Agriculture, Horticulture, Floriculture
• Forestry & Forest Ecosystem Sustainability
• Wilderness Ecosystems: Arctic to Tropical
Pollination is an Essential & Crucial Ecosystem
Service that links Plant & Animal Biodiversity on Earth
Pollination: For Food. For Fibre Centrality of Pollination Services
• Pollination: an Essential Natural Services
Insect pollination
has an estimated
worth for food and
fibre production of
$217 Billion/year
globally!
1 in 3 bites of
food: Thank a
pollinator!
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
• Recent examples
– Red clover in New Zealand (19th C)
• No bumblebees
– Alfalfa in western Canada (20th C)
• Agriultural intesification
– Oil palm in Malaysia (20th C)
• Hand pollination costly
Pollination & Pollinator Shortages
• Agriculture: Practices & Intensifation
• Pesticides
• Habitat Destruction
• Habitat Loss
• Habitat Fragmentation
• Diseases & Parasites
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
– Honeybees, Beekeeping … Honey, we got
problems!
– Emerging problems & NSERC-CANPOLIN
An Apple a Day!
Lessons from Apples apply
to most orchard fruits:
Pears, Cherries, Plums, etc
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
Pollination & Pollinator Shortages:
Canadian Stories – Apple
• Changes in pesticide application policies and legislation (Bees Acts across Canada, Ontario first in 1887)– Do not spray blooming crops!
Bees Act
R.R.O. 1990, REGULATION 57
• Spraying of fruit trees
• 18. No person shall spray or dust fruit trees during the period within which
the trees are in bloom with a mixture containing any poisonous substance
injurious to bees unless almost all the blossoms have fallen from the trees.
R.S.O. 1990, c. B.6, s. 18.
Value of Pollination to Apple
Production
• No insect pollinators: no apples
• $65 Million Ontario crop value 2005
• Add honey bees to orchards
– 700% return on investment
– Larger, better formed, high value apples
– Juicers = lo$$e$Versus
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 setMcIntosh 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”
Pollinator Diversification
• Blue orchard bees
• Horn-faced bees
Wild Pollinators
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
• Huge alfalfa 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
• 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
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
Problem: pesticides
Blueberry Pie Ecosystem
& Pesticides
– Before Fenitrothion
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, and Pesticides
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
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 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 cultureMB Plowright & Jay 1966ON Kevan et al. 1991
BC Dogterom 1998
ON Morandin et al. 2001- 2
BC Winston team 2003-4
Value of Greenhouse Tomato
Production• 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
Pollination & Pollinator Shortages:
Canadian Stories – Honeybees
• Beekeeping in Canada
• First records: Quebec, 1820s; Ontario, 1830s
• Industrial growth for honey and other hive products
• 1891 = 145,000 colonies for 3.4 million lbs of honey in Ontario
• Problems
– Pesticides
– Diseases
– Parasites
• Solutions
Pollination & Pollinator Shortages:
Canadian Stories – Honeybees
Pollination & Pollinator Shortages:
Canadian Stories – Honeybees
• Pesticides
– legislation, product labeling, use reduction
• Diseases
– sanitation (Foul Brood Act 1889, 1906)
– bee breeding for resistance
• Parasites
– Border closures banning import problems
Pollination & Pollinator Shortages:
Canadian Stories – Honeybees
• Bee breeding
programs
(incl. Instrumental
insemination)
Selection for overwintering & honey production
Resistance to tracheal mites (Nasr, 1980 on)
Resistance to Varroa mites (Nasr & Wilson 1990s)
Research centres:
AAFC (Beaverlodge AB); U of Guelph; U Manitoba; Simon Fraser U.
Honeybee Problems
• Colony losses in most of Canada
– Overwintering losses: up to & over 30% of
colonies/year
– Cost = $5+ Million/year to the industry
• Costs of Pest, Parasite & Disease
management rising
• Pollination demands rising
Crying need for R & D!
Value of Honeybees for
Crop Pollination
• 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)
Pollination costs!
Not pocket change
Commodity Value (Annual) Bee value (annual)
Apples >$100 Million
Alfalfa seed >$40 Million $15 – 20 Million (LCbees)
Blueberries $400 Million
Greenhouse Tomatoes $290 Million $3.7 Million (bumblebees)
Honey $110 Million $42 Million (hive rentals)
Just to mention a few, major crops!
What about Pollinator Shortages &
Economic Impacts ?
Insect pollination has an
estimated worth for food
and fibre production of
$217 Billion/year globally
Value of beekeeping
in Canada:
Pollinator shortage =
crop reductions =
higher price of
production =
consumer pays … but… if prices set internationally, Canadian farmer pays
Economics of Pollination Shortfalls
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, 1995-1999, 1998-2006 )
• Review of Canadian Legislation (Thomas)
• US NRC (2007) Status of Pollinators in North America
Recent Global & International Initiatives
• Forgotten Pollinators 1995 – 1999
• CBD from São Paulo Declaration on Pollinators 1999
• NAPPC 2000 annually
• UN-FAO Internat. Pollinator Initiative 2001
• African PI 2002 –
• US National Academy of Sciences “The Status of Pollinators in North America” 2006-7
• CPPI 2007 –
Recent Canadian Initiatives
• CPPI – January, 2007 in Ottawa
• CANPOLIN –
NSERC Strategic Network Proposal:
submitted February 2008 ($5 million)
• City of Guelph Pollination Park 7 March 2008
• CPPI – Urban pollination, 8 March 2008
• National Wildlife Week, 30 April 2008
• Pollinator Conservation in Practice, 13 Nov. 2009
Funded Oct. 2008!
NSERC-CANPOLIN: Facets
• Wild pollinator diversity
• Managed pollinator health & sustainability
• Plant reproductive needs
– Insect pollination & wind pollination
• Ecosystem function, complexity & conservation
• Predictions
– Climate & land-use changes
– Economics & Policy issues
Assembling the CANPOLIN Players
• Laurence Packer & Peter Kevan hatch the idea
• Listing of Players
– Known colleagues
– Literature records to fill out the list
• Contacting the Players
• Inclusive policy of Invitation to join
– Very few opted out
• Active invitees became leader
– No one was excluded
A true
Network
not a hub,
spokes
and rim
Proposal Woes & Whoopee
• Pre-proposal 1 to NSERC (2004): Thanks but no thanks!
• Pre-proposal 2 to NSERC (2005): Program suspended
• Pre-proposal 3 to NSERC (2006): Thanks but no thanks; Economic$ & Policy not NSERC’s mandate:
But a little birdy told us …
• Pre-proposal 4 to NSERC (2007): Thanks, and a Full proposal requested ($25,000 to prepare) and include Economic$! Victoria MacPhail hired!
• Full Proposal submitted before deadline online
• Site Visit (July 2008): Experts from Canada, U.S.A., France!
Proposal Wishes & Whoopee
• Site Visit
– If we build it, they will come
– Positive responses all round
• October 2008! GREAT NEWS!
Kevan, Packer et al.
50 + Scientists at 26 Institutions
Continuing Canada’s legacy in
pollination R & D
Serving Canadian Agriculture,
Forestry & Conservation
$5 Very Large over 5 years
Thank you!
• I am most grateful to the Canadian Club of Halton-Peel for inviting me to this exciting event and “To share and promote NSERC-CANPOLIN’s passion for Canada"
• I am sure that I speak for all members of NSERC-CANPOLIN, academic, government, industry, and NGOs across Canada in expressing our collective thanks as well
• Please join us in support of our pollinators and the plants they pollinate:
www.uoguelph.ca/canpolin