MacQueen Sarah A, Braun W John, Tyson Rebecca C
School of Agriculture and Food Science, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland.
IKBSAS Unit 5, University of British Columbia, 3333 University Way, Kelowna B.C. V1V 1V7, Canada.
J Theor Biol. 2022 Feb 7;534:110958. doi: 10.1016/j.jtbi.2021.110958. Epub 2021 Nov 5.
Many studies examine how the landscape affects memory-informed movement patterns, but very few examine how memory-informed foragers influence the landscape. This reverse relationship is an important factor in preventing the continued decline of many ecosystem services. We investigate this question in the context of crop pollination services by wild bees, a critical ecosystem service that is in steep decline. Many studies suggest that adding wild flower patches near crops can result in higher crop pollination services, but specific advice pertaining to the optimal location and density of these wild flower patches is lacking, as well as any estimate of the expected change in crop pollination services. In this work, we seek to understand what is the optimal placement of a flower patch relative to a single crop field, during crop bloom and considering spatial factors alone. We develop an individual based model of memory-based foraging by bumble bees to simulate bee movement from a single nest while the crop is in bloom, and measure the resulting crop pollination services. We consider a single crop field enhanced with a wild flower patch in a variable location, and measure crop flower visitation over the course of a single day. We analyze the pollination intensity and spatial distribution of flower visits to determine optimal wild flower patch placement for an isolated crop field. We find that the spatial arrangement of crop and wild flower patch have a significant effect on the number of crop flower visits, and that these effects arise from the memory-informed foraging pattern. The most effective planting locations are either in the centre of the crop field or on the far side of the crop field, away from the single bumble bee nest.
许多研究探讨了景观如何影响基于记忆的运动模式，但很少有研究考察基于记忆的觅食者如何影响景观。这种反向关系是防止许多生态系统服务持续衰退的一个重要因素。我们在野生蜜蜂提供的作物授粉服务背景下研究这个问题，这是一种正急剧衰退的关键生态系统服务。许多研究表明，在作物附近增加野花斑块可带来更高的作物授粉服务，但缺乏关于这些野花斑块最佳位置和密度的具体建议，也没有对作物授粉服务预期变化的任何估计。在这项工作中，我们试图了解在作物开花期间且仅考虑空间因素时，相对于单个农田，野花斑块的最佳放置位置是什么。我们开发了一个基于个体的大黄蜂基于记忆觅食的模型，以模拟作物开花时蜜蜂从单个蜂巢的移动，并测量由此产生的作物授粉服务。我们考虑一个在可变位置有野花斑块增强的单个农田，并测量一天内作物花朵的访问情况。我们分析授粉强度和花朵访问的空间分布，以确定孤立农田的最佳野花斑块放置位置。我们发现作物和野花斑块的空间布局对作物花朵的访问次数有显著影响，并且这些影响源于基于记忆的觅食模式。最有效的种植位置要么在农田中央，要么在农田远离单个大黄蜂蜂巢的远端。
