New projects to address decline of honeybees and other insect pollinators

Projects worth a total of up to £10M from the Insect Pollinators Initiative were announced (22 June 2010) during National Insect Week. These projects will explore the causes and consequences of threats to insect pollinators and ask questions about the decline of honeybees and other pollinating insects over recent years. The aim is to inform the development of mitigation strategies that will ensure that the pollination of agricultural and horticultural crops is protected and biodiversity in natural ecosystems is maintained.

What is clear at present is that there is no one factor causing the problem. The causes of pollinator declines are likely to be complex and involve interactions between pollinators, the environment and the pests and diseases that affect these insects. 

Funding total
Up to £10M over 5 years.

Number of projects funded
9

Projects funded under the initiative are (see PDFs for more information):

	• Sustainable pollination services for UK crops (PDF 238KB) 
       Dr Koos Biesmeijer, University of Leeds

	• Modelling systems for managing bee disease: the epidemiology of European foulbrood (PDF 251KB) 
       Dr Giles Budge, Food & Environment Research Agency

	• Investigating the impact of habitat structure on queen and worker bumblebees in the field (PDF 215KB) 
       Dr Claire Carvell, NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology

	• An investigation into the synergistic impact of sublethal exposure to industrial chemicals on the learning capacity and performance of bees (PDF 203KB) 
       Dr Chris Connolly, University of Dundee

	• Linking agriculture and land use change to pollinator populations (PDF 167KB) 
       Professor Bill Kunin, University of Leeds

	• Urban pollinators: their ecology and conservation (PDF 205KB) 
       Professor Jane Memmott, University of Bristol

	• Impact and mitigation of emergent diseases on major UK insect pollinators (PDF 159KB) 
       Dr Robert Paxton, Queen's University of Belfast

	• Unravelling the impact of the mite Varroa destructor on the interaction between the honeybee and its viruses (PDF 194KB) 
       Dr Eugene Ryabov, The University of Warwick

	• Can bees meet their nutritional needs in the current UK landscape? (PDF 196KB) 
       Dr Geraldine Wright, Newcastle University

Insect pollinators initiative
http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/pollinators/


[obviously, pesticides have not been singled out by any means, as the sole or most likely cause of the decline of pollinators]
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