Crop breeding to break nexus between bee decline/food production?

© 2018 Elsevier B.V. Yield of 70% of crops are reported to benefit from animal pollination, primarily by bees. There are major concerns that honey bee (Apis mellifera) decline will reduce food production. Current research focuses on bee health and its impact on crop production. Pollinators are consi...

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Main Authors: Hamblin, J., Barbetti, M., Stefanova, Katia, Blakeway, F., Clements, J., Cowling, W., Guo, Y., Nichols, P.
Format: Journal Article
Published: 2018
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/70965
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author Hamblin, J.
Barbetti, M.
Stefanova, Katia
Blakeway, F.
Clements, J.
Cowling, W.
Guo, Y.
Nichols, P.
author_facet Hamblin, J.
Barbetti, M.
Stefanova, Katia
Blakeway, F.
Clements, J.
Cowling, W.
Guo, Y.
Nichols, P.
author_sort Hamblin, J.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description © 2018 Elsevier B.V. Yield of 70% of crops are reported to benefit from animal pollination, primarily by bees. There are major concerns that honey bee (Apis mellifera) decline will reduce food production. Current research focuses on bee health and its impact on crop production. Pollinators are considered essential for high yields of thirteen crops including melons. Here we show it is possible to select genotypes of several crops, including melons, where yield is independent of pollinators. This approach, for managing the pollination/production nexus, has not been widely considered. We contrast our results and methodology with reports used to determine a crop's need for bee pollination. Uptake of bee independent varieties will depend on whether the species is herbaceous or perennial. Our results suggest the potential impact of bee decline has been significantly over-estimated.
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institution Curtin University Malaysia
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-709652018-12-13T09:34:31Z Crop breeding to break nexus between bee decline/food production? Hamblin, J. Barbetti, M. Stefanova, Katia Blakeway, F. Clements, J. Cowling, W. Guo, Y. Nichols, P. © 2018 Elsevier B.V. Yield of 70% of crops are reported to benefit from animal pollination, primarily by bees. There are major concerns that honey bee (Apis mellifera) decline will reduce food production. Current research focuses on bee health and its impact on crop production. Pollinators are considered essential for high yields of thirteen crops including melons. Here we show it is possible to select genotypes of several crops, including melons, where yield is independent of pollinators. This approach, for managing the pollination/production nexus, has not been widely considered. We contrast our results and methodology with reports used to determine a crop's need for bee pollination. Uptake of bee independent varieties will depend on whether the species is herbaceous or perennial. Our results suggest the potential impact of bee decline has been significantly over-estimated. 2018 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/70965 10.1016/j.gfs.2018.09.003 restricted
spellingShingle Hamblin, J.
Barbetti, M.
Stefanova, Katia
Blakeway, F.
Clements, J.
Cowling, W.
Guo, Y.
Nichols, P.
Crop breeding to break nexus between bee decline/food production?
title Crop breeding to break nexus between bee decline/food production?
title_full Crop breeding to break nexus between bee decline/food production?
title_fullStr Crop breeding to break nexus between bee decline/food production?
title_full_unstemmed Crop breeding to break nexus between bee decline/food production?
title_short Crop breeding to break nexus between bee decline/food production?
title_sort crop breeding to break nexus between bee decline/food production?
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/70965