Tag: pollinators

Houseflies and Blowflies – Not Bees – Are Among South Africa’s Best Mango Pollinators, But Climate Change Threatens Future Harvests

Study introduces a new way to measure pollinator “effectiveness,” not just presence, revealing that climate change could shrink suitable habitat for key mango pollinators by more than 40% in coming decades

Some of the most important pollinators for South Africa’s mango industry aren’t bees at all – they’re houseflies and blowflies, according to a recently published study in Frontiers of Biogeography by scientists at University College London (UCL).

The study, led by Matthew Phillips Sánchez and Richard Pearson of UCL’s Centre for Biodiversity and Environment Research, set out to find not just which insects visit mango flowers, but which ones actually pollinate them effectively.

Table of Contents

Not all visitors are pollinators

Visiting vs. pollinating species of mango in South Africa. Insect visitors of mango in South Africa (61), composed of five orders and 15 families (‘Visitors’). Compiled from global studies describing visitors to mango flowers, which are also present in South Africa with at least 20 occurrence records on GBIF. Thirty-eight of these are pollinators (pollen deposition effectiveness > 0), belonging to two orders and eight families (‘Pollinators’). Credit to Sánchez and Pearson, 2026.

Mango flowers attract a huge range of insect visitors, but many never touch the flower’s reproductive parts and so transfer no pollen at all. To separate the true pollinators from the freeloaders, the researchers used a Pollen Deposition Effectiveness (PDE) metric, which combines how often a species visits mango flowers, how often those visits make contact with the flower’s reproductive organs, and how much pollen is deposited per visit.

illustrative graphic on mango pollination size
Graphic credit to Matthew Phillips Sánchez, 2026.

Applying this method to 61 known mango-visiting insect species found in South Africa, the team identified 38 true pollinators – and found that flies, not bees, were the amongst the more effective pollinators. Blowflies (family Calliphoridae), the housefly (Musca domestica), and a tiny stingless bee species, Liotrigona bottegoi, ranked as the most effective pollinators identified in the study. Larger insects such as honeybees and carpenter bees (Xylocopa) were generally less effective per visit, likely because their bigger bodies make less consistent contact with the small mango flower’s reproductive structures.

Insects from the orders Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths), Coleoptera (beetles) and Hemiptera (true bugs) were found not to contribute meaningfully to pollination, either because they don’t make contact with the flower’s reproductive parts or because there wasn’t enough data to assess them.

A shrinking future for mango pollinators

The researchers combined their pollinator effectiveness data with species distribution models, statistical tools that predict where a species can survive based on climate, to project how pollinator habitat in South Africa’s main mango-growing provinces (Limpopo, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal) might change under future climate scenarios.

The results point to widespread declines. On average, pollinator species are projected to lose 42% (under a moderate-emissions scenario) to 43% (under a high-emissions scenario) of their currently suitable habitat by 2061-2080 or 66,663 km2 and 73,608 km2 respectively.

Mango pollinator species richness and potential pollination provision. Species richness and potential pollinator provision under present-day climate (left column) and SDM-predicted changes under two climate change scenarios (right columns). Credit to Sánchez and Pearson, 2026.

Flies were projected to be hit hardest, while some bee species were projected to gain ground in parts of the region. The study also found that pollinator communities are likely to undergo substantial species turnover, with many current pollinators potentially shifting toward the country’s south as the climate changes.

Encouragingly, the researchers found that potential pollination service didn’t decline much faster than pollinator numbers overall – a sign of what ecologists call “functional redundancy,” where many species contribute moderate pollination value rather than the community depending on one or two irreplaceable species. This suggests the loss of some species is less likely to cause a sudden pollination collapse, provided enough functionally similar species remain.

The mango industry

mangoes on a tree
Tomy mangoes by alexanruiz via Envato.

Mango is a significant industry in South Africa, valued at more than US$25 million annually and supporting over 13,000 jobs in processing and related trades, in addition to many smallholder and subsistence growers who rely heavily on wild, unmanaged pollinators.

The authors stress that their study is intended primarily as a proof-of-concept for this new modeling approach, rather than a definitive forecast of mango production. The models estimate climatically suitable habitat, not realised populations, and do not account for land use, habitat availability, or the timing of mango flowering relative to pollinator activity.

Practical steps for growers

pile of mangoes
Pile of Fresh Mangoes by elxeneize via Envato.

The researchers highlight several low-cost conservation measures that could help support wild pollinator populations in mango orchards, including reducing pesticide and herbicide use, setting up low-cost “stink stations” to attract pollinating blowflies, planting native flowering plants or allowing wildflowers to grow between orchard rows to provide food and nesting sites for pollinators, and increasing overall plant diversity within orchards.

Original source: 

Sánchez MP, Pearson R (2026) Biogeography of pollination under climate change: integrating pollinator effectiveness into species distribution models for mango in South Africa. Frontiers of Biogeography 19: e180771. https://doi.org/10.21425/fob.19.180771 

“Invasional Mutualism” Between Honey Bees and Myrtle Rust Pathogen

New research from NeoBiota uncovers an invasional mutualism between Western honey bees and myrtle rust, with potentially troubling consequences for Australia’s native ecosystems.

Every year on May 20th, the world celebrates World Bee Day, a date chosen to honour Anton Janša, an 18th-century pioneer of modern beekeeping who was born on this day in Slovenia, a country where beekeeping has been a cherished tradition for centuries. This year’s theme, “Bee Together for People and the Planet,” puts the spotlight on the partnership between humans and bees, and how collaboration, tradition, and innovation can help secure a sustainable future for both.

At Pensoft, we’re marking the occasion by shining a light on a threat that often goes unnoticed: the destabilisation of pollination networks. As ecosystems change and pathogens spread, sometimes carried by the very pollinators we rely on, the delicate web of relationships between plants and their pollinators is under pressure. Understanding bees and other pollinators as potential carriers of invasive plant diseases is becoming an increasingly important piece of the conservation puzzle.

Surprising Interaction

Apis mellifera and myrtle rust fungus invasional mutualism
Apis mellifera on leaves with myrtle rust. Photo credit to Geoff S Pegg.

New research published in NeoBiota has found that the Western honey bee – an introduced species to Australia – and the devastating, invasive plant fungus known as myrtle rust (Austropuccinia psidii) may have formed a mutually beneficial relationship known as an “invasional mutualism.” 

Myrtle rust is notorious for devastating ecologically and culturally significant native plants in the Myrtaceae family, putting 17% of Australia’s endemic vegetation at risk. While rust fungi generally rely strictly on wind to spread, researchers discovered that bees may actively forage on the bright yellow fungus spores, packing them into their pollen baskets and carrying them back to the hive just as they would regular pollen.

  • beekeeper
    Researcher taking samples from a beehive. Photo credit to Caroline Hauxwell.
  • beehive
    Beehive in the forest. Photo credit to Caroline Hauxwell.

Through a series of experiments, the team made three significant findings. Firstly, the rust spores proved to be quite nutritious. They contained over 22% protein and all 10 essential amino acids, meeting the threshold required for bee colonies to survive. In fact, the fungus matched the nutritional quality of high-value floral pollen, like willow pollen.

In laboratory feeding trials, larvae raised on a diet of myrtle rust spores grew up perfectly healthy, developing at the same speed and reaching similar body weights as bees raised on a traditional high-quality pollen diet. As the researchers explain:

These findings suggest that spore foraging may not be an aberration, but a viable foraging strategy for honey bees.

And perhaps the most alarming discovery is that the myrtle rust spores remain viable and capable of causing new plant infections for at least nine days inside a beehive which could pose significant biosecurity risks

A Devastating Ecological Feedback Loop

Beehive samples taking
Taking samples from a beehive. Photo credit to Caroline Hauxwell.

This discovery challenges the assumption that invasive species always act independently, and it carries major environmental consequences. As myrtle rust kills off keystone taxa in the Myrtaceae family, such as eucalypts, paperbarks, and other ecologically and culturally significant species, particularly in Australia, fewer flowers and less pollen become available for bees to forage on. Beyond the direct biodiversity loss, as the fungus kills these plants, fewer flowers and less pollen are available for the bees.

Under such conditions, bees may increasingly turn to alternative protein sources, such as fungal urediniospores,

the researchers explain.

This could set off a devastating ecological feedback loop.

 “Over time, this dynamic may destabilise plant-pollinator networks and forest regeneration, particularly in regions with high Myrtaceae endemism.” They add: “While generalist foragers like A. mellifera may buffer their colony health by switching to spores or non-Myrtaceae pollen sources, the long-term ecological cost could be substantial, especially for specialist pollinators that lack such flexibility.“

The risks extend beyond ecosystems. Because spores remain viable inside a hive for over a week, commercial beehives – regularly transported across the country over three to seven days to pollinate crops – now represent a significant pathway for human-assisted spread of the pathogen. 

As the lead author, Sacchi Shin-Clayton (University of Cambridge) emphasises:

Apis mellifera is an introduced species used as a commercial pollination agent worldwide, and shifting honey bee colonies between agricultural sites to boost pollination has become a standard practice. This reliance on honey bee colonies and shifting between multiple sites  is quite concerning, given the demonstrated interaction between A. mellifera and myrtle rust, and its longevity within colonies.

Despite this, current biosecurity strategies for managing myrtle rust do not account for the movement of commercial beehives, leaving a critical gap in disease management approaches.

We propose that honey bees be explicitly considered in both epidemiological models and the formulation of management and containment strategies,

the researchers urge.

Recognising pollinators as potential vectors of invasive plant pathogens is an essential next step – one that could prove critical for protecting Australia’s vulnerable native forests.

This World Bee Day is a timely reminder that our relationship with bees is more complex than it might seem. Protecting them and the ecosystems they move through will require us to understand that complexity better.

Original source:

Shin-Clayton S, Mortensen AN, Beggs JR, Buxton MN, Hauxwell C, Bateson MF, Jochym M, Pegg GS, Pattemore DE (2026) Honey bees as potential vectors of the invasive rust pathogen Austropuccinia psidii: nutritional mutualism and implications for pathogen spread. NeoBiota 106: 75-90. https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.106.169027

For more interesting research, follow NeoBiota on Bluesky and Facebook.

5000 Students run ‘bee hotels’ across Canada – DNA reveals who’s checking in

Students at the forefront of conservation or how community science helps gather data on cavity-nesting bees and wasps, enhancing our understanding of ecosystem interactions.

Can students be the front lines of conservation? A new Canada-wide study, published in Metabarcoding and Metagenomics, suggests they can. The efforts of some 5000 students produced data detailed enough to reveal complex ecological networks hidden inside a small PVC and cardboard tube home.

A trap nest installed at a Bees@Schools community science location. Multiple tubes nested in are visible.
A trap nest installed at a Bees@Schools community science location. Multiple tubes nested in are visible. Photo credit to Sage Handler.

They invited schools to volunteer across Canada to install standardised ‘trap nests’ – simple PVC pipe and cardboard tube homes that mimic natural cavities where bees and wasps build nests.

Cavity-nesting bees and wasps play key roles in pollination and pest control, yet their distributions and feeding relationships are often poorly known because they can be small, secretive and difficult to observe directly.

As part of the Bees@Schools community science program, researchers Sage Handler (University of Guelph), Nigel Raine (University of Guelph), and Dirk Steinke (University of Guelph) aimed to address this.

Nesting tubes gathered from one trap nest, ready to be cut open and processed.
Nesting tubes gathered from one trap nest, ready to be cut open and processed.
Photo credit to Sage Handler.

Instead of relying only on traditional identification under a microscope, the researchers used DNA metabarcoding – a method that reads DNA from mixed samples and can detect many species at once.

This allowed the team to identify not only which bee or wasp species built each nest, but also which plant pollen or insect prey were brought back as food. The result was a rich, detailed view of both where cavity-nesting bee and wasp species live and how they interact with plants and other insects.

Rainbow pollen prepared for DNA metabarcoding
A rainbow of pollen prepared for DNA metabarcoding.
Credit: Sage Handler
cavity-nesting bee nest
An intact cavity-nesting bee nest extracted from a nesting tube.
Credit: Sage Handler (Hill)
 

A key outcome of the study was the creation of tripartite networks: maps linking (1) the nesting bee or wasp, (2) its food (pollen or insect prey) and (3) parasites. This kind of network is extremely difficult to build through observation alone, but trap nests can act like tiny ecological time capsules.

Every brood cell contains biological traces and metabarcoding can recover them. Students weren’t just collecting insects, they were collecting entire ecological interaction datasets: the raw material needed to build food-web maps across a whole country!

A lot of people want to contribute to conservation or learn more about biodiversity, but don’t know how. This shows that a small, practical action, like hosting a trap nest, can contribute real data that researchers can use. Community and citizen science is becoming more common, so keep an eye out for research happening in your neighbourhood.

says Handler, the lead author of the study

Original resource:

Handler S, Coveny K, Braukmann TWA, Raine NE, Steinke D (2026) Welcome to Hotel Hymenoptera: monitoring cavity-nesting bee and wasp distribution and their trophic interactions using community science and metabarcoding. Metabarcoding and Metagenomics 10: e139674. https://doi.org/10.3897/mbmg.10.139674

Pensoft launches a new journal: Advances in Pollinator Research

Pensoft launches Advances in Pollinator Research, a diamond open-access journal unifying diverse pollinator science efforts.

In collaboration with the European Union pollinator projects community, scholarly publisher and technology provider Pensoft launched Advances in Pollinator Research, a new multidisciplinary, community-driven peer-reviewed journal set to transform how pollinator science is shared and translated into real-world action.

Advances in Pollinator Research (APR) is designed as an innovative platform for the full spectrum of pollinator science, from pollination ecology and pollinator-plant interactions to molecular ecology, conservation and more. A core mission of the journal is to champion research from underrepresented regions, taxa, and ecological contexts.

APR will be led by two Editors-in-Chief: Dr. Alexis Beaurepaire (University of Bern and Agroscope) and PD Dr. Lars Straub (University of Bern).

Mock-up cover of the APR journal.
Advances in Pollinator Research

As a diamond open-access journal, APR is currently free to publish and free to read, ensuring that all published research is openly accessible to the global community. The first editorial of the journal is available here.

In response to the global crisis of pollinator decline, APR moves beyond traditional data silos. It is the first comprehensive platform to unify the biological, environmental, socio-economic, and governance dimensions of pollinator health.

It embraces transdisciplinary collaboration and research between scientists, industry, and society with the aim of finding and amplifying solutions to real-world problems.

Cover mock-up of the Advances in Pollinator Research journal with key information.
APR journal with key information.

Furthermore, the journal welcomes research on conventional approaches while highly encouraging publications that apply innovative methods, such as automated monitoring systems, AI-assisted analytics, molecular and genomic tools, as well as large-scale network initiatives and open databases that advance FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) data dissemination across regions and taxa.

Figure illustrating the scope and publishing process of the APR journal, showing the diversity of pollinators, the multitude of stressors affecting them, and the various stakeholders interacting with them. Credit to Beaurepaire et al., 2026

The journal will utilise Pensoft’s innovative ARPHA platform, known for its robust support of academic publishing and efficient dissemination of research. Thanks to this one-stop publishing solution, the new journal offers a seamless, end-to-end publishing experience, encompassing all stages between manuscript submission and article publication, indexation, dissemination and permanent archiving.

The publishing services provided by ARPHA also include a variety of human-provided services and support and integrations with third-party providers, intended to maximise the reach and usability of scholarly knowledge published in Advances in Pollinator Research.

“We are excited to launch Advances in Pollinator Research. This ambitious journal is set to drive more innovative and interdisciplinary approaches within the field of pollinator science,”

says Prof. Lyubomir Penev, founder and CEO of ARPHA and Pensoft 

“With Advances in Pollinator Research, we aim to build an integrative and inclusive home for pollinator science that dissolves disciplinary and geographic silos and connects knowledge from genes to landscapes. Beyond a journal, APR is envisioned as a participatory forum where researchers, practitioners, and communities worldwide co-produce knowledge and accelerate solutions for pollinator health,”

comments Dr. Straub

“We are truly delighted to launch this new transdisciplinary journal focusing on pollinators. Through this effort, we aim to bring our diverse research community together and provide a dynamic platform for scientists and stakeholders to exchange knowledge, ultimately deepening our understanding of and commitment to protecting these precious and fascinating species.,”

adds Dr. Beaurepaire

Advances in Pollinator Research joins a number of open-access entomology journals published by Pensoft. 

For more information on the journal’s focus and scope and guidelines to authors, visit APR’s website, subscribe to the journal’s newsletter and follow it on BlueSky, Facebook and Linkedin.

The bee’s knees: a new, non-lethal way to study pollinator networks

Guest blog post by Alexander Edwards, lead author of the paper ‘Case study of non-lethal sampling for plant-pollinator networks via barcoding and metabarcoding on bumble bees in Germany‘ published in Metabarcoding and Metagenomics.

“Who are you and what have you done?”

That’s not just a question for crime shows. It’s also exactly what we want to ask every pollinating insect we catch. Who are you – which species? And what have you done – which flowers have you visited, carrying pollen from one to the next? And these questions are important!

Do you like chocolate? Or maybe coffee? How about apples, strawberries, or cherries? All of them need insect pollinators. Unfortunately, many insects are in decline, threatening the stability of ecosystems. Studying them is more important than ever. Traditionally, researchers relied on field observations of foraging behaviour. But these are time-consuming and can never capture the full picture. That’s why many groups now use genetic approaches, studying the pollen carried by insects. This method is called pollen-metabarcoding, where a short genetic sequence from a specific region (in our case, ITS2) can identify the plant species that pollen belongs to.

There’s just one catch: collecting pollen often means killing the insect. Lethal sampling does have its merits – the preserved specimen can be used to answer other questions in the future, for example. But in our case, it felt counterintuitive. We want to study species that might already be endangered, and killing them could worsen their situation. So we had to find another way.

A man crouching in a field sampling a bee specimen.
In the field, we found queen-marker cages easy to use and really helpful to get
the genetic material we need for our analyses. Credit: Willi Müller.

Enter: the queen-marker cage. This tool – borrowed from beekeepers – is a plastic tube with a mesh at one end and a plunger at the other. We used it to capture a bumble bee, immobilize it, and remove its pollen. The mesh is also large enough to clip one of the bee’s feet – in insects, this part is called the tarsus. That may sound harsh, but it doesn’t significantly affect the animal. During our collection, we observed those five-footed bumble bees visiting flowers and gathering pollen in the days after release, with no difference to their six-footed counterparts.

A bee in a cage trap with a mesh top, beneath a pair of scissors.
The mesh of the queen-marker cage is just big enough for a fine pair of scissors
to fit through the holes and allow for precise clipping of the bumble bee’s tarsus, here
Bombus lucorum agg.

But why take a bee’s foot in the first place? Many animal groups include cryptic species – species that look almost identical, even to experts. Bumble bees are no exception. The only reliable way to tell these look-alike species apart is through DNA barcoding, often using the COI gene. A single clipped foot provides just enough tissue to barcode the bee itself, in addition to analyzing the pollen it carried.

Of course, the work doesn’t end in the field. Once we had the samples, the real detective work started in the lab. And as everyone with hay fever knows: pollen gets everywhere. To avoid contamination, we processed everything in a special clean lab, wearing full-body protective suits. It may seem over the top, but when you’re working with invisible grains of pollen, even the smallest contamination can skew the results.

A man in protective clothing working in a lab.
As pollen is everywhere, we had to use a special clean lab with the
corresponding attire.

And in the end, it worked! Our results matched expectations: we detected a cryptic species (fittingly named Bombus cryptarum), we saw that the longest flowers were visited only by bumble bees with the longest tongues, and the pollen we identified came from plants flowering at our study sites during collection.

Now we have a simple and non-lethal way to gather the genetic material needed to identify pollinators and the flowers they visit, answering ‘Who are you, and what have you done?’ – without adding pressure to vulnerable insect populations.

Bees on purple flowers.
Studying pollination helps us understand and protect ecosystems. Bombus
lucorum agg. and Apis mellifera on Phacelia tanacetifolia. Credit: Anna Wurster.

Orignal source

Edwards A, Gemeinholzer B (2025) Case study of non-lethal sampling for plant-pollinator networks via barcoding and metabarcoding on bumble bees in Germany. Metabarcoding and Metagenomics 9: e141904. https://doi.org/10.3897/mbmg.9.141904

Follow Metabarcoding and Metagenomics on Bluesky and Facebook.

Values and dependence of society on pollinators: Pensoft joins the EU project VALOR

VALOR is to prompt better understanding of our relationship with pollinators. Pensoft will lead activities related to co-developing tools for expanding engagement and interaction, and support communication, dissemination, and exploitation activities.

Animal pollinators have become a flagship for biodiversity conservation, largely due to their globally recognised role in supporting broader biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, and human well-being.

Despite this recognition and the widely acknowledged benefits of pollination, many of the pressures on pollinators persist. As a result, there is growing evidence of localised yet significant deficits in pollination services, affecting both crop pollination and other communities.

Coordinated by Dr Tom Breeze (University of Reading) and funded by Horizon Europe, VALOR is a multi-actor project that will develop a comprehensive, systems-based approach to gaining a deeper understanding of the cascading impacts of pollinator shifts from flower to fork and beyond.

The project will examine the effects of pollinator shifts on ecosystems, farm businesses, and local communities through primary research and modelling.

VALOR’s coordinator Dr Tom Breeze (UREAD) gave an introductory presentation during the project’s kick-off meeting in February (Reading, United Kingdom). 

The project aims to empower actors to develop a deeper comprehension of relationships with pollinators and will produce a range of co-developed tools for landowners, businesses, and policymakers.

These tools will facilitate a better understanding of pollination-related risks and enable users to conduct their own studies by replicating the project’s methods and applying its models. To ensure comprehensive data collection without compromising scale, VALOR will adopt a systems-based approach, employing a series of in-depth case studies in focal regions to assess the importance of pollinators.

VALOR launched in January 2025 and will be running until the end of 2028.

To achieve its goals the VALOR project has six objectives: 

  1. Co-develop a better understanding of stakeholder knowledge needs around pollinators.
  2. Better understand the dependence of society and the economy on pollinators.
  3. Measure and model the cascading impacts of plant-pollinator networks on ecosystems and human well-being.
  4. Explore the consequences of pollinator loss through value chains.
  5. Forecast the resilience of pollinator networks and human benefits under future conditions.
  6. Co-develop tools to engage and empower actors about pollinator conservation.

Pensoft’s role

Building on its experience in communication, dissemination, and exploitation of results, Pensoft will focus on maximising the project’s impact and long-term legacy. This involves a broad scope of activities, including the development of the project’s visual identity and online presence, as well as the translation of research findings into policy recommendations.

As a leader of the work on co-developed tools for expanded engagement and interaction, Pensoft will support the development of a spatially explicit tool to allow users to explore the fine-scale changes in pollinator abundance and diversity, as well as pollination services resulting from a change in landscape management.

Moreover, Pensoft will assist the VALOR project in contributing to the Safeguard Knowledge Exchange Hub (Safe-Hub).

Pensoft will also facilitate collaboration opportunities with other projects, leveraging its expertise in numerous EU-funded projects. These efforts will be directed towards VALOR’s sister project: BUTTERFLY (101181930).

International consortium

The VALOR consortium comprises partners from thirteen European institutions, along with three associated partners, including China and Australia.

The consortium spans a wide and diverse range of scientific disciplines, from pollinator ecology, sociology, and economics to stakeholder engagement and communications. 

  1. University Of Reading (UREAD)
  2. Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU)
  3. Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (ALU-FR) 
  4. Jagiellonian University (UJ) 
  5. The Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)
  6. Wageningen University (WU)
  7. Lund University (ULUND)
  8. University of La Laguna (ULL)
  9. University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU)
  10. The University of Helsinki (UH)
  11. Pensoft Publishers (PENSOFT) 
  12. World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC)
  13. European Landowners’ Organization (ELO)
  14. University of New England (UNE)
  15. China West Normal University (CWNU)
  16. Beijing Forestry University (BJFU)

Visit the project website to learn more: valor-project.eu!

In the meantime, follow the project’s progress via its social media channels on BlueSky and LinkedIn.

Promoting sustainable agriculture for pollinators: Pensoft joins the EU project AGRI4POL

The new Horizon project is to assist the transition of agriculture to a positive force for biodiversity, crop pollination services, ecosystems and people. Pensoft will lead the communication, dissemination, exploitation and synergies with other projects.

Threats to pollinators and pollination services that support agriculture and provide benefits to people are a worldwide problem, recognized by intergovernmental scientific assessments, national or transnational initiatives as well as policies.

Intensive agriculture is among the principal threats to pollinator biodiversity and the crop pollination services that pollinators provide. Moreover, typically crop breeding has tended to overlook the benefits of pollination for sustained crop yields in favour of other crop traits.

Coordinated by Dr. Adam Vanbergen (INRAE) and funded by Horizon Europe, the AGRI4POL project takes an ambitious and achievable interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approach to achieve a transition towards sustainable pollinator-friendly farming.

AGRI4POL kick-off meeting (January 2025, Brussels, Belgium).

The project aims to deliver an integrated state-of-the-art analysis of the crop – farming system – pollinator interplay across levels of biological organisation from the crop gene to the agroecosystem. 

AGRI4POL launched in January 2025 and will be running until the end of 2028.

To achieve its goals, AGRI4POL project has outlined seven objectives:

  1. Work with a multi-actor community on research and solutions for promoting pollinator-friendly farming.
  2. Evaluate crop genetics, varieties and floral traits governing pollinator attraction to stimulate breeding of future pollinator-smart crops.
  3. Establish the benefits of pollinator-friendly farming systems for farmers and farming.
  4. Optimise ecological and landscape features for crop pollination, pollinator biodiversity and multiple ecosystem benefits.
  5. Assess the social and economic opportunities and obstacles presented by pollinator friendly farming options. 
  6. Evaluate how policies and practitioner awareness influence uptake of pollinator-friendly farming from national to international scales.
  7. Communicate and promote the benefits of pollinator-friendly farming.
AGRI4POL’s coordinator Dr. Adam Vanbergen (INRAE) gave an introductory presentation during the project kick-off meeting in Brussels (January 2025, Belgium).

Pensoft’s role

Building on its experience in communication, dissemination, and exploitation of results, Pensoft will focus on maximizing the project’s impact and long-term legacy. This encompasses a wide array of activities, ranging all the way from building a project’s visual identity and online presence and creating a podcast to translating results into policy recommendations. Moreover, Pensoft will be facilitating collaboration opportunities with other projects, leveraging on its involvement in numerous EU-funded projects. As of now, Pensoft takes part in six EU Pollinator projects, which serves well to facilitate synergies.

International consortium

The AGRI4POL consortium comprises twenty partners from fourteen European institutions. The consortium covers a wide diverse range of scientific disciplines spanning from pollinator ecology and agriculture to stakeholder engagement and communications. 

  1. INREA
  2. INRAE Transfert
  3. Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ
  4. The University of Reading
  5. Wageningen University
  6. Wageningen Research
  7. Lund University
  8. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
  9. Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg
  10. Pensoft Publishers
  11. Global Change Research Institute – Ustav Vyzkumu Globalni Zmeny Av Cr Vvi (CzechGlobe)
  12. Université de Mons
  13. University of Ljubljana – Univerza v Ljubljani
  14. Università degli Studi di Padova
  15. WCMC LBG – UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre
  16. Associació Paisatages Vius – Living Landscapes
  17. Maisadour Semences Romania SRL – MAS Seeds
  18. Confederazione Italiana Agricoltori
  19. Eidgenoessisches Departement fuer Wirtschaft, Bildung und Forschung (WBF-Agroscope)
  20. Swiss Association for the Development of Agriculture and Rural Areas

For update from AGRI4POL, subscribe to the newsletter on the project website!

You can also forllow AGRI4POL’s progress via its social media channels on BlueSky and LinkedIn.

MAkiNg Technology work for moNitoring polliNAtors: Pensoft joins ANTENNA

Pensoft is to maximise the project’s impact by informing stakeholders about results and raising public awareness about pollinators.

Pensoft joins the newly funded Biodiversa+ project ANTENNA focused on making technology work for monitoring pollinators and is tasked with the communication, dissemination and exploitation activities. 

The overarching goal of ANTENNA is to fill key monitoring gaps through advancing innovative technologies that will underpin and complement EU-wide pollinator monitoring schemes, and to provide tested transnational pipelines from monitoring activities to curated datasets and enhanced indicators that support pollinator-relevant policy and end-users.

The ANTENNA project answers the BiodivMon call, which was launched in September 2022 by Biodiversa+ in collaboration with the European Commission. The BiodivMon call sought proposals for three-year research projects to improve transnational monitoring of biodiversity and ecosystem change, emphasising innovation and harmonisation of biodiversity data collection and management methodologies, addressing knowledge gaps on biodiversity status and trends to combat biodiversity loss, and the effective use of existing biodiversity monitoring data. 

Supporting the work of Work Package #5: “Project coordination, and communication”, Pensoft is dedicated to maximising the project’s impact by employing a mix of channels to inform stakeholders about the results from ANTENNA and raise public awareness about pollinators.

Pensoft is also tasked with creating and maintaining a clear and recognisable project brand, promotional materials, website, social network profiles, internal communication platform, and online libraries. Another key responsibility is the development, implementation and regular updates of the project’s communication, dissemination and exploitation plans, that ANTENNA is set to follow for the next four years.

On 14-15 March 2024, ANTENNA held its official kick off meeting. Project partners came together in Halle, Germany for two days to outline objectives, discuss strategies, and set the groundwork for this venture.

Specifically, the combined expertise of the consortium will address the following objectives:

  1. Advance automated sample sorting and image recognition tools from individual prototypes to systems that can be adopted by practitioners
  2. Expand pollinator monitoring to under-researched pollinator taxa, ecosystems, and pressures
  3. Quantify the added value of novel monitoring systems in comparison and combination with ‘traditional’ methods in terms of cost effectiveness
  4. Provide a framework for integrative monitoring by combining multiple data streams and. The framework will also support the development of near real-time forecasting models as bases for early warning systems;
  5. Upscale local demonstrations into the implementation of large-scale transnational pipelines and provide context-specific guidance to the use of policy-makers and other users who might need to select monitoring methods and indicators.

Consortium*:

  1. Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Germany
  2. Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Netherlands
  3. Aarhus University, Denmark
  4. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Spain
  5. University of the Aegean, Greece
  6. Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain
  7. Trinity College Dublin, Ireland

*Pensoft Publishers is a subcontractor tasked by the UFZ with multiple communication, dissemination and exploitation activities as part of Work Package 5.

Stay up to date with the ANTENNA project’s progress on X/Twitter (@ANTENNA_project) and LinkedIn (/antenna-project).

Moving towards a systems-based Environmental Risk Assessment for wild bees, butterflies, moths and hoverflies: Pensoft joins PollinERA

Pensoft will lead the communication, dissemination and exploitation activities of the Horizon Europe project, which aims to reverse pollinator population declines and reduce impacts of pesticides.

The European Green Deal, the EU biodiversity strategy, the EU zero pollution action plan, and the revised EU pollinators initiative all indicate the need to protect pollinators and address insect and pollinator declines.

Plant protection products (PPP), also known as pesticides, have been identified as one of the primary triggers of pollinator decline. However, significant knowledge gaps and critical procedural limitations to current pesticide risk assessment require attention before meaningful improvements can be realised. The functional group is currently represented by only one species, the honey bee, which does not necessarily share other species’ biological and ecological traits.

Coordinated by The Social-Ecological Systems Simulation (SESS) Centre, Aarhus University and Prof. Christopher J. Topping, PollinERA (Understanding pesticide-Pollinator interactions to support EU Environmental Risk Assessment and policy) aims to move the evaluation of the risk and impacts of pesticides and suggestions for mitigation beyond the current situation of assessing single pesticides in isolation on honey bees to an ecologically consistent assessment of effects on insect pollinators.

This will be achieved through the development of a new systems-based environmental risk assessment (ERA) scheme, tools and protocols for a broad range of toxicological testing, feeding to in silico models (QSARS, toxicokinetic/toxicodynamic, and ALMaSS agent-based population simulations). 

Using a strong stakeholder co-development approach, these models will be combined in a One System framework for risk assessment and policy evaluation including an international long-term monitoring scheme for pollinators and pesticides. 

The One System framework builds on the recent roadmap for action on the ERA of chemicals for insect pollinators, developed within the IPol‐ERA project, funded by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). The framework will expand the ERA tools currently used for honey bees to include wild bees, butterflies, moths and hoverflies.

With an overall goal of reversing pollinator population declines and reducing the harmful impacts of pesticides, for the next four years, PollinERA will follow four specific objectives:

  1. Fill ecotoxicological data gaps to enable realistic prediction of the source and routes of exposure and the impact of pesticides on pollinators and their sensitivity to individual pesticides and mixtures.
  2. Develop and test a co-monitoring scheme for pesticides and pollinators across European cropping systems and landscapes, developing risk indicators and exposure information.
  3. Develop models for predicting pesticide toxicological effects on pollinators for chemicals and organisms, improve toxicokinetic/toxicodynamic (TKTD) and population models, and predict environment fate.
  4. Develop a population-level systems-based approach to risk and policy assessment considering multiple stressors and long-term spatiotemporal dynamics at a landscape scale and generate an open database for pollinator/pesticide data and tools.
Between 17 and 18 January 2024, experts from various realms of knowledge – from pollinator ecology, pesticide exposure and toxicological testing, to stakeholder engagement and communications – gathered in Aarhus, Denmark, to officially launch PollinERA. The two-day event seeded fruitful discussions on the project’s specific objectives, mission, methodology, outcomes and expected results.

With more than 20 years of experience in science communication, Pensoft is leading Work Package 6: Communication, Dissemination and Exploitation, that will ensure the effective outreach of PollinERA to its multiple target audiences. Based on the tailor-made communication, dissemination, exploitation and engagement strategies, Pensoft will provide a recognisable visual identity of the project, along with a user-friendly website, social media profiles, promotional materials, newsletters, infographics and videos. Pensoft will also contribute to the stakeholder mapping process and the organisation of various workshops and events.

To support the proactive, open-science transfer of results and scientific achievements, two PollinERA topical collections of articles will be established in Pensoft’s Food and Ecological Systems Modelling Journal (FESMJ) and the Research Ideas and Outcomes (RIO) journal.

PollinERA’s coordinator Prof. Christopher J. Topping (The Social-Ecological Systems Simulation Centre, Aarhus University) gave a warm welcome during the kick-off meeting of the project in Aarhus, Denmark.

In a joint effort to maximise impact and ensure sustainability of results, PollinERA will unfold in close collaboration with the sister Horizon Europe-funded project WildPosh, where Pensoft is also leading the Communication, dissemination and exploitation work package. 

Coordinated by Prof. Denis Michez (University of Mons), WildPosh aims to significantly improve the evaluation of risk to pesticide exposure of wild pollinators, and enhance the sustainable health of pollinators and pollination services in Europe.

Collaboration mechanisms between the PollinERA and the WildPosh projects include joint communication activities and events, joint data management strategy and alignment of activities to solidify the quality of final outputs.

Prof. Denis Michez (University of Mons), the coordinator of PollinERA’s sister-project WildPosh, presented the missions, objectives and methods, as well as the similarities, differences and collaboration potential between the two projects at PollinERA’s kick-off meeting in Aarhus, Denmark.

“It is fantastic that the European Commission puts so much effort into preserving wild pollinators and the countless benefits they bring to our society! The One System framework will hopefully become a fundamental part for the environmental risk assessment of chemicals for insect pollinators. I am really looking forward to implementing this insightful project, in close collaboration with its sister project WildPosh, where Pensoft is leading the dissemination efforts as well.”

says Teodor Metodiev, Principal Investigator for Pensoft at both PollinERA and WildPosh.

The PollinERA consortium comprises partners from eight European countries that represent a diverse range of scientific disciplines spanning from pollinator ecology, pesticide exposure and toxicological testing, to stakeholder engagement and communications.

Consortium:
  1. Aarhus University
  2. Jagiellonian University
  3. Lund University
  4. University of Bologna
  5. Osnabrück University
  6. Institute of Nature Conservation of the Polish Academy of Sciences
  7. Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research
  8. BeeLife European Beekeeping Coordination
  9. Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
  10. Pensoft Publishers
  11. Zip Solutions

Stay up to date with the PollinERA project’s progress on X/Twitter (@pollinERA_eu) and LinkedIn (/pollinera-eu).

Assessment, monitoring, and mitigation of chemical stressors on the health of wild pollinators: Pensoft joins WildPosh