Native bee research by Isaacs and Wilson noted in Scientific American Food Issue

The recent Food Issue of the popular science magazine Scientific American includes discussion of Integrated Crop Pollination, a concept coming out of work by MSU entomologist Rufus Isaacs and others.

The recent Food Issue of the popular science magazine Scientific American includes discussion of Integrated Crop Pollination, a concept coming out of work by MSU entomologist Rufus Isaacs and others. The article is an overview of the current honey bee crisis and the importance of pollination for our food supply. It notes that Isaacs became intrigued by the number of native bees in the blueberry fields where he was conducting research on insect pests. He arranged for his then graduate student, Julianna Tuell (now Wilson) to categorize the bees, which resulted in a tally of 112 native bee species found in Michigan blueberry fields during bloom and an additional 54 species before and after flowering. The article also describes the research of recent graduate Brett Blaauw who demonstrated that adding bee habitat near to blueberry fields could support greater crop yields. Clearly, native pollinators could be making a larger contribution to the pollination process producing our food.

Isaacs and Wilson are now working with a team of collaborators at MSU and across North American on the USDA-funded Integrated Crop Pollination Project. Their goal is to develop recommendations for farmers to more effectively tailor their pollination strategies to the most effective and economical combinations of wild bees, honey bees and alternative managed bees. Other ICP project members include Larry Gut and Nikki Rothwell.

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