Our research shows that continued pollinator decline could have serious financial implications for the apple industry but there is considerable scope through management of wild pollinators or using managed pollinator augmentation, to improve the quality of production.
Adjusted insect and managed pollinator dependence factors were used to estimate the cost of replacing insect- and managed pollination services for the Western Cape deciduous fruit industry of South Africa.
Honey bees are the most important managed pollinator worldwide and are vital to the success of modern agriculture.
Here we use an important natural and managed pollinator, the bumblebee Bombus terrestris, and its parasite Crithidia bombi to investigate the potential for pharmacophagy in social pollinators.
To distinguish between the managed and wild components, we calculate the value of managed pollination as the proportion of pollination attributed to managed pollinators multiplied by the insect dependent production value.
We also question whether crop pollination by managed pollinators, mostly honeybees, can be described as an ecosystem service (e.g. [5] [6]), and consequently, the legitimacy of advocating the preservation of wild pollinators on the basis of the derived value from managed pollinators [4], [21].
A pollination management that also includes non-Apis managed pollinators and wild pollinators is possibly needed to increase nut set and provide solutions for increasing pollination service demands.
Large acreages of pollinator-dependent crops, such as apples, almonds, blueberries, and cranberries, require managed pollinators to ensure production.
If the original service provided by wild pollinators is undervalued, it is likely that the cost to substitute this service with managed pollinators, will also be undervalued.
Determining the value of crop pollination ecosystem services requires distinction between the value derived from the use of managed pollinators, and value derived from wild pollinators.
