ThinkBee – integrated pest and pollinator management under intensified agriculture and climate change

The essential role of bees for the pollination of crops and wild plants calls for new strategies to counteract ongoing bee declines as a result of multiple interacting stressors.

Insecticides are a key stressor that may both affect bees directly and indirectly by modulating their susceptibility to other stressors. However, insecticides are a diverse group of chemicals with different modes of action.

There is only a limited understanding of the underlying mechanisms by which different chemical classes of insecticides affect bees and how effects therefore vary, particularly in relation to exposure to other stressors such as loss of forage and climate change. This knowledge gap reduces our ability to balance an efficient pest control with the safeguarding of pollinators.

In this project we will contribute to the knowledge required to achieve Integrated Pest and Pollinator Management by combining laboratory and field studies to determine the effects of insecticides with different modes of action on bumblebees under different temperature regimes and resource availabilities.

The results will be used to develop a risk-based model that can inform about the optimal use of insecticides (which, where, when) to balance pest control and negative pollinator impacts.

Together with relevant stakeholders, we will use this model to create the prototype of a tool that can inform farming on the use of insecticides to minimize impact on bees in varying weather conditions and landscape contexts.