Progress on bumblebees as commercial pollinators in Australia (PH23001)

What is it all about?

This project is providing up-to-date and unbiased information about the environmental impact that wild bumble bees are having in Tasmania, as well as the role they are playing in crop pollination.

Challenge

The buff-tailed bumblebee arrived in Tasmania in 1992 and has rapidly spread across the island. Bumble bees are effective generalist pollinators; however, they are not native to Australia. There is a need to evaluate the opportunities and risks presented by the buff-tailed bumblebee to the Tasmanian ecosystem.

Response

This project is producing the first comprehensive large-scale study of Tasmanian bumble bees, looking at both their impacts on the environment, and their role as pollinators of Tasmanian crops.

The research team is using a mix of cutting-edge technologies such as miniature radio transmitters and audiovisual monitors, as well as more traditional surveillance methods such as visual surveys, flower baggings and pollinator attractive plantings to answer the following questions:

• What are bumble bees doing in Tasmanian ecosystems?
• How are they interacting with different commercially important crops?
• Can their populations be manipulated to achieve conservation and/or pollination service goals?

Benefit

The findings from this research will inform future decision-making on how to best balance the opportunities and risks posed by bumble bees in Tasmania. The research will also provide growers and the horticulture industry with insights into how landscape features and floral plantings can impact bumble bee and other wild pollinator populations around Tasmanian farms.