Pollination and Agriculture
A special issue of Agriculture (ISSN 2077-0472).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 October 2017) | Viewed by 8227
Special Issue Editors
Interests: arthropod vectors; entomology; insect control; mosquitoes; nano-synthesis; nanoparticles; nano-pesticides; nanotechnology; non-target effects; ticks
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: pest science; medical entomology; insect–plant interactions; bioactive compounds
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
World food security is mainly dependent on abundance of natural pollinators, including wild and managed bees. The biodiversity and populations of insect pollinators are in substantial decline. Various wild pollinators including important bee species have suffered serious declines and, in several cases, they have disappeared from their natural habitats. Since 2008, honeybee colonies worldwide have been declining at significant rates. This assurance seeks to address issues related to declining honeybee populations by investing increased foraging spaces for existing honeybees. This commitment is a key step in restoring vital honey bee populations and ensuring sustainable crop yields; a critical need for global food security.
A great deal of attention has been focused on managed honeybee losses, since there is a strong population decline of bee species and it has been a serious threat to the stability and yield of food crops. A single factor has not been identified to explain the decline of both managed and wild bees and probably multiple factors are likely to be involved, including the occurrence of epidemiological factors affecting honeybee health, including disease and parasites, the degradation and fragmentation of habitats in intensively managed agricultural landscapes, the loss of flower rich plant communities associated with traditional landscape uses and the negative side effects of widespread use of agricultural pesticides.
To overcome the pollinators’ decline, several tools have been proposed. It has been demonstrated that the communities of flower-visiting insects can be enhanced thanks to field margins, hedges, other buffer zones and set-aside fields. Indeed, such areas offer a suitable environment for soil-nesting bee pollinators and Lepidoptera that require particular plant species for oviposition. Moreover, the introduction of flower strips into agricultural landscape may promote the establishment of pollinator communities, including butterflies and cavity-nesting Hymenoptera, with special reference to honeybees and bumblebees; it may happen also in case of urban ecosystems.
In the scenario mentioned above, this Special Issue will include articles by expert authorities on pollination ecology, horticulture and apidology. Articles will focus on advances in aspects of pollinator biology and ecology that will boost crop production, as well as preserve global biodiversity worldwide.
Dr. Giovanni Benelli
Dr. Sengotthayan Senthil Nathan
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- honeybees
- bumblebees
- Colony Collapse Disorder
- flower-visiting insects
- horticulture
- pollination ecology
- urban pollinators
- Varroa
- wildflower strips
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