Bumble bees in Tasmania, Australia, are being fitted with micro radio transmitters and cameras to help scientists uncover their environmental impact and crucial role in crop pollination.
Delivered through Hort Innovation’s Frontiers investment programme and led by Western Sydney University, the $3.3 million initiative will produce a comprehensive large-scale study of the buff-tailed bumble bee.
The programme will use various cutting-edge technological solutions to efficiently generate a large volume of unique data.
Hort Innovation chief executive officer Brett Fifield said this investment forms part of a multi-pronged approach to ensure the horticulture sector is prepared for the future.
“This investment is a prime example of using breakthrough research to strengthen industry’s readiness for existing and emerging opportunities and threats,” Fifield said.
“With the arrival of varroa mite to the Australian mainland, there is a sense of urgency for industry to explore other potential options for safeguarding crop pollination services across the country. This research will expand our knowledge of bumble bees in Tasmania, giving growers another tool in their toolkit.”
Western Sydney University postdoctoral researcher Dr James Makinson said incorporating state-of-the-art technology will result in significantly more comprehensive insights than previously possible.
“Radio transmitters will allow us to discover the daily foraging habits of bumble bee queens in different agricultural and natural landscapes and allow us to follow bees back to their nests. Transmitters can be easily recovered, allowing us to track dozens of individuals across multiple field sites in a single season,” Makinson said.
“The automated real-time analysis of video footage from our audiovisual monitors will allow us to collect long-term continuous data of the foraging activity of wild bumble bee and managed honey bee colonies, saving hundreds of hours of fieldwork and data analysis.
“Monitoring cameras can be placed in the field and left alone, allowing a single researcher to monitor multiple locations of interest, passively collecting data for multiple experiments.”
Fruit Growers Tasmania chief executive officer Peter Cornish said the insights will help the Tasmanian horticulture industry plan effectively for the future.
“This research will answer important questions about bumble bees as pollinators. What are bumble bees doing in Tasmanian ecosystems? How are they interacting with different commercially-important crops? Can their populations be naturally manipulated to achieve conservation or pollination service goals?”
