Post-bushfire research to improve picture of pollinators

For Australian Pollinator Week (13-21 November) APAL is checking in with the Loss of horticultural pollination services from wild insects following bushfires (PH20002) project, jointly funded under the Hort Frontiers Pollination Fund.  

This project aims to discover how the catastrophic bushfires of 2019/20 impacted wild pollinators and the services they provide, and will also offer a more complete picture about pollinators in and around orchards. 

Professor James Cook of the University of Western Sydney is leading the project in Bilpin, NSW, focusing on apple and cherry orchards. 

“We were strangely fortunate, in a way,” James said. “We had just finished the field work for a three-year Hort Innovation research project on pollinators in orchards at Orange and Bilpin when the fires hit. This was a rare opportunity to do a close before-and-after study in Bilpin, using the same methodology. While the vegetation matrix around the farms, where much of the wild pollinators live, was pretty obliterated, the farms themselves were well-protected.” 

Red-marked honey bee from on-farm hives. Credit: James Cook

The project is set to run until December 2023. The findings have the potential to inform pollination and land management best practice for orchards, and provide a model for further studies in other growing regions and other crops.  

Some of the key questions the research will address include: 

• What was the impact of catastrophic bushfires on pollinators? 
• What is the recovery timescale for floral resources, both in the bush and on-farm? 
• Will the floral communities look the same, or will we find more invasive or fire-adapted species?  and will the make-up of pollinator communities also change? 
• How effective are rented hives for orchard pollination, based on the total make-up of orchard pollinators? 
• What vegetation management (inter-row, edge and surrounding bushland) could better support pollinator populations and encourage resilience of pollinator services? 
• What are the potential on-farm impacts of Varroa mite on honeybee populations and crop pollination services?  

Although COVID-19 presented challenges for gathering data during lockdown periods, a significant amount of research has been able to continue, as it involves not only regular floral surveys and pollinator surveys, but also the use of satellite imagery to survey landscape and flora recovery. 

For James, this has been a unique opportunity to gather comprehensive field data about the various orchard pollinators in Bilpin. 

“We know that Australia is generally very honeybee reliant for apple pollination, but the make-up of the pollinator community varies depending on the region,” James said. “For many tree crops, the regional pollinator variation is still a big unknown. 

“Many pollinators could be wild bees (both native and unmanaged honey bees) rather than commercial hives, and some areas might see proportionally more stingless bees and other native bees, such as stem-nesting reed bees and ground-nesting halictid bees, which are also good pollinators. Action taken to support particular species and encourage pollination services will be dependent on the landscape.” 

Progress updates will be provided to industry once or twice a year, with the first taking place in early 2022. 

This project has been funded by the Hort Frontiers Pollination Fund, part of the Hort Frontiers strategic partnership initiative developed by Hort Innovation, with co-investment from Western Sydney University, and contributions from the Australian Government.