Found in Translation: Love In The Time Of Chasmogasmy: How And When Do Bees Improve Soybean Yields?

摘要

As I wrote two months ago, the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (https://student. societyforscience.org/intel-isef)had plenty of optimistic news for bees and their roles in nature and agriculture. Brooklyn Pardall (Central Lee High School, Iowa) highlighted research she carried out on her family's 6,000 acre soybean farm, showing significant benefits from the exposure of production soybean plants to honey bees. Soybeans represent a crop where the benefits of insect pollinators are complex and surely underestimated. In theory, soybeans could provide a ubiquitous resource for beekeepers seeking new flowers and profits, assuming growers in fact see an increase in yields when bees (wild or managed) are on the scene. This month I delve into the long history of research on insect pollination and soybean yields. Like a lot of research, this topic sometimes feels like dejdvu all over again, but it is clear that more could be done to advertise soybean cultivars and conditions that benefit from bee pollination and to incentivize beekeepers to take the plunge into a widespread floral source. Given hard evidence, soybean growers might choose cultivars and safe management techniques that reward bees and beekeepers. Soybeans cover 90 million acres in the U.S. http://usda.mannlib.Cornell, edu/usda/current/CropProdSu/ CropProdSu-01-12-2018.pdf), so if even a fraction of this landscape joins the pollen-nation that seems like a potentially big deal.