March 2020 - 19

Bee efficiency enhances diversified farming
By Scott Weybright
Washington State University
The more diverse a farm's plant
population, the more beneficial it is for
bee pollinators, and the more efficiently
those pollinators work.
Those are the conclusions in a new
paper published in the journal Ecology
Letters by former Washington State
University (WSU) graduate student
Elias Bloom.
Bloom and his co-authors, WSU
entomology professors Tobin Northfield
and David Crowder, looked at
pollinator and plant populations on
small farms (under 30 acres) and urban
gardens in western Washington.
" Growing a wide variety of plants
boosted the number of bee visits, " said
Bloom, now a post-doctoral research
associate in Michigan State University's
entomology department. " People want
a silver bullet crop that they can plant
that will bring in more pollinators,
but that idea just wasn't supported by
our data. Having a variety, especially if
they're rare in a region, is the best way
to increase pollinators. "
These rare plants, which could be
anything that isn't grown by other
nearby farms, complement more
traditional crops because they may
flower at different times of year, or have
beneficial traits that help pollinators
vary their nutritional intake, he said.
Increasing that diversity also boosts
pollinator efficiency by upping the
number of visits a bee makes to crops at
that farm.
" That means farmers can increase
bee visits to their farm without adding
more bees, " said Bloom, who earned
his Ph.D. from WSU in entomology in
2019. " And we showed it works for both
honeybees and wild pollinators. If a
farmer is thinking about buying more
bees, planting more diverse crops could
be an alternative. "
A third finding of the paper is that
giving bees a diversity of resources,
like nesting habitat and flowers, in
landscapes around a farm can also
increase pollinator visits to a farm.
Elias Bloom earned his Ph.D. from
WSU in entomology in 2019.
Bloom and his colleagues worked
closely with 36 farms and urban gardens
to look at the variety of plants each
produces, and to measure pollinator
visits. Among their partners were
Hmong gardeners, originally from
Southeast Asia, who now farm in the
Seattle area.
" They brought a few plants with
them when they immigrated here
that you won't find in other gardens, "
Bloom said. " But they also grow
staples found on most farms and
gardens nearby, like tomatoes, peppers
or squash. Our research shows that
this experimentation to introduce
rare plant species may drive plantpollinator
interactions. "
That doesn't mean farmers have
to seek out rare produce from Asia
or Africa, it just means they should
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consider a wider variety of plants from
different plant families.
" You ideally want plants that flower
at different times and with different
flowers shapes and dimensions, " Bloom
said. " Some flowers are very small
and shallow, which is great for small
wild bees. Taking those things into
consideration helps boost pollinator
visits to your farm or garden. "
Bloom's research was part of his
Ph.D. dissertation and was funded
in part by the National Science
Foundation, the USDA, Western
Sustainable Agriculture Research and
Education and others. VGN
The more diverse a farm's plant population, the more beneficial it is for pollinators like
honeybees. Photo: Washington State University
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March 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of March 2020