1 July 2011

A study published by the University of Reading's Centre for Agri-Environmental Research suggests that honeybees may no longer play as large a roll in pollination services in the UK as was previously thought. The research was published in the Journal Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment.

"Pollination services are vital to agricultural productivity in the UK" said lead author Tom Breeze, "As of 2007, 20 per cent of the UK's cropland was covered by insect pollinated crops like oilseed rape and apples. For decades now we have assumed that honeybees have been providing the majority of pollination services to these systems but have very limited evidence to base this assumption on."

However, the study, which compared the number of hives present in the UK with the numbers research suggests are required to optimise crop yields, demonstrates that the UK has, at best, only a third of the honeybees it would require whereas in the 1980s Britain had 70 per cent of its required honeybees. These astonishing declines in the capacity of honeybees to satisfy UK pollination requirements have raised questions about what other species may be providing services to UK cropland.

"You would think that such a severe deficit in honeybees would cause massive loss of crop productivity," added Professor Simon Potts who led the study team, "However, yields of crops since the 80's kept going up. While some of that is down to better production systems, other species have probably stepped in to fill the gap left by honeybees."

The results of the study demonstrate the need to explore what benefits UK crop growers are gaining from the UK's 250 species of wild bees, many of which are now threatened by intensive agricultural practices.

The researchers who conducted the study took great care to stress that honeybees remain an invaluable component in providing pollination services to UK agriculture, citing examples from Scotland and the US where a combination of species is needed to maximise yield and quality.