Developing sustainable pollination systems for food production using the solitary bee, Osmia bicornis

The production of fruit and vegetable crops is reliant on insect pollinators, particularly bees. Increasing pressures on production - associated with increased demand for fresh produce from consumers, concerns about food security, and the challenges of climate change - mean that growers are having to pay more attention to pollination. This can be done by increasing the use of managed bees, or by managing the landscape to enable it to support larger populations of wild bees.
This project concerns the red mason bee, Osmia bicornis, which is important as a wild pollinator but there is also potential to use it on a commercial basis. Populations of red mason bees can be built up in orchards by careful placement of nest tubes within the crop and by collecting and storing the cocoons that contain overwintering adult bees. Mason bees are more efficient pollinators than honeybees or bumblebees, do not sting, and require less maintenance. However, larger populations in the field could lead to greater risk from infection. We also need to understand about mason bee population genetics, including whether different groups exist in different parts of the country. The purpose of this PhD is to provide new understanding to inform the use of mason bees as managed pollinators, done as follows: (1) The immune associated genes and their signalling pathways in red mason bee will be characterised by comparing its genome with that of the model organism Drosophila; (2) Populations of red mason bee cocoons in commercial orchards will be investigated for presence of pathogens. These will be identified and characterised; (3) Genetic markers will be developed to study the structure of populations of red mason bee sampled from different locations in the UK; (4) Experiments will be done in orchards to monitor the spatial patterns by which red mason bees establish when applied in a commercial setting, and to monitor background populations of the bee in commercial fruit orchards.