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Actively managed coniferous forests can also be important habitat for pollinators, which contribute to the reproduction of food crops and other flowering plants around the world.
An international collaboration, led by Jim Rivers of Oregon State University, has established a roadmap for future research to better understand the role of managed coniferous forests in temperate zones for the conservation of pollinators such as bees, wasps, flies, beetles and butterflies.
"Temperate forests are a big part of the world's land base and so far we have not really thought about habitat for pollinators," Rivers said.
This is important because pollinating insects have an estimated global economic impact of $ 100 billion each year, improving the reproduction of nearly 90% of the planet's flowering plants, including many food crops.
Pollinating insects are also ecologically critical as promoters of biodiversity. Bees are the flag bearer because they are usually the most numerous and they are the only group of pollinators to feed exclusively on nectar and pollen throughout their life cycle.
Many vertebrates such as birds and mammals also serve as pollinators, and more than 100,000 animal species worldwide contribute to pollination.
"We know that some managed coniferous forests harbor populations of wild pollinators," said Rivers, an animal ecologist at OSU College of Forestry. "But we do not know much about pollinator diversity and the extent to which management practices affect pollinators and the ecosystem services they provide."
The Rivers team included researchers from the USO, USDA-ARS pollinator research laboratory from the state of Utah, Washington State-Vancouver , from the Southern Research Station of the Forest Service of Athens, Georgia, and the University of Applied Sciences Bern, Switzerland.
Scientists have adopted a two-pronged approach to developing a program to address knowledge gaps for pollinators in temperate forests. They used the information gathered at a one-day pollinator conference hosted by Oregon State University, which brought together various scientists and land managers, and also conducted a comprehensive inventory published research.
"The program we have developed involves scientists, forest managers, conservation practitioners and policymakers seeking to balance production with pollinator conservation," Rivers said. "Our starting point is the Pacific Northwest, but the global footprint of managed coniferous forests makes the program relevant around the world."
The roadmap is built around three themes: To establish baseline models, to evaluate the direct and indirect influences of forest management activities and to quantify the effects of management practices that follow natural disturbances such as insect infestations or forest fires.
"National and federal authorities, as well as the private sector and smallholders, are keen to undertake pollinator studies now," said Rivers. "And there is a compelling need for pollinator work – a lot of information is available on other systems and we are just starting to look at managed coniferous systems." We have no answers yet, but we let's go in that direction. "
The study and the research program were published in the Forestry Journal.
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More information:
Forestry Journal, DOI: 10.1093 / jofore / fvy052
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