Agriculture and environmental protection have overlapping goals relating to pollinators, according to Dr. Neal Williams.
Williams is a Professor of Entomology at University of California Davis. He is also the Primary Investigator at UCDavis’ Williams LabWilliams Lab, which specializes in bee biology.
Williams gave a keynote speech for the CALS Speaker Series on campus on March 1. The talk was coordinated with the 2023 Pollinator Summit, organized by UI’s Latah County Extension Office.
Williams’ goal is to utilize bee biology to improve system management for ecology, environment, conservation and global change.
“Why I call it the irony of intensive agriculture… is that we find that areas that are very dependent on pollination, when they are intensified, are the very areas that create the challenges for the pollinators that we need,” said Williams.
Williams’ talk provided an overview of his research modeling followed by empirical findings and real world application.
The decision support model is aimed at analyzing the costs and benefits of various actions relative to the problem they are aiming to solve.
“All models are wrong. It’s just that some are useful,” said Williams. “Wrong, unfortunately, depends on our goals.”
Models are necessary to understand how to optimize a mix of wildflower seed that supports bee habitats and tolerates hostile climate factors.
Planting optimization is achieved by considering flowers’ benefits to bees, flower bloom season and bee flight season. More diversity is not necessarily better in a flower seed mix: cost efficiency is often the key determinant.
To test decision support models, the Williams Lab has partnered with growers in California to measure the impact of wildflower strip planting on almond and watermelon crops.
Ultimately, fields with wildflowers planted not only had more diverse and larger bee populations, but also had increased melon density and mass or improved almond nut set.
Bees have a need for both nourishment and habitats; these resources cannot be substituted for each other.
“What we see in intensive ag is the loss of both. We see the loss of forage resources and, through disturbance of the ground… we see the loss of nesting substrates,” Williams said..
Despite improved yield outcomes resulting from richer bee populations, there is not yet widespread investment in native plant restoration. Part of this issue is cost-related: wildflowers are much more expensive to plant per acre than regular crops. Williams’ research seeks to increase industry-wide buy-in by showing the results of planting in small strips with less expensive, optimized seed mixes.
Bees are linked with a variety of climate change factors, including agriculture. Williams asks how the industry can mobilize the energy people have for saving the bees to also save soil health and other factors.
Addressing climate change requires a multidisciplinary approach, which Williams believes can create issues of its own.
At his own university, Williams has seen successful approaches in the formation of short-term institutes targeted at a specific issue. “It’s sort of this sociological strategy. You make it seem like the thing that everybody wants to be part of,” said Williams.
Dean of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences Dr. Michael Parrella agrees. He expressed some frustration at agricultural approaches being discounted by other areas, as evidenced by a lack of audience members from outside the CALS or UI Extension community.
Parrella believes cross-college collaboration would be best facilitated by cluster hiring new faculty across different departments with a common goal in mind.
“I call it the coalition of the willing,” Parrella said. “Right now, the sad thing is there’s no incentive for colleges to work together.”
Katie Hettinga can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @katie_hettinga