91制片厂

A 91制片厂 researcher has received a $550,000 grant that will help understand and protect the pollinators that are so critical to the nation鈥檚 food supply. received the Pollinator Health Fund grant from the (FFAR), a nonprofit created by the 2014 Farm Bill.

Rehan is an assistant professor of biological sciences in the . The grant, which totals $1.1 million as a听result of matching funds, will support a project to understand the stressors facing New England鈥檚 wild bee species as well as听promote education and outreach and develop bee-friendly practices.

Rehan says the project will produce new information on wild bee floral preferences and factors driving population changes as well as a clearer understanding of how key stressors impact pollinator health.

鈥淭he food and agriculture community will benefit from much needed regionally specific pollinator habitat requirements, leading to better land management, conservation policies and strategies.听Consequently, pollinator communities and ecosystems will be healthier, and the future of our food crops will be more secure.鈥�

As a part of the project, Rehan and her student team will develop ecological and geospatial models to better understand the many factors affecting wild bees, including land use, the availability of flowering plants听and relationships with other bee species. They will also create an interactive key to help with the accurate identification of wild bees. Once completed, it will be available through open access publications and .

The team will also produce the only comprehensive field guide to the bees of New England. The guide will feature bee images taken by the Rehan lab, a historical overview of bees and pollination ecology in the region, summaries of all major bee families, genera听and species common to the region. In conjunction with the field guide, Rehan will launch the New England Bee ID course as part of a multistate endeavor to train much听needed pollinator taxonomists.

鈥淭he food and agriculture community will benefit from much needed regionally specific pollinator habitat requirements, leading to better land management, conservation policies and strategies,鈥� she says. 鈥淐onsequently, pollinator communities and ecosystems will be healthier, and the future of our food crops will be more secure.鈥�

Rehan鈥檚 research centers on wild bees, the mostly solitary bee species that make up about 98 percent of the global bee population. These important pollinators play a vital role in the ecosystem and are often vulnerable to land and environmental changes听as well as competition from honeybees raised by beekeepers specifically to produce honey or pollinate crops.

FFAR established its in response to the agricultural threat posed by declining pollinator health. Insect pollinators contribute an estimated 24 billion dollars to the United States economy annually.

鈥淢anaged and native pollinators are vital to many crop production systems and the ecological resources that support them,鈥� says听Sally Rockey, executive director of FFAR. 鈥淭he Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research congratulates Sandra Rehan and 91制片厂 and looks forward to results that will inform science-based approaches to improving pollinator health.鈥�

91制片厂 is one of 16 grantee organizations that听received a total of $7 million in FFAR funding toward research and technology development addressing the social and economic challenges faced by beekeepers, farmers, ranchers, private businesses and others to contribute to a healthy pollinator population that supports crop yields and agricultural ecosystems.听听

Learn more about the FFAR Pollinator Health Fund.