2nd Place: D3083: The effects of floral strips on crop yield, quality, and profitability for highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum) in Delta, British Columbia

Insects are in decline worldwide, with Hymenoptera being especially affected. Pollinator decline is driven by conventional farming practices such as intensive insecticide and herbicide use that negatively affect pollinator health and limit the availability of floral resources. In recent years, growers have relied on managed honey bees (Apis mellifera) to pollinate their crops. Honey bees, however, cannot pollinate certain crops as effectively as wild pollinators. Highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum), a widely grown crop in British Columbia (BC), Canada, is one such crop that benefits from visitation from wild pollinators.
While blueberry growers have faced limited crop yields and revenue as a result of insufficient pollination in the past, it is unknown how these pollen deficits are affected by certain blueberry varieties and management practices.
I conducted a two-year study on highbush blueberry fields with varying management practices within the Lower Mainland of BC. I ran pollen deficit experiments along transects set at varying distances from the field's edge and surveyed pollinators visiting blueberry flowers on these transects to determine which taxa best reduced these deficits.
Results indicated pollen deficits are most strongly related to bumble bee visitation rather than honey bee visitation and that growers who used clover as a cover crop experienced more visitation than growers who did not.
These findings indicate that establishing floral resources beyond those offered by crops can encourage pollination services from wild Bombus sp., suggesting that ecological intensification of agricultural land can promote ecosystem services while contributing to conservation.