The Pollination Properties and Pollination Efficiency of Bumblebee (Bombus terrestris L.) Relation to Colony Ventilation under High Temperature Condition in a Greenhouse
2017
Lee, K.Y., The National Institute of Agricultural Science, RDA, Wanju, Republic of Korea | Yoon, H.J., The National Institute of Agricultural Science, RDA, Wanju, Republic of Korea
In order to increase the utilization of bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) for pollination in summer, we investigated pollination properties of bumblebees in a high temperature condition i. e. a greenhouse where onions (Alium cepa) were cultivated. The temperature of bumblebee colonies was 3℃ higher than the temperature inside the greenhouse during the onion pollination period. Foraging activity of bumblebee workers decreased at temperature over 33℃ and was negatively correlated with colony temperature. Fanning behavior was observed at temperature over 30℃ and was positively correlated with colony temperature. There was negative correlation between the number of bees fanning and bees foraging. We expected that foraging activity would be affected by colony temperature and fanning behavior. We ventilated bumblebee colonies using PC cooling fan to replace the fanning behavior of bumblebees, unventilated colonies were used as controls. The temperature of the colonies that were ventilated using the cooler fan was 3℃ lower than the control colonies, and the rate of fanning behavior were 9 times lower in ventilated colonies than in the control colonies. Foraging activity and survival rates of worker bees in ventilated colonies doubled compared to the control colonies. Rates of seed set per flower and number of seeds set by bees in the ventilated colonies was 12% and -15% and 1.1 and -1.4 times higher pollination, respectively, than for the control colonies. We conclude that installing a ventilation device on the colony box can improve the internal environment of bumblebee colonies at high temperatures through ventilation and that this is a good option to increase pollination effectiveness for the crops in high temperature greenhouse conditions.
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