Design and Planning of a Transdisciplinary Investigation into Farmland Pollinators: Rationale, Co-Design, and Lessons Learned

Abstract

To provide a complete portrayal of the multiple factors negatively impacting insects in agricultural landscapes it is necessary to assess the concurrent incidence, magnitude, and interactions among multiple stressors over substantial biogeographical scales. Trans-national ecological field investigations with wide-ranging stakeholders typically encounter numerous challenges during the design planning stages, not least that the scientific soundness of a spatially replicated study design must account for the substantial geographic and climatic variation among distant sites. ‘PoshBee’ (Pan-European assessment, monitoring, and mitigation of Stressors on the Health of Bees) is a multi-partner transdisciplinary agroecological project established to investigate the suite of stressors typically encountered by pollinating insects in European agricultural landscapes. To do this, PoshBee established a network of 128 study sites across eight European countries and collected over 50 measurements and samples relating to the nutritional, toxicological, pathogenic, and landscape components of the bees’ environment. This paper describes the development process, rationale, and end-result of each aspect of the of the PoshBee field investigation. We describe the main issues and challenges encountered during the design stages and highlight a number of actions or processes that may benefit other multi-partner research consortia planning similar large-scale studies. It was soon identified that in a multi-component study design process, the development of interaction and communication networks involving all collaborators and stakeholders requires considerable time and resources. It was also necessary at each planning stage to be mindful of the needs and objectives of all stakeholders and partners, and further challenges inevitably arose when practical limitations, such as time restrictions and labour constraints, were superimposed upon prototype study designs. To promote clarity for all stakeholders, for each sub-component of the study, there should be a clear record of the rationale and reasoning that outlines how the final design transpired, what compromises were made, and how the requirements of different stakeholders were accomplished. Ultimately, multi-national agroecological field studies such as PoshBee benefit greatly from the involvement of diverse stakeholders and partners, ranging from field ecologists, project managers, policy legislators, mathematical modelers, and farmer organisations. While the execution of the study highlighted the advantages and benefits of large-scale transdisciplinary projects, the long planning period emphasized the need to formally describe a design framework that could facilitate the design process of future multi-partner collaborations.

Pesticide use negatively affects bumble bees across European landscapes

“…Our site network spanned 128 agricultural sites in eight European countries encompassing many biogeographic zones with differing climates and seasonality 47 (Fig. 1a ).…”

“…In each focal crop, sites were selected to occur along a gradient of proportion of cropland within 1 km radius landscapes. This proportion is an established proxy for the agricultural management intensity typical of each country 47 . We chose oilseed rape and apple as our focal crops to reflect annual and perennial cropping practices and, therefore, different pest pressures, pest management strategies and pesticide use 27 , 48 .…”

Building composite indices in the age of big data – Application to honey bee exposure to infectious and parasitic agents

“…This means that eight sites per country for two crops were selected: 8 sites × 8 countries × 2 crops, leading to a total of 128 sites. At each site, three honey bee colonies were installed following the PoshBee protocols and over 50 measurements and samples related to the nutritional, toxicological, pathogenic and landscape components of the bees' environment were collected [ 18 ]. In the following list, we provide examples of collected information: data on the abundance and diversity of field margin floral resources (floral survey); survey of wild pollinators as an indicator of general ‘pollinator community health (pollinator survey); total and per hectare crop yields and inputs of agrochemicals (farmer survey) [ 18 ].…”

“…At each site, three honey bee colonies were installed following the PoshBee protocols and over 50 measurements and samples related to the nutritional, toxicological, pathogenic and landscape components of the bees' environment were collected [ 18 ]. In the following list, we provide examples of collected information: data on the abundance and diversity of field margin floral resources (floral survey); survey of wild pollinators as an indicator of general ‘pollinator community health (pollinator survey); total and per hectare crop yields and inputs of agrochemicals (farmer survey) [ 18 ]. Adult honey bees were sampled in each colony and nest two times in 2019 for the detection and quantification of various IPAs at two sampling times: before bees were deployed on the sites (T0) and after bloom of the focal crop (T1).…”

Effect of agroecological measures on honey bee colony development and survival in the Swiss context

“…Given the scale and number of people involved, the "Agriculture and pollinators" field study was well conducted and highlighted a many of advantages of conducting large-scale collaborative projects. The challenges encountered in designing projects of this scale may require the establishment of common planning methods to best conduct these field study monitoring and involve social sciences to identify some constraints to their implementation (Hodge et al, 2022;Correia, 2021). It should be noted that it is difficult to set up an ideal monitoring device without any constraints.…”