Bees use their mouthparts to taste pollen quality, and this project will decode how they make foraging decisions to improve crop pollination. Pollination adds an estimated £200 billion annually to global crop yields, yet many crops still suffer from insufficient pollination because nectar foraging has been studied far more than pollen foraging—despite pollen being critical for bee development. The researchers will combine electrophysiology, behavioural assays, and energy-measurement techniques to understand how bees detect and evaluate pollen’s nutritional complexity in real fields. They will then build agent-based models that, for the first time, account for both nectar and pollen as dual food rewards and include solitary bees alongside social species. If successful, the work will produce practical guidelines for farmers and policymakers on how to design agricultural landscapes—such as field margins, flower strips, and crop layouts—that maximise pollination efficiency while supporting diverse pollinator communities. A policy secondment with the NGO BeeLife will help translate findings into actionable land management recommendations. This is applied fundamental science: it directly targets a practical bottleneck in food production.
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Insect pollination is vital to global food production, contributing an estimated £200 billion annually to crop yields. Yet many crops suffer from insufficient pollination, limiting their productivity and threatening food security. Improving pollination efficiency is crucial for sustainably increasing yields and supporting resilient agricultural systems. Pollination depends on the foraging behaviour of individual insects, particularly bees, whose decisions are influenced by a complex interplay of sensory, energetic and environmental factors. This project seeks to understand the drivers of pollen-foraging choices by bees and translate this knowledge into actionable strategies for enhancing pollination services. While nectar foraging has been well-studied, pollen—a critical nutrient source for bee development—remains underexplored. Our pioneering research has revealed that bees use their mouthparts to evaluate the nutritional quality of pollen, and that social and solitary bees differ in their sensory sensitivity to pollen cues. Building on these findings, we aim to uncover how bees integrate sensory and energetic cues to make foraging decisions in real-world conditions. To achieve this, we will combine cutting-edge techniques from neuroscience, physiology, and ecology. Using electrophysiology, we will explore how bees detect the nutritional complexity of pollen. By pairing behavioural assays with advanced energy-measurement techniques, we will quantify the costs of collecting pollen from real flowers under realistic field conditions. These insights will be integrated into innovative agent-based models that, for the first time, account for both nectar and pollen as dual food rewards and include diverse pollinator species. This research has far-reaching implications. It will improve our understanding of how plant traits, such as flower morphology and nutrient composition, influence pollination. It will also provide practical recommendations for designing agri-environments that maximize pollination efficiency while supporting diverse pollinator communities. By including solitary bees in addition to social species, our approach reflects the real-world diversity of pollinators, which is essential for robust and resilient food systems. In the later stages, we will work with agricultural stakeholders to develop actionable guidelines for land management practices that enhance pollination services. A policy secondment with BeeLife, an NGO advocating for pollinator protection, will enable us to translate scientific findings into recommendations for farmers and policymakers. This will be complemented by the development of training materials and a symposium to engage researchers, early-career scientists, and stakeholders in building a collaborative, multidisciplinary consortium. Ultimately, this project will lead to a step-change in understanding how bee foraging behaviour drives pollination services and how agricultural landscapes can be managed to support pollinators. By addressing this critical knowledge gap, we aim to empower farmers, conservationists, and policymakers to foster sustainable and productive farming systems that benefit both food security and biodiversity.
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