Toward the protection of bees and pollination: the rise of global change science
Résumé
Over the past 30 years (1987-2016), bibliometric data shows a drastic change in the scientific investigation of threats to bee populations. Bee research efforts committed to studying bioagressors of honeybees (mainly Varroa sp.) were predominant, but now appear to be shifting from bioagressors to global change in the published literature. This rise of global change science reveals prevailing topics, for current and future years: climate change, landscape alteration, agricultural intensification and invasive species. We argue that with increased investment in applied research and development, the scientific, beekeeping and agricultural communities will be able to find management strategies for productive agrosystems and enhanced resilience of pollination and beekeeping. This implies the need for restoring and improving food resources and shelter of bees by ecological intensification of diversified farming systems, but also reconciling sustainable beekeeping with wild pollinator conservation.