Pollination is an important ecosystem service mostly provided by diversity of pollinating insects and other animals. As in the anthropocene biodiversity crisis with the climate change, pollination systems are experiencing strongly challenged such as pollinator diversity and abundance decline, pollinator health weakness, pollinator-plant network instability as well as the crop-pollinator habitat fragmentation and insuitability. Here we present some research progress conducted from our group in the last decade. As the pollination dependence of Korean agriculture increases, pollination contribute ap. one forth of national agricultural production, and is responsible substantial portion of vitamin and mineral provisioning. Pollinator diversity is declining in various crop systems and network connectivity is decreasing. Still in agricultural landscape, honeybee (Apis spp) is the main pollinator, accounting ap. 70% of bees, and showed the possible resource partitioning between the native, A. cerana and the introduced, A. mellifera. Simulation of crop-pollinating insect distribution suitability showed up and down directional responses, but more on the negative Further research area for better understanding and stabilizing the plant-pollinator system was proposed.

동물 화분매개는 대부분 벌과 파리 등의 곤충에 의해서 이루어지는 매우 중요한 생태계 서비스 중 하나이다. 농업생산성의 유지와 영양분의 안정적 공급은 인류 복지의 근간이 된다. 이 연구는 한국 농업에서 화분매개가 식량 생산 증진에 미치는 기능을 평가하였다. 2015년 농업총조사, 농촌진흥청 농업 소득자료집, 기타 시장가격 자료 등의 농작물 재배와 생산액에 대한 자료에 화분매개 의존도를 반영하였다. 12개의 식량작물, 19개 과수, 18개 노지 채소와 13개 시설 채소 그리고 9개의 특용작물 등 71개 작물을 대상으로 한 분석에서, 전체 작물의 화분매개 의존도는 평균 29.2%이었으며, 식량작물이 가장 낮은 7.5%로 나타났다. 화분매개 의존량은 전체 농작물의 17.8%이었으며 그 경제적 가치는 6조 8.5천억원 (65.1-71.9천억원)으로 추정되었다. 화분매개 의존 생산량은 시설 과채류에서 49.2%로 가장 높았고 과수가 42%, 특용작물이 35.9%를 차지하 였다. 본 연구를 통해 곤충 화분매개는 한국 농업 생산에서 핵심적 과정이며 식량-영양안보적 관점에서 보호증진해야 하는 과정임이 분명해졌다. 농업에서 화분매개자를 보호하고 화분매개서비스를 강화할 수 있는 관리 전략으로 병해충-화분매개 통합관리(IPPM)개념과 추진 전략에 대하여 추가적으로 논의하였다.

We compared the fruit set and the quality of the Asian pear (Pyrus pyrifolia Nakai cv. Niitaka) among flowers pollinated by insect pollinators such as the honeybee(Apis mellifera) and bumblebee(Bombus terrestris) and pollinated artificial. The hand pollination rate was 1.3 times higher than bumblebee and 1.9 times higher than the honeybee pollination rate. Moreover, the artificially pollinated flowers produced fruit that was 5 to 10% higher in weight, 2 to 3% larger in size, and had a higher fruit shape index(L/D) than pollinated by the insect pollinators. On economic analysis, net profit from insect pollinator was 93.5 to 97.1% of net profit from hand pollination. Therefore, artificial pollination is more efficient than insect pollination in 'Niitaka' pear. However, regarding fruit quality and net profit, these results suggest that bee pollinator can be an good alternative to hand pollination in pear cv. Niitaka.

We compared the fruit set and the quality of the ‘Niitaka’ pear (Pyrus pyrifolia Nakai) among flowers pollinated by two bee species (Apis mellifera and Bombus terrestris) and pollinated artificial. The artificial pollination rate was 1.3 to 1.9 times higher than the bee pollination rate. Moreover, the artificially pollinated flowers produced fruit that was 5 to 10% higher in weight, 2 to 3% larger in size, and had a higher fruit shape index (L/D) than fruit pollinated by the bees. On economic analysis, net profit from insect pollinator was 93.5 to 97.1% of net profit from artificial pollination. Therefore, artificial pollination is more efficient than bee pollination in ‘Niitaka’ pear. However, regarding fruit quality and net profit, these results suggest that bee pollination can be an good alternative to artificial pollination in ‘Niitaka’ pear.