SafeAgroBee - Safeguarding agroecosystem resilience under climate change through efficient pollination and sustainable beekeeping

SafeAgroBee goals are: a) to contribute to knowledge on adaptation of bees on their local nishes; b) to contribute to mitigation of the effects of climate change and other drivers negatively influencing the sustainability and the resilience of the agricultural system in the Mediterranean basin, ; c) to develp strategies and tools ensuring the income of farmers and food security; d) contribute to SDGs.

To this aim, SafeAgroBee will specifically address the following: 1) examine the resilience of bee pollinators (Apis and non Apis bees) on a changing environment towards pollination services and productivity by a) documenting wild and domesticated bee contribution to the pollination of key crops; b) determining the carrying capacity of several crops as a novel approach for bee productivity and c) by projecting historical climatic data and bee related data in today's conditions; 2) investigate the adaptability of local bee populations and the application of optimal practices under climate change in order to ensure sustainable beekeeping by monitoring the development and the performance of local populations and their resistance to diseases; 3) support the development of mitigation strategies ensuring the health of the bees and provide advice for the beekeepers by comparing the health and productivity of the honey bee colonies between different agricultural ecosystems and by performing alternative and new strategies to control bee diseases; 4) develop innovative monitoring tools and precision apiculture systems for advanced data acquisition by building on sounds, bee movements and heat detection, also enhancing business potential; 5) test and validate novel models for predicting the health of the bees, as for example the Health Status Index, as well as their productivity in terms of honey and pollination services based on two strong conditions, i) on previous experience, developments and knowledge and ii) on the large data sets with very accurate data and from diverse climatological conditions; 6) adopt a Citizen Science approach to interact and collaborate with all stakeholders and the citizens.