Listen to the bees

UK company Agrisound has developed an in-field device for insect monitoring using advanced bioacoustic algorithms. With the majority of fruit crops dependent on insects to pollinate and 40 percent of bee species vulnerable to extinction. There is a lot at stake.

Agrisound’s Polly (a unique in-field sensor device for automated insect monitoring) detects the pollinator level in the area, enabling early intervention e.g. by deploying bee hives throughout crop.

Without pollinators – bees, butterflies, moths, and other bugs, we would lose more than 75 percent of all food crops. But pollinators do much more than protect our food security. Pollination is crucial to maintaining healthy ecosystems by encouraging natural biodiversity, the removal of carbon from the atmosphere (from increased plant growth) and ensuring our food is jam-packed full of nutrients.

What other left-field monitoring solutions are we likely to see as we struggle to maintain our natural environment?