Our Project

Pollinators are the unsung heroes of our ecosystems, playing a vital role in plant reproduction and boosting crop yields by transferring pollen between flowers or different flower parts. But there is a hidden part of their story: many pollinators spend critical parts of their lives on or beneath the soil—nesting, resting, or overwintering underground.

Despite this, the role of soils in pollinator health remains largely overlooked and we know little of what these soil-dependent pollinators need to thrive or how modern soil management practices may be putting both pollinators and the essential ecosystem services they provide at risk.

But what are soil-dependent pollinators? Soil-dependent pollinators are plant pollinating insects, that spend at least part of their life cycle in the soil. While all pollinators depend on the soil and the plants that grow in it, soil-dependent pollinators are also directly soil-dependent. They either nest in the soil or use It for food, as nesting material of habitat.