Food: Some vanilla plants lose natural habitats | blue News

By 2050, some vanilla plants could lose more than half of their natural habitats — with consequences for pudding, ice cream and other dishes. An international research team cites climate change as the reason for this.

A team from the Belgian University of Leuven and the University of Costa Rica reports in the journal “Frontiers in Plant Science” that increasing climate extremes are changing the habitats of wild vanilla species — so far mostly in tropical regions of Central America — and their mostly animal pollinators.

Some regions could become more attractive for the plants, but no longer offer suitable living conditions for the insects that pollinate the plants. As a result of these changes, the habitats of pollinators and pollinated plants could overlap less in future — meaning that less pollination takes place.

“Preserving the natural populations of these wild species, and thus the great genetic diversity they represent, is crucial to securing the future of vanilla,” the team writes in a press release.

Bee habitats particularly affected

The researchers used modeling to analyze the distribution ranges of eleven neotropical vanilla species and seven observed bee species under two climate scenarios up to the year 2050 — a medium scenario with moderate climate protection and a scenario with more conflict and less global climate protection.

While some species could even expand their potential habitats as a result of global warming, others are threatened with a decline of more than half. The models predict a decline in suitable habitats for all bee species — with particularly drastic consequences in the less climate protection scenario.

While Vanilla inodora, for example, only grows in cloud forests and low-lying regions with heavy rainfall, other species only occur in hot regions with long dry spells — and could therefore benefit.

Vanilla often depends on individual bee species

“A decoupling of plants and their pollinators could endanger the survival of wild vanilla species,” warns first author Charlotte Watteyn. Particularly problematic: the species are usually specialized on a few or even single pollinators. Replacement relationships are therefore hardly possible. For species that are dependent on a single bee genus, the overlap of habitats could even shrink by 60 to 90 percent.

Wild vanilla plants are also important for agriculture: commercially used vanilla (Vanilla planifolia) has a low genetic diversity, which makes it particularly susceptible to disease, drought and heat — and which means it is already a victim of global warming.

Global warming could therefore have a similar effect on vanilla ice cream, custard and other desserts as it is already having on many other foods: For coffee, chocolate or olive oil, among others, poor harvests repeatedly cause shortages — and therefore higher prices.

More research and protection needed

One limitation of the researchers’ study is that comprehensive information on pollination mechanisms was not available for all the species studied.

The team calls for increased international cooperation and further research: The aim is to ensure the resilience of vanilla cultivation and thus the livelihood of many small farmers in tropical regions.