Pollinator survival depends on soil quality, scientists involved in a pan-European research initiative said, announcing a four-year project to examine how soil condition and management affect pollinating insects and what measures could better protect them.
The ProPollSoil initiative, funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe programme, aims to assess how soil health influences soil-dependent pollinators and to develop tools and recommendations to safeguard their populations. The project began in October 2025 and has a budget of approximately €7.72 million over 48 months.
“Pollinators are the unsung heroes of our ecosystems, playing a crucial role in plant reproduction and increasing crop yields by transferring pollen between flowers or different flower parts”, scientists from the ProPollSoil research initiative said.
Although most pollinators spend a significant part of their lives on or below the soil surface—nesting, resting or overwintering underground—the role of soil in pollinator health has been largely overlooked, researchers said.
“Soil is not just a surface for plants - it is a habitat for pollinators, the quality of which determines their survival, reproduction, and resilience to environmental changes”, said Michał Filipiak, Zuzanna Filipiak, Jacek Jachuła and Aleksandra Splitt, who represent Poland in the project.
In a press release provided to PAP – Science in Poland, the researchers noted that when most people think of pollinators, “they imagine honeybees, bumblebees, or butterflies busy among flowers”. However, for many species a key part of their life cycle takes place below ground, where they nest, pupate, overwinter and, in some cases, spend most of their lives.
They said human activity alters soil structure, contributes to erosion, affects organic matter and water content, changes the soil microbiome and leads to pollution. “These changes directly impact the habitat, breeding ground, and overwintering sites of pollinators, yet pollinator monitoring programmes and conservation efforts rarely take soil into account”, they said.
Understanding the soil–pollinator relationship is therefore an investment in resilient agriculture and food security, the scientists added. “Healthy soil and a rich pollinator fauna are mutually reinforcing, and protecting them benefits nature, the economy, and society”, they said.
According to the researchers, “a large proportion of pollinating insects spend part of their life cycle in the soil or on its surface: they build nests there (approximately 75% of bee species nest underground), develop as larvae, pupate, or hibernate”.
“Pollinators that depend on soil to a greater or lesser extent include wild bees, wasps (many species nest in the ground), flies, beetles, and even butterflies (many species hibernate in the soil)”, Michał Filipiak, Zuzanna Filipiak, Jacek Jachuła and Aleksandra Splitt said in the release.
The needs of these insects in relation to soil characteristics remain largely unknown, they added.
As part of ProPollSoil (Understanding and managing soil health impacts to protect soil-dependent pollinators), scientists are developing databases that combine soil and pollinator data, risk maps and recommendations for practitioners, monitoring tools to enable rapid detection of problems, and practical guidance for farmers and policymakers on pollinator-friendly soil use.
The project brings together 23 partners from several European countries and Canada. It is coordinated by the Technical University of Munich under Professor Sara Diana Leonhardt. Polish participants include the Institute of Horticulture – National Research Institute and the Jagiellonian University in Kraków.
PAP - Science in Poland
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