Johanna Yourstone, Josefin Gunnarsson, Henrik G. Smith, H. Somanathan
{"title":"High dependency of chilli fruit set on wild pollinators in southern India","authors":"Johanna Yourstone, Josefin Gunnarsson, Henrik G. Smith, H. Somanathan","doi":"10.26786/1920-7603(2021)629","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.26786/1920-7603(2021)629","url":null,"abstract":"Ongoing pollinator declines threaten the production of many entomophilous crops. Recent reports that yields of animal-pollinated crops in India are increasing less than pollinator-independent ones suggest the occurrence of pollen limitation. We experimentally evaluated if production of the common food crop chilli benefits from insect pollination and if crop production is constrained by lack of pollinators under field conditions. Experiments were conducted in eleven chilli fields distributed across a semi-arid agricultural landscape in Andhra Pradesh, India. The experimental treatments included open controls, open pollen-supplemented flowers, and bagged flowers for pollinator exclusion. The fruit set from the two open treatments (control and pollen supplementation) was about three times higher than that from the exclusion treatment, suggesting strong dependence on insect pollination. Control supplementation treatments did not differ, which suggests that there normally is sufficient pollination for chilli production in the area. Bees contributed 98% of flower visits. Flower visitor abundance correlated with higher fruit set, but only significantly so in the pollen supplemented treatment. While previous studies that are mostly conducted in greenhouse settings suggest that chilli reproduction does not depend much on animal pollination, our field study confirms that presence of animal pollinators increases fruit set. Future research should establish if this also applies to fruit quality and total yield. Our study highlights the importance of field-realistic experiments and warrants research on pollinator dependencies of other crops. The results have implications for crop production in an area where pollinator levels may be sufficiently high for crop pollination today but possibly not in the future due to environmental change. ","PeriodicalId":30194,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Pollination Ecology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49459253","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Announcements for JPE","authors":"J. Thomson","doi":"10.26786/JPE.V28I0.654","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.26786/JPE.V28I0.654","url":null,"abstract":"You have probably realised that the Journal of Pollination Ecology changed its look, coming with an updated submission system, provided by OJS of PKP. Further changes in the near future. Find out more!\u0000 ","PeriodicalId":30194,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Pollination Ecology","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69126690","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Editorial: How worthwhile are pollination networks?","authors":"James Thomson","doi":"10.26786/1920-7603(2021)652","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.26786/1920-7603(2021)652","url":null,"abstract":"An occupational hazard for editors is the powerful temptation to editorialize. In pondering a possible contribution to the SCAPE Special Issue, I decided to indulge that temptation by expanding part of with my plenary address to SCAPE 2018 at Abisko into a personal comment expressing scepticism about the practice of constructing pollination networks. At that time, and on various occasions since, some colleagues suggested that publishing my perspective might help foster a useful conversation.\u0000 ","PeriodicalId":30194,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Pollination Ecology","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69126677","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
M. Toivonen, I. Herzon, Jenni Toikkanen, M. Kuussaari
{"title":"Linking pollinator occurrence in field margins to pollinator visitation to a mass-flowering crop","authors":"M. Toivonen, I. Herzon, Jenni Toikkanen, M. Kuussaari","doi":"10.26786/1920-7603(2021)623","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.26786/1920-7603(2021)623","url":null,"abstract":"Uncultivated field margins are important refugia for pollinating insects in agricultural landscapes. However, the spill-over of pollination services from field margins to adjacent crops is poorly understood. This study (i) examined the effects of landscape heterogeneity on pollinator occurrence in permanent field margins and pollinator visitation to adjacent mass-flowering turnip rape (Brassica rapa ssp. oleifera) in boreal agricultural landscapes, and (ii) tested whether pollinator abundance and species richness in field margins predict abundance and species richness of crop visitors. Pollinators visiting the crop were more affected by landscape heterogeneity than pollinators in adjacent margins. Species richness, total abundance, and the abundance of syrphid flies visiting the crop increased with increasing landscape heterogeneity, whereas, in field margins, landscape heterogeneity had little effect on pollinators. In field-dominated homogeneous landscapes, wild pollinators rarely visited the crop even if they occurred in adjacent margins, whereas in heterogeneous landscapes, differences between the two habitats were smaller. Total pollinator abundance and species richness in field margins were poor predictors of pollinator visitation to adjacent crop. However, high abundances of honeybees and bumblebees in margins were related to high numbers of crop visitors from these taxa. Our results suggest that, while uncultivated field margins help pollinators persist in boreal agricultural landscapes, they do not always result in enhanced pollinator visitation to the adjacent crop. More studies quantifying pollination service delivery from semi-natural habitats to crops in different landscape settings will help develop management approaches to support crop pollination. ","PeriodicalId":30194,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Pollination Ecology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49498330","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Taxon-specific temporal shifts in pollinating insects in mass-flowering crops and field margins in Ireland","authors":"Irene Bottero, S. Hodge, J C Stout","doi":"10.26786/1920-7603(2021)628","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.26786/1920-7603(2021)628","url":null,"abstract":"In intensively cropped agricultural landscapes, the vegetation in edges and hedges (henceforth “field margins”) represents an important semi-natural habitat providing fundamental resources for insect pollinators. We surveyed the pollinating insects associated with two mass-flowering crops, apple and oilseed rape, and compared the insect fauna of the main crop with that in the field margins in the grass-dominated agricultural landscapes of Ireland. Different insect groups responded differently to the presence of the flowering crop, with honey and bumble bees more abundant in crops than margins during crop flowering, but more hover flies and butterflies in margins throughout. The composition of the insect assemblage also shifted over time due to taxon-specific changes in abundance. For example, solitary bees were most abundant early in the season, whereas hover flies peaked, and butterflies declined, in mid-summer. The temporal shift in insect community structure was associated with parallel changes in the field margin flora, and, although we found no relationship between insect abundance and abundance of field margin flowers, Bombus abundance and total insect abundance were positively correlated with floral diversity. After the crop flowering period, floral abundance and diversity was maintained via margin plants, but by late summer, floral resources declined. Our results confirm the importance of field margins for insect pollinators of entomophilous crops set within grass-dominated landscapes, even during the crop flowering period, and provide additional support for agri-environment schemes that protect and/or improve field margin biodiversity. The results also demonstrate that although shifts in insect and plant communities may be linked phenologically there may not always be simple relationships between insect and floral abundance and richness. ","PeriodicalId":30194,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Pollination Ecology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44163892","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Tina D'hertefeldt, Catarina Anderberg Haglund, Jessica Malm, Åsa Lankinen
{"title":"Escaped oilseed rape: Occurrence in the agricultural landscape and potential pollen-mediated gene flow from crop oilseed rape","authors":"Tina D'hertefeldt, Catarina Anderberg Haglund, Jessica Malm, Åsa Lankinen","doi":"10.26786/1920-7603(2021)631","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.26786/1920-7603(2021)631","url":null,"abstract":"To assess the role of feral oilseed rape (OSR) plants as resources for pollinators and avenues for gene flow, we compared occurrence of feral populations in standardized agricultural landscapes, using a landscape ecological approach. The occurrence of feral and volunteer populations was investigated in relation to differences in road length and width, number of OSR fields, and landscape scale. The potential for pollen-mediated gene flow from crop to feral oilseed rape was investigated with fluorescent dye in a field experiment. Moreover, greenhouse estimates of pollen germination rate and pollen tube growth rate were performed to get an indication of siring success in crop and feral plants. Escaped OSR occurred in 14 out of the 16 investigated landscapes, and feral populations were more common alongside large roads than small roads in large-scale landscapes. The number of plants in a habitat ranged from 1-160 individuals, with 1-19 habitats per landscape. In the field experiment with fluorescent dye, no transfer of dye was detected during early flowering in May. At the end of the flowering period in June, transfer of dye was found in 71.4% of the feral plants, showing that significant transfer, most likely by pollinators, occurred from the field to the feral plants. There was no difference in pollen germination rate between crop and feral plants. Pollen tube growth rate was significantly higher in feral oilseed rape than in the crop (P < 0.001). Our results contribute to increased understanding of i) the utilization of feral populations by pollinators in an intensively farmed agricultural landscape, and ii) crop-feral gene flow within OSR. ","PeriodicalId":30194,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Pollination Ecology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41534727","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Pollination of Nypa fruticans (Wurmb.) in a South Florida botanic garden","authors":"I. Valdes, Joanna M. Tucker Lima, L. Noblick","doi":"10.26786/1920-7603(2021)624","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.26786/1920-7603(2021)624","url":null,"abstract":"When plants are removed from their native habitat, reproduction can be compromised if pollinators are absent, especially when plant-pollinator interactions are species-specific and the plant is self-incompatible. To avoid these pitfalls, botanic gardens often use hand pollination to ensure reproductive success of their living collections, an important aspect of ex-situ conservation. The nipa palm, Nypa fruticans, presents an interesting case study of pollination in a botanic garden and a plant’s ability to successfully reproduce outside its native range without assisted pollination. Nypa fruticans has been growing at Montgomery Botanical Center (MBC) in South Florida since 1984, but for years required hand pollination to produce viable fruit. A recent shift from hand pollination to unassisted pollination suggests that this palm has found an alternative to fertilize its flowers. We investigate possible pollinators and new opportunities for pollination outside the palm’s native range. Rather than the insects typically associated with N. fruticans pollination in its native range in Southeast Asia (i.e., flies and beetles), ants, specifically Paratrechina longicornis, were overwhelmingly the most abundant visitors to nipa palm inflorescences at MBC and likely represent an important pollinator or facilitator of pollination at the garden. Pollination research at botanic gardens complements in-situ field studies and provides important insights into the flexibility of pollination systems to achieve reproductive success outside a plant’s native range. ","PeriodicalId":30194,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Pollination Ecology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48394316","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Insect pollination and sustainable agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa","authors":"K. Tolera, G. Ballantyne","doi":"10.26786/1920-7603(2021)615","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.26786/1920-7603(2021)615","url":null,"abstract":"We are currently seeing an expansion of pollinator-dependent crops in many parts of the world, but also growing evidence for pollinator population declines and loss of pollinator habitat. Climate change and population growth will place additional demands on crop production, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Despite the wealth of evidence that improved management of insect pollinators can lead to substantial gains in crop yield, agricultural improvement strategies in SSA still emphasize the manipulation of abiotic factors and do not fully exploit the value of pollinators. In this article we review the importance of pollination services in sustainable agriculture, how global perspectives can inform our understanding of the situation in SSA, discuss successful pollination management, highlight where research and development are required, and suggest possible solutions to enhance the contribution of pollination services to sustainable agriculture in the region. ","PeriodicalId":30194,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Pollination Ecology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-03-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43167033","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Novel data support model linking floral resources and honey bee competition with bumble bee abundances in coastal scrub","authors":"D. Thomson","doi":"10.26786/1920-7603#625","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.26786/1920-7603#625","url":null,"abstract":"Growing evidence supports that many bee populations are declining, with potentially serious consequences for pollination services. Mechanistic models that predict bee abundances from drivers like floral resource availability can be a powerful way to understand and address declines, but remain rare and largely unvalidated. I used temporally and spatially novel data to validate previous analyses linking bumble bee (Bombus spp.) declines in California coastal scrub with loss of floral resources, mediated by drought and competition with non-native honey bees (Apis mellifera). New observations from 2015-2018 were combined with data from 1999-2014 to further test these mechanistic hypotheses and evaluate predictions of a statistical model for Bombus abundances. As predicted, positive associations between spring rainfall and floral abundances and between Bombus and key forage plants were consistent between time periods. Increased A. mellifera abundance corresponded with reduced Bombus use of the most abundant forage plant and lower Bombus abundances in the following year. Quantitative predictions from the Bombus statistical model previously developed for 1999-2014 were relatively unbiased and strongly rank correlated with either spatially or temporally novel data. However, the model consistently underpredicted Bombus abundances when both flower patch and time period were novel. Overall, four new years of data further strengthen evidence that loss of floral resources due to drought and competition with feral Apis mellifera is an important cause of Bombus decline in this habitat. These findings reinforce the value of even simple models that are mechanistically framed, both in understanding past patterns of change and for qualitative prediction. ","PeriodicalId":30194,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Pollination Ecology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-03-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43159424","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Cecilia Smith, Lorena Vieli, Rodrigo M. Barahona‐Segovia
{"title":"Aneriophora aureorufa (Philippi, 1865) (Diptera: Syrphidae): a fly specialized in the pollination of Eucryphia cordifolia Cav. (Cunoniaceae R. Br.), an endemic species of South American temperate forest","authors":"Cecilia Smith, Lorena Vieli, Rodrigo M. Barahona‐Segovia","doi":"10.26786/1920-7603(2021)618","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.26786/1920-7603(2021)618","url":null,"abstract":"The order Diptera is the second most important group of pollinators worldwide. Many flies are considered generalist pollinators, but specialist flower flies’ associations are rare or uncommon. The present study aimed to determine the level of specialization in pollination for Aneriophora aureorufa (Philippi, 1865) (Diptera: Syrphidae), an endemic species of the South American temperate forests. The study evaluates also the species abundance in different sampling sites and environments. Our data suggest that Aneriophora aureorufa has an exclusive and extremely narrow association with the flowers of Eucryphia cordifolia Cav.¸ an endemic Chilean species. We reviewed the literature on Chilean pollinator species searching for information about Aneriophora Stuardo & Cortés 1952 and compared its exclusive association with other specialist flies. We conducted long-term fieldwork for 22 years in one location during the flowering season and over a period of one to six years in five additional locations. In our field study we recorded all insects which had contact with stigma and/or stamens of 25 plant species. We found that Aneriophora visits flowers of E. cordifolia in both low absolute abundance and low relative percentage, and occasionally visits flowers of two other species. In the northern distributional range of A. aureorufa, where E. cordifolia is absent, the hoverfly was recorded in flowers of Laurelia sempervirens (Ruiz & Pav.) Tul. (Chilean laurel, Atherospermataceae), but in low frequency (0.01 flowers/min). In a site where we have a long-term study, A. aureorufa represented only 0.2% of all flower visitors, and its abundance was higher in canopy forests, visiting 0.03 flowers/min. Based on our observations and the literature review we propose that (1) Aneriophora is one of the most specialized pollinator flies described until now; (2) the species is more frequent in old-growth forests than in forest edges or isolated trees.","PeriodicalId":30194,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Pollination Ecology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-02-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44593910","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}