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Do Patches of Flowering Plants Enhance Insect Pollinators in Apple Orchards?
SIMPLE SUMMARY: Insect pollinators such as bees contribute to crop production, food security, ecosystem stability and biodiversity in agroecosystems. However, intensification of agricultural practices jeopardizes pollination services in agricultural landscapes mainly through the decline in flower re...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2023
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9960344/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36835777 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects14020208 |
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author | Barda, Myrto Karamaouna, Filitsa Kati, Vaya Perdikis, Dionysios |
author_facet | Barda, Myrto Karamaouna, Filitsa Kati, Vaya Perdikis, Dionysios |
author_sort | Barda, Myrto |
collection | PubMed |
description | SIMPLE SUMMARY: Insect pollinators such as bees contribute to crop production, food security, ecosystem stability and biodiversity in agroecosystems. However, intensification of agricultural practices jeopardizes pollination services in agricultural landscapes mainly through the decline in flower resources for pollinators in farmlands. The study examines a scheme to provide floral resources for insect pollinators in apple orchards potentially contributing to their conservation and enhancing crop pollination. For this reason, flowering mixtures including legume landraces were sown in patches inside apple orchards and compared to the orchard’s weed flora in respect of attraction of pollinators. Pollinators recorded on the sown and wild plant patches were honey bees, wild bees, syrphids and beeflies. The most abundant pollinator of apple was the honey bee but wild bees were also recorded. The sown mixture attracted greater numbers of pollinators and more wild bee taxa compared to the wild plants, but it did not have an effect on pollinators visiting apple flowers. Flowering patches with mixtures of suitable plants in groundcover can enhance pollinator conservation in apple orchards. ABSTRACT: Apples depend on insect pollination but intensification of agriculture jeopardizes pollination services in agroecosystems. Concerns about the dependency of crop pollination exclusively on honey bees increase the interest in agricultural practices that safeguard wild pollinators in agroecosystems. The purpose of the study was to assess the potential of floral resource provision in apple orchards to enhance the conservation of hymenopterous pollinating insects and potentially the pollination service to the crop. For this reason, flowering plant mixtures sown in patches inside apple orchards were tested against wild plant patches. Pollinator taxa recorded on the sown and wild plant patches were honey bees, wild bees (Andrena, Anthophora, Eucera, Halictus, Lasioglossum, Megachilidae on both; Systropha only on wild plants; Bombus, Hylaeus, Sphecodes, Nomada, Xylocopa only on sown mixture), syrphids, bee flies. The most abundant pollinator of apple was A. mellifera but wild bees were also recorded (Andrena, Anthophora, Bombus, Xylocopa, Lasioglossum, Megachilidae). The sown mixture attracted a more diverse taxa of pollinators and in greater numbers compared to the weed flora, but it did not have an effect on pollinators visiting apple flowers. Groundcover management with patches of suitable flowering mixtures can enhance pollinator conservation in apple orchards. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9960344 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2023 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-99603442023-02-26 Do Patches of Flowering Plants Enhance Insect Pollinators in Apple Orchards? Barda, Myrto Karamaouna, Filitsa Kati, Vaya Perdikis, Dionysios Insects Article SIMPLE SUMMARY: Insect pollinators such as bees contribute to crop production, food security, ecosystem stability and biodiversity in agroecosystems. However, intensification of agricultural practices jeopardizes pollination services in agricultural landscapes mainly through the decline in flower resources for pollinators in farmlands. The study examines a scheme to provide floral resources for insect pollinators in apple orchards potentially contributing to their conservation and enhancing crop pollination. For this reason, flowering mixtures including legume landraces were sown in patches inside apple orchards and compared to the orchard’s weed flora in respect of attraction of pollinators. Pollinators recorded on the sown and wild plant patches were honey bees, wild bees, syrphids and beeflies. The most abundant pollinator of apple was the honey bee but wild bees were also recorded. The sown mixture attracted greater numbers of pollinators and more wild bee taxa compared to the wild plants, but it did not have an effect on pollinators visiting apple flowers. Flowering patches with mixtures of suitable plants in groundcover can enhance pollinator conservation in apple orchards. ABSTRACT: Apples depend on insect pollination but intensification of agriculture jeopardizes pollination services in agroecosystems. Concerns about the dependency of crop pollination exclusively on honey bees increase the interest in agricultural practices that safeguard wild pollinators in agroecosystems. The purpose of the study was to assess the potential of floral resource provision in apple orchards to enhance the conservation of hymenopterous pollinating insects and potentially the pollination service to the crop. For this reason, flowering plant mixtures sown in patches inside apple orchards were tested against wild plant patches. Pollinator taxa recorded on the sown and wild plant patches were honey bees, wild bees (Andrena, Anthophora, Eucera, Halictus, Lasioglossum, Megachilidae on both; Systropha only on wild plants; Bombus, Hylaeus, Sphecodes, Nomada, Xylocopa only on sown mixture), syrphids, bee flies. The most abundant pollinator of apple was A. mellifera but wild bees were also recorded (Andrena, Anthophora, Bombus, Xylocopa, Lasioglossum, Megachilidae). The sown mixture attracted a more diverse taxa of pollinators and in greater numbers compared to the weed flora, but it did not have an effect on pollinators visiting apple flowers. Groundcover management with patches of suitable flowering mixtures can enhance pollinator conservation in apple orchards. MDPI 2023-02-19 /pmc/articles/PMC9960344/ /pubmed/36835777 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects14020208 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Article Barda, Myrto Karamaouna, Filitsa Kati, Vaya Perdikis, Dionysios Do Patches of Flowering Plants Enhance Insect Pollinators in Apple Orchards? |
title | Do Patches of Flowering Plants Enhance Insect Pollinators in Apple Orchards? |
title_full | Do Patches of Flowering Plants Enhance Insect Pollinators in Apple Orchards? |
title_fullStr | Do Patches of Flowering Plants Enhance Insect Pollinators in Apple Orchards? |
title_full_unstemmed | Do Patches of Flowering Plants Enhance Insect Pollinators in Apple Orchards? |
title_short | Do Patches of Flowering Plants Enhance Insect Pollinators in Apple Orchards? |
title_sort | do patches of flowering plants enhance insect pollinators in apple orchards? |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9960344/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36835777 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects14020208 |
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