Culturally valuable minority crops provide a succession of floral resources for flower visitors in traditional orchard gardens

Abstract

Francis (2014) Culturally valuable minority crops provide a succession of floral resources for flower visitors in traditional orchard gardens. Biodiversity and Conservation, 23 (13). pp. [3199][3200][3201][3202][3203][3204][3205][3206][3207][3208][3209][3210][3211][3212][3213][3214][3215][3216][3217] Access from the University of Nottingham repository: http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/34089/8/BioCons_Authors%20copy.pdf Copyright and reuse:The Nottingham ePrints service makes this work by researchers of the University of Nottingham available open access under the following conditions. This article is made available under the University of Nottingham End User licence and may be reused according to the conditions of the licence. For more details see: http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/end_user_agreement.pdf A note on versions:The version presented here may differ from the published version or from the version of record. If you wish to cite this item you are advised to consult the publisher's version. Please see the repository url above for details on accessing the published version and note that access may require a subscription. ABSTRACTAgricultural intensification typically has detrimental effects on pollinator communities, but diverse cropping systems that contain sequentially-flowering crops have the potential to benefit pollinators through the provision of additional floral resources. In this study we investigate the importance of cultivated flora for flower visitors in ten agricultural gardens in South Sinai, Egypt. Insect-flower interactions in gardens and unmanaged plots were surveyed across a four-month period in two environmentally distinct years (pre-flood and post-flood). Despite containing an equal abundance and diversity of wild plants as unmanaged habitat, gardens supported a higher abundance and diversity of flower visitors due to the additional presence of cultivated flora. Visitation networks exhibited dramatic intra-annual changes in composition, with cultivated plants becoming increasingly important in later months. Trends were highly conserved across two years despite highly contrasting rainfall. Several key crop species were strongly involved in shaping the structure of the networks, the majority of which were herbs with strong cultural significance (fennel, rosemary, mint) and grown incidentally alongside the primary orchard crops. Minority crops are frequently overlooked in agricultural systems due to their low economic value, but we 2 show that they can have a dramatic influence upon the structure of visitation networks, increasing both pollinator abundance and diversity, and emphasising the link between cultural practices and biodiversity conservation. Key wordsdiversification, homegarden, Egypt, pollination, sustainability IntroductionMany agricultural pollination studies focus on the intensive agricultural systems that 2014). Understanding the drivers of pollinator losses is important for tackling future food security and it is unfortunate that the most at-risk nations are those lacking...

Flowering ground vegetation benefits wild pollinators and fruit set of almond within arid smallholder orchards

“…In conventional orchard systems in Europe and the USA, fruit set has been shown to increase with the proportion of semi-natural habitat in the surrounding landscape, but has not been affected by local levels of floral vegetation within orchards (Holzschuh et al, 2012;Klein et al, 2012). In this low-intensity system, orchards contain higher levels of floral resources than the expansive desert habitat (Norfolk et al, 2014) and though the proportion of natural habitat in the landscape was high, it had no impact upon pollinator densities or fruit set within orchards which were more strongly influenced by local factors. Setting aside semi-natural habitat may be a successful strategy for improving pollination services in temperate environments, but in arid regions where the natural habitat is relatively resource poor more effective results might be achieved by enhancing on-farm floral abundance and diversity.…”

“…Unlike the conventional almond orchards of California, honeybees are not traditionally managed for pollination within these orchards, though they have been introduced to some sites in recent years (<15 years) for the economic gains associated with honey production. The orchard trees are underplanted with a variety of flowering minority crops which are utilised by a diverse community of wild pollinators and pollinator species richness has been directly linked to the abundance of ground vegetation within the orchards (Norfolk et al, 2014). This study evaluates the relative contribution of wild pollinators and honeybees for almond pollination and assesses whether the presence of flowering ground vegetation can reduce pollination deficits within this arid small-scale farming system.…”

Alien honeybees increase pollination risks for range‐restricted plants

“…The mountains are characterized by the presence of distinctive Bedouin orchard gardens which line the bases of the valleys and have been shown to act as hotspots for pollinators in the region (Norfolk, Eichhorn, & Gilbert, ). These agricultural gardens form the basis of traditional Bedouin livelihoods, but recently managed honeybee hives have been introduced to supplement Bedouin income.…”

“…Hives are now common in the low mountains near to human settlements, but remain absent in the high mountains. The high mountains have a cooler and wetter climate associated with high natural floral diversity, but their accessibility means that hives are yet to be introduced at high altitudes (Norfolk et al., ). Here, we quantify the visitation networks both in the low mountains where hives are present and in the less accessible high mountains where hives remain absent.…”

Ecological intensification to mitigate impacts of conventional intensive land use on pollinators and pollination

“…These systems usually favour pollinator biodiversity (Stoate et al 2001;Kov acs-Hosty anszki et al 2016). Although still largely present in many parts of the world (Altieri et al 2012), traditional systems have today mostly disappeared in Europe and North America due to abandonment or conventional intensification of land management (Stoate et al 2001;Fontana et al 2014;Norfolk et al 2014;Kov acs-Hosty anszki et al 2016).…”