Fruit orchards and woody semi-natural habitat provide complementary resources for pollinators in agricultural landscapes

Eeraerts, Maxime; Berge, Sanne Van Den; Proesmans, Willem; Verheyen, Kris; Smagghe, Guy; Meeus, Ivan

doi:10.1007/s10980-021-01220-y

Cited by 38 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…Plants such as Taraxacum agg. and Trifolium repens were regularly visited in the orchard and this is in agreement with Eeraerts et al 2021 [52] who determined that these are characteristic plants species for the herb layer of alleyways in fruit tree orchards. These weeds, like many non-intentionally sown plants, provide an important food source for bees and other pollinating insects [53].…”

Section: Plant-pollinator Observationssupporting

confidence: 88%

“…agricultural land [52,55]. By collecting plant-pollinator data in these elements, we expand our knowledge of which plant species potentially support a wide diversity of beneficial insects such as pollinating insects.…”

Section: Plant-pollinator Observationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Given the higher diversity of attractive plants in the hedgerow, the flower strips and the natural habitat in the area, it is obvious that we observed more pollinators in these environments compared to the orchard environment. Landscape features such as hedgerows, forest edges, and field margins often provide a higher diversity and abundance of floral resources for bees and other pollinating insects throughout the year compared to agricultural land [52,55]. By collecting plant-pollinator data in these elements, we expand our knowledge of which plant species potentially support a wide diversity of beneficial insects such as pollinating insects.…”

Section: Plant-pollinator Observationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Towards Integrated Pest and Pollinator Management in Intensive Pear Cultivation: A Case Study from Belgium

Beliën¹,

Raymaekers²,

Eeraerts

et al. 2021

Insects

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Recently, the concept of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) was further extended into Integrated Pest and Pollinator Management (IPPM). Implementation of IPPM strategies entails the combination of actions for pest and pollinator management providing complementary or synergistic benefits for yield and/or quality of the harvest. The aim of this study was to examine IPPM elements (i.e., mixed hedgerow, nesting boxes for mason bees, Osmia spp.) and demonstrate their impact in the practical context of modern commercial fruit cultivation in a 4-year case study in an intensive ‘Conference’ pear orchard. The outcomes of visual observations during transect walks and molecular analysis of pollen collected by mason bees, showed the importance of additional floral resources for the presence of mason bees and other pollinating insects in the orchard environment. Pear quality assessments indicated that insect-mediated pollination had a significant positive impact, with a tendency for higher quality pears in the close vicinity of Osmia nesting boxes. However, despite the fact that pear pollen was also detected in Osmia spp. nest cells, the amount and frequency of pear pollen collection for their nest built-up turned out to be rather low. In the same intensive pear orchard studied for pollination effects, we simultaneously demonstrate the impact of a mixed hedgerow to enhance integrated pest control.

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Section: Plant-pollinator Observationssupporting

confidence: 88%

Section: Plant-pollinator Observationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Plant-pollinator Observationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Towards Integrated Pest and Pollinator Management in Intensive Pear Cultivation: A Case Study from Belgium

Beliën¹,

Raymaekers²,

Eeraerts

et al. 2021

Insects

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“…Landscape attributes might also be important for sweet cherry production due to the influence on wild pollinator abundance and diversity (Kay et al., 2020), and behaviour of managed pollinators may be affected by the wild pollinator community (Brittain, Williams, et al., 2013; Carvalheiro et al., 2011; Eeraerts, Smagghe, et al., 2020). This potentially highlights the role of management and local landscape context on pollinator communities (Eeraerts, Van Den Berge, et al., 2021). However, other factors apart from diversity might also influence pollination behaviour (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…It is therefore recommended that growers invest in alternative pollinator management strategies to supplement or replace pollination by managed bees. Focus should be on targeting wild pollinators, for which growers could implement appropriate orchard management strategies, including the incorporation of pollinator habitats (Eeraerts et al., 2019), maintaining wildflowers in orchard alleyways (Eeraerts, Van Den Berge, et al., 2021), or establishing wildflower strips when wildflowers are scarce (Mateos‐Fierro et al., 2018). Increasing the abundance and diversity of pollinators is likely to increase the stability of pollination services within and between seasons (Senapathi et al., 2021), underpinning sweet cherry production.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wild bees are less abundant but show better pollination behaviour for sweet cherry than managed pollinators

Mateos‐Fierro

Garratt

Fountain

et al. 2022

J Applied Entomology

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Pollinating insects provide pollination services to many crop species, including sweet cherry (Prunus avium L.), and this can be delivered by both managed and wild pollinators. Managed pollinators are often used to pollinate a range of fruit crops, but increasingly the role of wild insects is being studied. However, the importance of pollinator species depends on their relative abundance and pollination effectiveness, which depends on their foraging activity and their variability throughout the day. In this study, insect visitors of blossoms were observed in commercial sweet cherry orchards to explore abundance, diversity and pollination foraging behaviour of different insect pollinator groups throughout the day. A total of 1,174 pollinators from 31 different species were recorded visiting cherry blossoms over 2 years, of which 71.0% of total visits were by managed pollinators (western honeybee, Apis mellifera L. and buff‐tailed bumblebee, Bombus terrestris L.) compared to 29.0% by wild pollinators. On average, solitary bees visited a sweet cherry blossom for the longest duration (20.7 (±2.0 SE) seconds), whereas wild queen bumblebees visited the greatest number of flowers per minute (mean of 19.0 (±1.3 SE)). As both these pollinator groups contacted cherry stigmas more often and moved more frequently between tree rows than managed bees and hoverflies, they are more likely to facilitate cross‐pollination. The different pollinator groups also showed variation in behavioural parameters throughout the day, but less variation was recorded when all pollinator groups were considered altogether. This suggests diverse pollinator communities might be expected to provide a more stable pollination service to sweet cherry. This study demonstrates that whilst cherry blossoms were more frequently visited by managed pollinators, wild solitary bee and bumblebee behaviours are likely to be more effective at enhancing pollination in sweet cherry orchards, which, in turn, might lead to increased yields.

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Linking remote sensing data to the estimation of pollination services in agroecosystems

Ariza

Meeus

Eeraerts

et al. 2022

Ecological Applications

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Wild bees are key providers of pollination services in agroecosystems.The abundance of these pollinators and the ecosystem services they provide rely on supporting resources in the landscape. Spatially explicit models that quantify wild bee abundance and pollination services in food crops are built on the foundations of foraging and nesting resources. This dependence limits model implementation as land-cover maps and pollination experts capable of evaluating habitat resource quality are scarce. This study presents a novel approach to assessing crop pollination services using remote sensing data (RSD) as an alternative to the more conventional use of land-cover data and local expertise on spatially explicit models. We used landscape characteristics derived from remote sensors to qualify nesting resources in the landscape and to evaluate the delivery of pollination services by mining bees (Andrena spp.) in 30 fruit orchards located in the Flemish region of Belgium. For this study, we selected mining bees for their importance as local pollinators and underground nesting behavior. We compared the estimated pollination services derived from RSD with those derived from the conventional qualification of nesting resources. We did not observe significant differences (p = 0.68) in the variation in mining bee activity predicted by the two spatial models. Estimated pollination services derived from RSD and conventional characterizations explained 69% and 72% of the total variation, respectively. These results confirmed that RSD can deliver nesting suitability characterizations sufficient for estimating pollination services. This research also illustrates the importance of nesting resources and landscape characteristics when estimating pollination services delivered by insects like mining bees. Our results support the development of holistic agroenvironmental policies that rely on modern tools like remote sensors and promote pollinators by considering nesting resources.

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Fruit orchards and woody semi-natural habitat provide complementary resources for pollinators in agricultural landscapes

Cited by 38 publications

References 52 publications

Towards Integrated Pest and Pollinator Management in Intensive Pear Cultivation: A Case Study from Belgium

Towards Integrated Pest and Pollinator Management in Intensive Pear Cultivation: A Case Study from Belgium

Wild bees are less abundant but show better pollination behaviour for sweet cherry than managed pollinators

Linking remote sensing data to the estimation of pollination services in agroecosystems

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