Interactive effects among ecosystem services and management practices on crop production: Pollination in coffee agroforestry systems

Abstract

Crop productivity is improved by ecosystem services, including pollination, but this should be set in the context of trade-offs among multiple management practices. We investigated the impact of pollination services on coffee production, considering variation in fertilization, irrigation, shade cover, and environmental variables such as rainfall (which stimulates coffee flowering across all plantations), soil pH, and nitrogen availability. After accounting for management interventions, bee abundance improved coffee production (number of berries harvested). Some management interventions, such as irrigation, used once to trigger asynchronous flowering, dramatically increased bee abundance at coffee trees. Others, such as the extent and type of tree cover, revealed interacting effects on pollination and, ultimately, crop production. The effects of management interventions, notably irrigation and addition of lime, had, however, far more substantial positive effects on coffee production than tree cover. These results suggest that pollination services matter, but managing the asynchrony of flowering was a more effective tool for securing good pollination than maintaining high shade tree densities as pollinator habitat. Complex interactions across farm and landscape scales, including both management practices and environmental conditions, shape pollination outcomes. Effective production systems therefore require the integrated consideration of management practices in the context of the surrounding habitat structure. This paper points toward a more strategic use of ecosystem services in agricultural systems, where ecosystem services are shaped by the coupling of management interventions and environmental variables.Apis | Coffea canephora | India | Tetragonula

Complementary ecosystem services provided by pest predators and pollinators increase quantity and quality of coffee yields

“…The productivity of crops depends on an intricate interplay of farming practices, abiotic conditions and ecosystem services provided by natural species communities [1]. However, in agricultural practice, the different components of such interplay still receive unequal attention.…”

Transgenic crops, production risk and agrobiodiversity

“…Farmers who seek to avoid downside income risk may choose to include lower-productive but less-vulnerable traditional varieties in their varietal portfolio, even though full adoption of the HYV might be more profitable on average (Smale, Just and Leathers, 1994). The productivity enhancement function of varietal diversity implies that growing several varieties on the same farm may also increase mean yield levels, which may be due to complementarity or scale effects (Chavas and Di Falco, 2012;Boreux et al, 2013). Complementarity effects occur in a production system when particular varieties perform better in the presence of others, for instance through lower infestation levels of certain pests or diseases.…”

Pollinators diversity and their effects on rapeseed (Brassica campestris L. var. toria) production and productivity in Chitwan, Nepal

“…A recent study has demonstrated, for instance, that the benefit to crop yield from animal-mediated pollination depends on pest control levels (Lundin et al, 2013). However, pollinator-mediated yield is strongly conditioned by cultivar and their spatial arrangements in fields (Bellet al, 2012;Klatt et al, 2014), as well as environmental conditions and farm management practices (Boreux et al, 2013;Groeneveld et al, 2010;Hoover et al, 2012;Lundin et al, 2013;Melathopoulos et al, 2014).…”