Mutually beneficial pollinator diversity and crop yield outcomes in small and large farms

Abstract

Ecological intensification, or the improvement of crop yield through enhancement of biodiversity, may be a sustainable pathway toward greater food supplies. Such sustainable increases may be especially important for the 2 billion people reliant on small farms, many of which are undernourished, yet we know little about the efficacy of this approach. Using a coordinated protocol across regions and crops, we quantify to what degree enhancing pollinator density and richness can improve yields on 344 fields from 33 pollinator-dependent crop systems in small and large farms from Africa, Asia, and Latin America. For fields less than 2 hectares, we found that yield gaps could be closed by a median of 24% through higher flower-visitor density. For larger fields, such benefits only occurred at high flower-visitor richness. Worldwide, our study demonstrates that ecological intensification can create synchronous biodiversity and yield outcomes.

Massively Introduced Managed Species and Their Consequences for Plant–Pollinator Interactions

“…The preservation of natural habitats, the development of agroecology (through intercropping, for example) and the generalization of friendly practices towards wild pollinators should be encouraged. Moreover, with increasing evidences of the importance of wild bees for crop pollination (Garibaldi et al, 2016), this could also be beneficial for agrosystems and prevent excessive introduction of managed pollinating species.…”

“…This translates into important fluxes of pollinators into agricultural and adjacent seminatural habitats during the flowering season of crops (Box 3). Globally, these managed pollinator species represent around 20 species among all social and solitary bee species (Stout and Morales, 2009 A. mellifera is used for honey production and to pollinate MFC such as almonds (Cunningham et al, 2016), mango (Geslin et al, 2016c), apples (Ramírez and Davenport, 2013), pears (Stern et al, 2004) and many others (Garibaldi et al, 2013(Garibaldi et al, , 2016. Contrary to other Apis species that are restricted to Asia, a the native geographical range of A. mellifera spans from Scandinavia to Central Asia and the African continent (Ruttner, 1988;Seeley, 1985;Sheppard and Meixner, 2003).…”

“…In Argentina, Arbetman et al (2012) provided evidence for a link between invasion of B. terrestris and infection by A. bombi in B. ruderatus (alien) and B. dahlbomii (native). Parasite spillover consequences for wild pollinators could be huge and remain largely underestimated (F€ urst et al, 2014), because infections can strongly reduce fitness, survival and even foraging behaviour in wild populations (Graystock et al, 2013b, Garibaldi et al, 2016Meeus et al, 2011). In Patagonia, the spectacular regression of the endemic B. dahlbomii following B. terrestris invasion has been suspected to be caused by pathogen spillover (Morales et al, 2013;Schmid-Hempel et al, 2014).…”

Courgette Production: Pollination Demand, Supply, and Value

“…For example, other studies have demonstrated that sites situated nearer to natural and seminatural habitat are more likely to have a greater species richness of pollinators and higher pollination rate (Kremen et al 2004, Morandin and Winston 2006, Garibaldi et al 2011. Studies have also shown that larger fields (particularly towards the centre) are more likely to have lower species richness and reduced pollination rate , Garibaldi et al 2016.…”

An expert-assisted citizen science program involving agricultural high schools provides national patterns on bee species assemblages

“…persons recognised as an authority in their field, typically academics or museum scientists but sometimes also non-academics with a deep interest in the natural history of a particular taxon. Bees have become the focus of much interest over the last decade because of concerns about species decline and the expected consequences on wild plant and crop pollination (Steffan-Dewenter et al 2005;Biesmeijer et al 2006;González-Varo et al 2013;Ollerton et al 2014;Goulson et al 2015;Garibaldi et al 2016). Although long-term recording allowed the assessment of species trends in some countries (see e.g.…”