The economic cost of losing native pollinator species for orchard production

Abstract

The alarming loss of pollinator diversity world‐wide can reduce the productivity of pollinator‐dependent crops, which could have economic impacts. However, it is unclear to what extent the loss of a key native pollinator species affects crop production and farmer's profits. By experimentally manipulating the presence of colonies of a native bumblebee species Bombus pauloensis in eight apple orchards in South Argentina, we evaluated the impact of losing natural populations of a key native pollinator group on (a) crop yield, (b) pollination quality, and (c) farmer's profit. To do so, we performed a factorial experiment of pollinator exclusion (yes/no) and hand pollination (yes/no). Our results showed that biotic pollination increased ripe fruit set by 13% when compared to non‐biotic pollination. Additionally, fruit set and the number of fruits per apple tree was reduced by less than a half in those orchards where bumblebees were absent, even when honeybees were present at high densities. Consequently, farmer's profit was 2.4‐fold lower in farms lacking bumblebees than in farms hosting both pollinator species. The pollination experiment further suggested that the benefits of bumblebees could be mediated by improved pollen quality rather than quantity. Synthesis and applications. This study highlights the pervasive consequences of losing key pollinator functional groups, such as bumblebees, for apple production and local economies. Adopting pollinator‐friendly practices such as minimizing the use of synthetic inputs or restoring/maintaining semi‐natural habitats at farm and landscape scales, will have the double advantage of promoting biodiversity conservation, and increasing crop productivity and profitability for local farmers. Yet because the implementation of these practices can take time to deliver results, the management of native pollinator species can be a provisional complementary strategy to increase economic profitability of apple growers in the short term.

Managed honeybees and South American bumblebees exhibit complementary foraging patterns in highbush blueberry

“…While positive effects of adding a second managed pollinator have been reported for fruit and nut orchard production 11 , 43 , studies assessing the impact of supplementing honeybees with other managed species in highbush blueberry are scarce. Improvement of fruit yield and quality has been reported for blueberry plots stocked with A. mellifera and B. pauloensis colonies 28 – 30 .…”

Improving Habitat Quality at the Local and Landscape Scales Increases Wild Bee Assemblages and Associated Pollination Services in Apple Orchards in China

“…However, in intensive agricultural landscapes, the number of honeybees may far exceed that of wild bees due to the lack of semi-natural habitats (Rollin et al, 2013). In this case, farmers have to rely on honeybees, and honeybees may provide important pollination services for crops (Breeze et al, 2011), although their pollination efficiency may be low (Garibaldi et al, 2013;Pérez-Méndez et al, 2020), and their population is at risk of decline (Biesmeijer et al, 2006;Potts et al, 2010). Therefore, wild bees may provide a more reliable contribution to pollination services in changing environments than honeybees, which cannot be replaced but only supplemented by honeybees (Garibaldi et al, 2013).…”

A meta-analysis of single visit pollination effectiveness

“…Our analysis adds robust evidence to a growing consensus that wild bees have the potential to contribute greatly to agricultural pollination. Indeed, wild bee species richness, functional diversity, and visit rates increase crop yield (Blitzer et al 2016, Woodcock et al 2019), and the use of managed honeybee hives might not compensate for losses in wild bee species richness and abundance (Mallinger and Gratton 2015, Pérez-Méndez et al 2020). As such, managed honeybees alone may be insufficient to meet the increased pollination demands of global agricultural production (Aizen and Harder 2009) and our results validate the importance of actions to promote resilient native bee communities within agricultural lands (Isaacs et al 2017).…”