The Importance of Ants and High-Shade Management to Coffee Pollination and Fruit Weight in Chiapas, Mexico

Abstract

Recent reports show importance of pollinators to coffee and importance of ants as pollinators or floral protectors in many systems. Arthropod and pollinator diversity, however, declines with management intensification of coffee (Coffea arabica) agroecosystems. We investigated influences of both flying pollinators and ants on coffee fruit set and fruit weight in one highshade (high-biodiversity) and one low-shade (low-biodiversity) coffee farm in Chiapas, Mexico through exclusion experiments. Contradictory to previous reports, flying pollinators alone did not affect coffee fruit set or fruit weight. Individual fruit weights, however, were higher on branches with both ants and flying pollinators (1.78 g ± 0.312 (SE)) compared to branches without ants (1.03 ± 0.029) or branches without ants or flying pollinators (1.05 ± 0.049), but only in the highshade site. Although the mechanisms producing higher fruit weights are unknown, we discuss how ants or ant-flying pollinator interactions under high-shade coffee management may contribute to increased fruit weight and the implications of high-shade management for both sustainable coffee production and biodiversity conservation.

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

“…Self-compatible C. arabica profited from insect crosspollination by developing, on average, 7.4% heavier fruits on open pollinated twigs than on self-pollinated twigs. An effect of cross-pollination of a similar order of magnitude has been shown in the few other studies that considered not only fruit set but also fruit weight of coffee in their analyses [39,40]. Increased pollen loads and higher genetic pollen diversity have been proposed to influence the seed weight of self-compatible plants, but detailed information about the physiological mechanisms are still missing [40].…”

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

“…13), variables related to shade (i.e., shade tree diversity and density, and shade cover) were positively associated with pollinator abundance and diversity (Table S1). This was not the case in Kodagu, where shade did not affect bee abundance at coffee, although native tree density (highly correlated with tree species richness) negatively affected bee abundance.…”

Soil invertebrate diversity in coffee-pine agroforestry system at Sumedang, West Java

“…In Indonesia, at coffee production region, they are grown under shade of canopies of trees in agroforestry system (Verbist et al 2005;Hanisch et al 2011;Evizal et al 2016). Plants cultivated in agroforestry will have advantage from ecosystem services provided by plants and animals of surrounding forest, namely protection from excess sunlight (Felipe dos Santos et al 2015), nutrient cycles (Lopez-Rodriguez et al 2015), conservation of soil fertility (Lin and Richards 2007), waste regulation (Evizal et al 2009), and pollination (Philpott et al 2006). Some studies showed agroforestry systems could improve biodiversity as they served as a refugia and buffer zone for mobile species (Cullen et al 2001, Cruz andSutherland 2004).…”