Weather During Bloom Affects Pollination and Yield of Highbush Blueberry

Tuell, Julianna K.; Isaacs, Rufus

doi:10.1603/ec09387

Cited by 116 publications

(91 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…One potential mechanism for the increased proportion of inter-row movement of A. mellifera in the presence of other non-Apis bees is linked to resource depletion. Because some non-Apis bees can fly at lower temperatures than A. mellifera [40,41], and therefore earlier in the day, it may be that if A. mellifera begin foraging and find flowers have already been depleted then they increase the distance of their foraging flights. Alternatively, it may be related to the scent marks left by non-Apis bees on the flowers [17].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Synergistic effects of non- Apis bees and honey bees for pollination services

et al. 2013

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In diverse pollinator communities, interspecific interactions may modify the behaviour and increase the pollination effectiveness of individual species. Because agricultural production reliant on pollination is growing, improving pollination effectiveness could increase crop yield without any increase in agricultural intensity or area. In California almond, a crop highly dependent on honey bee pollination, we explored the foraging behaviour and pollination effectiveness of honey bees in orchards with simple (honey bee only) and diverse (non-Apis bees present) bee communities. In orchards with non-Apis bees, the foraging behaviour of honey bees changed and the pollination effectiveness of a single honey bee visit was greater than in orchards where non-Apis bees were absent. This change translated to a greater proportion of fruit set in these orchards. Our field experiments show that increased pollinator diversity can synergistically increase pollination service, through species interactions that alter the behaviour and resulting functional quality of a dominant pollinator species. These results of functional synergy between species were supported by an additional controlled cage experiment with Osmia lignaria and Apis mellifera. Our findings highlight a largely unexplored facilitative component of the benefit of biodiversity to ecosystem services, and represent a way to improve pollinator-dependent crop yields in a sustainable manner.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Synergistic effects of non- Apis bees and honey bees for pollination services

et al. 2013

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“…One such stabilizing mechanism is response diversity—the differential response of organisms to environmental variability [18]. Bees exhibit a diversity of ecological and life-history traits [19], and, to a degree, these traits are predictive of a bee species' response to disturbance [20], [21]. This variability of responses suggests that diverse bee communities will be more resilient to environmental fluctuations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bee Species Diversity Enhances Productivity and Stability in a Perennial Crop

2014

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Wild bees provide important pollination services to agroecoystems, but the mechanisms which underlie their contribution to ecosystem functioning—and, therefore, their importance in maintaining and enhancing these services—remain unclear. We evaluated several mechanisms through which wild bees contribute to crop productivity, the stability of pollinator visitation, and the efficiency of individual pollinators in a highly bee-pollination dependent plant, highbush blueberry. We surveyed the bee community (through transect sampling and pan trapping) and measured pollination of both open- and singly-visited flowers. We found that the abundance of managed honey bees, Apis mellifera, and wild-bee richness were equally important in describing resulting open pollination. Wild-bee richness was a better predictor of pollination than wild-bee abundance. We also found evidence suggesting pollinator visitation (and subsequent pollination) are stabilized through the differential response of bee taxa to weather (i.e., response diversity). Variation in the individual visit efficiency of A. mellifera and the southeastern blueberry bee, Habropoda laboriosa, a wild specialist, was not associated with changes in the pollinator community. Our findings add to a growing literature that diverse pollinator communities provide more stable and productive ecosystem services.

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“…A pollinatorÕs contribution to a crop is often measured in terms of forager abundance, per-visit efÞciency, or both (NeÕeman et al 2010). However, because bee community composition and foraging behavior may change in response to weather (Tuell and Isaacs 2010) or interactions between interspeciÞc bees foraging at a common resource Kremen 2006, Lichtenberg et al 2010), we recommend a more comprehensive set of criteria for evaluating the pollinator contribution. These criteria, described in Table 1, include abundance, per-visit efÞciency, activity patterns, visitation rate, and interspeciÞc inßuence.…”

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confidence: 99%

Multiple Criteria for Evaluating Pollinator Performance in Highbush Blueberry (Ericales: Ericaceae) Agroecosystems

Rogers¹,

Tarpy²,

Burrack³

2013

env. entom.

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Numerous bee species provide pollination services in agricultural ecosystems. Evaluating a pollinator's performance with regard to a crop is an important step in attributing pollination services and predicting how changes in a bee community or foraging environment will affect those services. We used multiple criteria to evaluate pollinators of North Carolina highbush blueberry, Vaccinium corymbosum L., agroecosystems. For five groups of bees (Apis mellifera L., Bombus spp., Habropoda laboriosa F., small native bees, and Xylocopa virginica L.), we measured forager abundance through transect observations, quantified per-visit efficiency as viable seed set resulting from a single visit, and analyzed bee presence in different weather conditions. We also considered two other criteria affecting pollinator performance-visitation rate and interspecific influence. A. mellifera was the most abundant bee in the majority of our survey sites, yet had low per-visit efficiency and reduced foraging activity in inclement weather. Small native bees were highly efficient pollinators. Their visits resulted in nearly twice as many seeds as A. mellifera or H. laboriosa. Bombus spp., H. laboriosa, and small native bees were more resilient to fluctuations in temperature, wind speed, and solar radiation than A. mellifera. Although nectar-robbing X. virginica contributed to little pollination through direct flower visits, their presence within the crop impacts the behavior and performance of other individuals. Underscoring the importance of evaluating pollinator performance via multiple criteria, our results show that bee groups contribute to pollination in different ways. These differences may provide functional complementarity and stability of pollination services to agricultural systems.

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Weather During Bloom Affects Pollination and Yield of Highbush Blueberry

Cited by 116 publications

References 20 publications

Synergistic effects of non- Apis bees and honey bees for pollination services

Synergistic effects of non- Apis bees and honey bees for pollination services

Bee Species Diversity Enhances Productivity and Stability in a Perennial Crop

Multiple Criteria for Evaluating Pollinator Performance in Highbush Blueberry (Ericales: Ericaceae) Agroecosystems

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