ALBERT

Description: The diversity and abundance of wild insect pollinators have declined in many agricultural landscapes. Whether such declines reduce crop yields, or are mitigated by managed pollinators such as honey bees, is unclear. We found universally positive associations of fruit set with flower visitation by wild insects in 41 crop systems worldwide. In contrast, fruit set increased significantly with flower visitation by honey bees in only 14% of the systems surveyed. Overall, wild insects pollinated crops more effectively; an increase in wild insect visitation enhanced fruit set by twice as much as an equivalent increase in honey bee visitation. Visitation by wild insects and honey bees promoted fruit set independently, so pollination by managed honey bees supplemented, rather than substituted for, pollination by wild insects. Our results suggest that new practices for integrated management of both honey bees and diverse wild insect assemblages will enhance global crop yields.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Garibaldi, Lucas A -- Steffan-Dewenter, Ingolf -- Winfree, Rachael -- Aizen, Marcelo A -- Bommarco, Riccardo -- Cunningham, Saul A -- Kremen, Claire -- Carvalheiro, Luisa G -- Harder, Lawrence D -- Afik, Ohad -- Bartomeus, Ignasi -- Benjamin, Faye -- Boreux, Virginie -- Cariveau, Daniel -- Chacoff, Natacha P -- Dudenhoffer, Jan H -- Freitas, Breno M -- Ghazoul, Jaboury -- Greenleaf, Sarah -- Hipolito, Juliana -- Holzschuh, Andrea -- Howlett, Brad -- Isaacs, Rufus -- Javorek, Steven K -- Kennedy, Christina M -- Krewenka, Kristin M -- Krishnan, Smitha -- Mandelik, Yael -- Mayfield, Margaret M -- Motzke, Iris -- Munyuli, Theodore -- Nault, Brian A -- Otieno, Mark -- Petersen, Jessica -- Pisanty, Gideon -- Potts, Simon G -- Rader, Romina -- Ricketts, Taylor H -- Rundlof, Maj -- Seymour, Colleen L -- Schuepp, Christof -- Szentgyorgyi, Hajnalka -- Taki, Hisatomo -- Tscharntke, Teja -- Vergara, Carlos H -- Viana, Blandina F -- Wanger, Thomas C -- Westphal, Catrin -- Williams, Neal -- Klein, Alexandra M -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2013 Mar 29;339(6127):1608-11. doi: 10.1126/science.1230200. Epub 2013 Feb 28.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Sede Andina, Universidad Nacional de Rio Negro (UNRN) and Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas (CONICET), San Carlos de Bariloche, Rio Negro, Argentina. lgaribaldi@unrn.edu.ar〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23449997" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 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.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Garibaldi, Lucas A -- Carvalheiro, Luisa G -- Vaissiere, Bernard E -- Gemmill-Herren, Barbara -- Hipolito, Juliana -- Freitas, Breno M -- Ngo, Hien T -- Azzu, Nadine -- Saez, Agustin -- Astrom, Jens -- An, Jiandong -- Blochtein, Betina -- Buchori, Damayanti -- Chamorro Garcia, Fermin J -- Oliveira da Silva, Fabiana -- Devkota, Kedar -- Ribeiro, Marcia de Fatima -- Freitas, Leandro -- Gaglianone, Maria C -- Goss, Maria -- Irshad, Mohammad -- Kasina, Muo -- Pacheco Filho, Alipio J S -- Kiill, Lucia H Piedade -- Kwapong, Peter -- Parra, Guiomar Nates -- Pires, Carmen -- Pires, Viviane -- Rawal, Ranbeer S -- Rizali, Akhmad -- Saraiva, Antonio M -- Veldtman, Ruan -- Viana, Blandina F -- Witter, Sidia -- Zhang, Hong -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2016 Jan 22;351(6271):388-91. doi: 10.1126/science.aac7287.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Instituto de Investigaciones en Recursos Naturales, Agroecologia y Desarrollo Rural (IRNAD), Sede Andina, Universidad Nacional de Rio Negro (UNRN) and Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas (CONICET), Mitre 630, CP 8400, San Carlos de Bariloche, Rio Negro, Argentina. lgaribaldi@unrn.edu.ar. ; Departamento de Ecologia, Universidade de Brasilia, Campus Universitario Darcy Ribeiro, Brasilia - DF, 70910-900, Brazil; Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes (CE3C), Faculdade de Ciencias da Universidade de Lisboa 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal & Naturalis Biodiversity Center, postbus 9517, 2300, RA, Leiden, Netherlands. ; Institut national de la recherche agronomique, UR406 Abeilles et Environnement, 228 route de l'Aerodrome, CS40509, F84914, Avignon Cedex 9, France. ; Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla 00153, Rome, Italy. ; Departamento de Zoologia, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Instituto de Biologia, Rua Barao de Geremoabo, S/N, Campus de Ondina, CEP 40170110, Salvador, BA, Brazil. ; Departamento de Zootecnia-Centro de Ciencias Agrarias, Universidade Federal do Ceara, Campus Universitario do Pici, CEP 60021970, Fortaleza, CE, Brazil. ; IPBES Secretariat, Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), UN Campus, Platz der Vereinten Nationen 1, D-53113, Bonn, Germany. ; Laboratorio Ecotono, Universidad Nacional del Comahue-CONICET, Instituto de Investigaciones en Biodiversidad y Medioambiente, Quintral 1250, CP 8400, San Carlos de Bariloche, Rio Negro, Argentina. ; Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, Post Office Box 5685 Sluppen, NO-7485, Trondheim, Norway. ; Key Laboratory for Insect-Pollinator Biology of the Ministry of Agriculture, Institute of Apicultural Research, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, 100093, Beijing, China. ; Pontificia Universidade Catolica do Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS), Av. Ipiranga, 6681, CEP 90619900, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil. ; Department of Plant Protection, Faculty of Agriculture, Bogor Agricultural University. Jln. Kamper, Darmaga, Bogor, 16680, West Java, Indonesia. ; Laboratorio investigaciones en Abejas (LABUN), Departamento de Biologia, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Sede Bogota, CP11001, Bogota, Colombia. ; Departamento de Educacao em Ciencias Agrarias e da Terra, Universidade Federal de Sergipe, Campus do Sertao, Rodovia Engenheiro Jorge Neto. Silos KM 0, CEP 49680000, Nossa Senhora da Gloria, SE, Brazil. ; Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science, Rampur, Chitwan, Nepal. ; Embrapa Semiarido, BR 428, Km 152, C.P. 23, zona rural, CEP 56302970, Petrolina, PE, Brazil. ; Jardim Botanico do Rio de Janeiro (JBRJ), Rua Pacheco Leao 915, CEP 22460030, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil. ; Laboratorio de Ciencias Ambientais, Universidade Estadual do Norte Fluminense Darcy Ribeiro, CEP 28013620, Campos dos Goytacazes, RJ, Brazil. ; University of Zimbabwe, Faculty of Agriculture, Crop Science Department, Post Office Box MP167, Mt Pleasant, Harare, Zimbabwe. ; Conservation and Management of Pollinators for Sustainable Agriculture through Ecosystem Approach project, Honey Bee Research Institute, National Agricultural Research Centre, Park Road, Post Office Box 44000, Islamabad, Pakistan. ; Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation-Sericulture, Post Office Box 7816 code 01000 Thika, Kenya. ; College of Agriculture and Natural Sciences, School of Biological Sciences, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana. ; Embrapa Recursos Geneticos e Biotecnologia, Parque Estacao Biologica, W5 Norte (final), CEP 70770917, Brasilia, DF, Brazil. ; Instituto do Meio Ambiente e Recursos Hidricos (INEMA)-UR Extremo Sul, Rua Viena, no. 425, Bairro Dinnah Borges, CEP 45820970, Eunapolis, BA, Brazil. ; G.B. Pant Institute of Himalayan Environment and Development, Kosi-Katarmal, Almora-263 643, Uttarakhand. India. ; Department of Plant Pest Diseases, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Brawijaya. Jl. Veteran, Malang 65145, East Java, Indonesia. ; Universidade de Sao Paulo, Escola Politecnica, Av. Prof. Luciano Gualberto Travessa 3, n.158, CEP 05508010, Sao Paulo, SP, Brazil. ; South African National Biodiversity Institute, Kirstenbosch Research Centre, Private Bag X7, Claremont, 7735, South Africa. Conservation Ecology and Entomology, Stellenbosch University, Private Bag X1, 7602, Matieland, South Africa. ; Centro de Pesquisa Emilio Schenk, Fundacao Estadual de Pesquisa Agropecuaria (Fepagro Vale do Taquari), 1 degrees Distrito, Fonte Grande, Caixa Postal 12, CEP 95860000, Taquari, RS, Brazil.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26798016" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Wild and managed bees are well documented as effective pollinators of global crops of economic importance. However, the contributions by pollinators other than bees have been little explored despite their potential to contribute to crop production and stability in the face of environmental change. Non-bee pollinators include flies, beetles, moths,...

Description: The pollination requirements of West Indian cherry (Malpighia emarginata DC) were investigated in NE Brazil through observations of flower morphology, floral rewards, anthesis, anther dehiscence, stigma receptivity, pollen cross and self-compatibility and proportion of fruit set. Potential insect pollinators and their foraging behaviour were also studied, and the pollination efficiency of the most frequent flower visitor, the bee Centris tarsata Smith (Anthophoridae), was assessed using single visits to flowers. It was shown that the West Indian cherry flower has a short lifespan, thus requiring pollination on the day of anthesis, when both cross- and self-pollen grains set fruit. The flower can potentially be pollinated by an array of insect visitors, but only oil-collecting bees of the genus Centris find it very attractive. Centris tarsata appeared as the main pollinator of West Indian cherry in the area studied, and farmers are advised to encourage its presence in orchards. Despite high levels of natural pollination, only 30% of flowers set fruits. It is suggested that a high proportion of abnormal ovule development may be responsible for low fruit set where pollination is satisfactory, and that West Indian cherry varieties showing a lower percentage of such abnormalities should be selected for.

Description: SUMMARYThe pollination requirements of cashew (Anacardium occidentale L.), an andromonoecious tree, were studied in NE Brazil, where cashew is indigenous. It was shown through the use of bagging and caging experiments, controlled hand-pollination and emasculation of flowers, that the wind plays little role in cashew pollination and that cashew is self-fertile, although only pollen from the large stamen, either male or hermaphrodite-derived, can effect pollination. Insects appear to be the major pollinators of cashew, in agreement with the pollination syndrome suggested by the morphology of its flowers. Direct observations of insects visiting flowers and counts of pollen grains adhering to such insects suggest that the honey bee (Apis mellifera L.), although a non-native insect, is the major pollinator of commercially grown cashew in NE Brazil.