Advances in Pollination Ecology From Tropical Plantation Crops

Abstract

Although ecologists traditionally focus on natural ecosystems, there is growing awareness that mixed landscapes of managed and unmanaged systems provide a research environment for understanding basic ecological relationships on a large scale. Here, we show how tropical agroforestry systems can be used to develop ideas about the mechanisms that influence species diversity and subsequent biotic interactions at different spatial scales. Our focus is on tropical plantation crops, mainly coffee and cacao, and their pollinators, which are of basic ecological interest as partners in an important mutualistic interaction. We review how insect-mediated pollination services depend on local agroforest and natural habitats in surrounding landscapes. Further, we evaluate the functional significance of pollinator diversity and the explanatory value of species traits, and we provide an intercontinental comparison of pollinator assemblages. We found that optimal pollination success might be best understood as a consequence of niche complementarities among pollinators in landscapes harboring various species. We further show that small cavity-nesting bees and small generalist beetles were especially affected by isolation from forest and that larger-bodied insects in the same landscapes were not similarly affected. We suggest that mixed tropical landscapes with agroforestry systems have great potential for future research on the interactions between plants and pollinators.

Targeting perennial vegetation in agricultural landscapes for enhancing ecosystem services

“…In agriculture, especially among pollen-limited crops, promoting pollination services is an important means of increasing productivity. In a review of pollination services for the leading food crops in 200 countries, Klein et al 217 found that of a total of 107 crops traded on the world market that are directly consumed by humans (but excluding crops that are solely passively selfpollinated, wind-pollinated or parthenocarpic), 40% of these crops are highly to moderately dependent on animal pollinators. Significant declines in different pollinator species have been documented in the Midwestern US, raising several ecological and economic concerns [218][219][220] .…”

Application of Asiatic Honey Bees (Apis cerana) and Stingless Bees (Trigona laeviceps) as Pollinator Agents of Hot Pepper (Capsicum annuumL.) at Local Indonesia Farm System

“…In Indonesia, wild pollinator insects have not 2 Psyche yet received notice as important component of agriculture system even though some studies have shown the importance of insects as pollinator for some Indonesian perennial and annual crops [9][10][11][12][13]. Lack of understanding on function of particular insects as pollinator agents combined with common practices of synthetic insecticides, removal of wild plants, and destruction of nesting area through plowing significantly reduced population of wild pollinator [14].…”

Intersection between biodiversity conservation, agroecology, and ecosystem services

“…For example, coffee bushes closer to forest fragments experience greater fruit set (Ricketts et al 2004), watermelon fields close to natural habitat exhibited greater pollen deposition (Kremen, Williams, and Thorp 2002), and sunflowers closer to natural vegetation strips receive greater pollination services than those further away (Hevia et al 2016). Syntheses examining pollination success across many crops show that while agroecosystems vary in their decay function, the overarching trend is a significant decrease in pollination service with increasing distance from natural habitat (Garibaldi et al 2011a;Klein et al 2008;Ricketts et al 2008). However, not all syntheses suggest that habitat configuration is critical; a recent global review of bee communities in agroecosystems revealed that bee communities were more diverse in diversified organic landscapes, regardless of landscape and habitat configuration (Kennedy et al 2013).…”