Pollination deficits in UK apple orchards

Abstract

Apple production in the UK is worth over £100 million per annum and this production is heavily dependent on insect pollination. Despite its importance, it is not clear which insect pollinators carry out the majority of this pollination. Furthermore, it is unknown whether current UK apple production, in terms of both yield and quality, suffers pollination deficits and whether production value could be increased through effective management of pollination services. The present study set out to address some of these unknowns and showed that solitary bee activity is high in orchards and that they could be making a valuable contribution to pollination. Furthermore, fruit set and apple seed number were found to be suffering potential pollination deficits although these were not reflected in apple quality. Deficits could be addressed through orchard management practices to improve the abundance and diversity of wild pollinators. Such practices include provision of additional floral resources and nesting habitats as well as preservation of semi-natural areas. The cost effectiveness of such strategies would need to be understood taking into account the potential gains to the apple industry.

Proximity to natural habitat and flower plantings increases insect populations and pollination services in South African apple orchards

“…Furthermore, our results confirmed the high economic value of insect pollination in apple production, as seen in previous studies (Garratt, Breeze, et al., 2014; Garratt, Truslove, et al., 2014; Geslin et al., 2017) and show a potential gross return attached to floral planting of about R4 160 per ha ( c . $220).…”

“…However, in contrast with observations in other temperate regions (e.g. Garratt, Breeze, et al., 2014; Garratt, Truslove, et al., 2014), most visits to apple flowers were carried out by the endemic honey bee A . mellifera capensis .…”

“…However, in contrast with observations in other temperate regions (e.g. Garratt, Breeze, et al, 2014;Garratt, Truslove, et al, 2014), most visits to apple flowers were carried out by the endemic honey bee A. mellifera capensis. This is surprising given the great diversity of bee species inhabiting the CFR (Kuhlmann, 2005) and that apple flowers in more biodiversity poor regions are visited by a wider variety of species (Blitzer et al, 2016;Martins et al, 2015).…”

Local Actions to Tackle a Global Problem: A Multidimensional Assessment of the Pollination Crisis in Chile

“…There is consensus that wild pollinators can contribute in different ways to improve pollination efficiency in crops (e.g., higher visitation rate, increase in pollen transfer, among others), and interfere with the behavior of foraging by honeybees, improving total pollination performance [24][25][26]. Moreover, it has been observed that an increase in pollinators' diversity can favor fruit quantity and the quality of the harvests, favoring the final production and, therefore, the economic return for the producer (e.g., [27,28]).…”

Exploitative competition and displacement mediated by eusocial bees: experimental evidence in a wild pollinator community

“…Solitary bees may therefore be particularly vulnerable to the effects of exploitative competition, particularly when resources are scarce. However, this is not well understood (see , despite the importance of these bees for the pollination of many crop and wild plants (Williams and Kremen 2007;Garratt et al 2014;Garibaldi et al 2014;Mallinger and Gratton 2015).…”