Abstract
Bees are important components of the pollinator community of most ecosystems, contributing to the production of crops. The knowledge on the bees’fauna associated with crops and the pollination effect performed by bees on the fruit production and quality is important to the design, planning, and execution of projects to conserve pollinator populations in agricultural systems. The objectives of this work were to identify bees visiting tomato flowers, verify the climate variable and the day period on bee forage activity, and to evaluate the fruit production with different pollination types. The study was conducted from July 2015 to September 2017 in the Norte de Minas and Zona da Mata region, Minas Gerais state, Brazil. Eleven tomato fields were sampled. Fruit set and fruit quality from different pollination methods was evaluated with the following treatments: single visit (SV), open pollination (OP), mechanical pollination (MP) and control (self-pollination) (C). A total of 1,998 individuals distributed in Andrenidae, Apidae, and Halictidae families were collected, with greater abundance and species richness for Apidae. The tomato fruit mass was higher in the OP than in the SV and MP, which differed from the C. The high abundance of Exomalopsis analis and its occurrence in all fields, allied to its sonication behavior, indicate that this species is an important pollinator of the tomato. The tomato does not depend exclusively on bee pollination, but this improves its yield and quality, especially when performed by individuals of different species.
Highlights
Pollinators provide essential services for the reproduction of wild plants, and they increase yield of many crops (Gallai et al, 2009; Holzschuh et al, 2012)
Seventy-seven and 63 sampling hours were spent in Norte of Minas Gerais and Zona da Mata, respectively
Apidae to explore diverse environments, including those with intensive agriculture (Ferreira et al, 2015). Conditions such as bare ground for nesting (Potts et al, 2005) and food sources in cultivated areas (Blitzer et al, 2012; Montero-Castaño et al, 2016) can support higher species numbers. This pattern was common in studies on bee fauna in tomato crop with Apidae being dominant (Silva-Neto et al, 2013; Deprá et al, 2014; Santos et al, 2014)
Summary
Pollinators provide essential services for the reproduction of wild plants, and they increase yield of many crops (Gallai et al, 2009; Holzschuh et al, 2012). Intensification and change in land use, pesticide spraying, climate change, pest and pathogen proliferation, and introduced exotic species are factors that, alone or combined, contribute to declining bee populations (Potts et al, 2005; Goulson et al, 2008; Eeraerts et al, 2017). Among these factors, the agricultural intensification is characterized by increased agrochemicals input, tillage, large crops and loss and fragmentation of natural or semi-natural habitats (Kennedy et al, 2013; Deguines et al, 2014; Cusser et al, 2016). These changes cause isolation of natural populations and reduce food sources and nesting sites (Ferreira et al, 2013), negatively influencing pollinator communities (Connelly et al, 2015; Mogren et al, 2016; Zou et al, 2017)
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