Determinants of Bee Visitation in an Economically Important Vegetable Crop Along an Agricultural Intensification Gradient

Abstract

Various factors associated with agricultural intensification e.g. loss of semi-natural habitats and excessive use of chemical pesticides have been implicated as major drivers of pollinators and pollination service decline. In the developing countries, where agricultural intensification is still an ongoing process, agricultural landscape exists as a gradient of agricultural fields at various degrees of intensification. The present study looks at how factors associated with agricultural intensification impacts bee visitation on brinjal, an economically important crop, along such an agricultural intensification gradient. Bee visitation varied significantly along the gradient and was highest in the areas of low agricultural intensity. Apis cerana was the dominant visitors in areas of high agricultural intensity while for the low agricultural intensity areas Xylocopa spp. and Amegilla spp. were the dominant visitors. The visiting bee communities were also distinctly different in the high, mid and low agricultural intensity areas. Area under agriculture, non crop density and pesticide use intensity together influenced bee visitation.