Abstract
Pollination by wild pollinators is a key ecosystem service threatened by anthropogenic-induced land-use change. The proximity to natural habitat has previously been shown to positively affect pollinator communities and improve crop yield and quality but empirical evidence is limited from most parts of the World. Here, across six farms in Southern Thailand, we investigated the significance of landscape-level effects of natural habitat (proportion of and distance to evergreen forest) on both visitation rate and richness of pollinators as well as fruit set of guava (Psidium guajava L.), a local economically-important crop in the tropics. Overall, the most abundant pollinator was the Asian honey bee Apis cerana (39% of all visits) and different species of stingless bees (37%). We found that pollinator richness was unrelated to the proportion and distance to evergreen forest, however, the proportion of forest within a 1, 5 and 10 km radius had a significant positive impact on visitation rate of wild pollinators. Still, neither the various forest parameters nor pollinator visitation rate showed a significant impact on fruit set of guava, perhaps because guava self-pollinates. This illustrates that landscape-level degradation of natural habitat may negatively impact pollinator communities without diminishing the crop yield of the farmers.
Highlights
Flowering plants rely on successful pollination for sexual reproduction
In guava orchards in Southern Thailand, we found a significant correlation between the proportion of evergreen forest in the surrounding landscape and the visitation rate of insect pollinators on guava flowers (Table 2; Figure 3)
On the other hand and contrary to similar studies on other crops, the proximity of forest showed no significant relationship with visitation rate within the guava orchards [8,17,18,22]
Summary
Flowering plants rely on successful pollination for sexual reproduction. many plants may be able to self-pollinate or use abiotic agents such as wind to transport their pollen, the majority of plants use animal pollinators as vectors to transport pollen between plant individuals [1,2].This makes plant-pollinator interactions one of the most important ecological functions for sustaining our ecosystems [3]. Flowering plants rely on successful pollination for sexual reproduction. Many plants may be able to self-pollinate or use abiotic agents such as wind to transport their pollen, the majority of plants use animal pollinators as vectors to transport pollen between plant individuals [1,2]. This makes plant-pollinator interactions one of the most important ecological functions for sustaining our ecosystems [3]. Animal pollination plays a crucial role in warm and humid tropical ecosystems where an estimated average of 94% of all flowering plant species are thought to be animal pollinated [1,2,4].
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