Orchards closer to forest patches produced fewer malformed fruits and more commercial fruits: The importance of legitimate floral visitors

Abstract

Mexico is the main mango exporter worldwide, making ‘Ataulfo’ one of the most preferred cultivars. However, fruit production has been drastically diminished due to the high incidence of malformed fruits, known as nubbins. One of the possible causes of this is the lack of pollinators, which are necessary to set developed fruits. Since many pollinators depend on forest patches, the proximity of mango orchards to these is expected to decrease the incidence of nubbins. However, no study has evaluated the effect of distance from forest patches on the production of malformed fruits in any mango cultivar. The present study evaluates the incidence of nubbins and the production of commercial fruits, as well as the richness, composition, and frequency of visits of legitimate floral visitors (i.e., those that contact both reproductive parts of the flowers) over two consecutive years on ‘Ataulfo’ mango orchards located at different distances from tropical dry forest patches. Our results indicate that mango orchards located closer to forest patches were visited more frequently and by more species of legitimate floral visitors, showed less incidence of nubbins, and had greater production of commercial fruits than those located further away from the forest patches. Moreover, we found that older mango trees and the absence of exotic honeybees are also key factors to increasing fruit production. Our results highlight the importance of the conservation of tropical dry forest patches to ensure the provision of pollination services and to maintain or increase the production of mango orchards.