TY  - JOUR
A1  - Klatt, Björn K.
A1  - Holzschuh, Andrea
A1  - Westphal, Catrin
A1  - Clough, Yann
A1  - Smit, Inga
A1  - Pawelzik, Elke
A1  - Tscharntke, Teja
T1  - Bee pollination improves crop quality, shelf life and commercial value
JF  - Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
N2  - Pollination improves the yield of most crop species and contributes to one-third of global crop production, but comprehensive benefits including crop quality are still unknown. Hence, pollination is underestimated by international policies, which is particularly alarming in times of agricultural intensification and diminishing pollination services. In this study, exclusion experiments with strawberries showed bee pollination to improve fruit quality, quantity and market value compared with wind and self-pollination. Bee-pollinated fruits were heavier, had less malformations and reached higher commercial grades. They had increased redness and reduced sugar–acid–ratios and were firmer, thus improving the commercially important shelf life. Longer shelf life reduced fruit loss by at least 11%. This is accounting for 0.32 billion US$ of the 1.44 billion US$ provided by bee pollination to the total value of 2.90 billion US$ made with strawberry selling in the European Union 2009. The fruit quality and yield effects are driven by the pollination-mediated production of hormonal growth regulators, which occur in several pollination-dependent crops. Thus, our comprehensive findings should be transferable to a wide range of crops and demonstrate bee pollination to be a hitherto underestimated but vital and economically important determinant of fruit quality.
KW  - commercial grades
KW  - ecosystem services
KW  - post-harvest quality
KW  - shelf life
KW  - strawberry
KW  - crop yield
KW  - ecology
Y1  - 2014
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-120797
VL  - 281
IS  - 1775
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Oervoessy, Noemi
A1  - Koroesi, Adam
A1  - Batary, Peter
A1  - Vozar, Agnes
A1  - Peregovits, Laszlo
T1  - Habitat Requirements of the Protected Southern Festoon (Zerynthia Polysena); Adult, Egg and Larval Distribution in a Highly Degraded Habitat Complex
JF  - Acta Zoologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae
N2  - Habitat quality affects the presence and size of butterfly populations. Resources for all life stages must be found in a given or few habitat patches. Southern festoon (Zerynthia polyxena) is a vulnerable, but locally abundant species in Hungary. The larva requires birthwort (Aristolochia clematitis) as food plant. We examined the small scale habitat use of adults and distribution of eggs and larvae among different vegetation types to reveal the requirements of the species in all life stages. Transect counts were conducted in a tree plantation complex comprising four types of vegetation. Number (+/- SE) of adults, eggs and larvae were lowest in poplar plantation (adult 0.3 +/- 0.2, egg 1.1 +/- 1.1, larva 0.6 +/- 0.3). Medium amount of butterflies were observed in open (adult 8.3 +/- 2.9, egg 3.1 +/- 2.6, larva 3.1 +/- 1.9) and black-locust (adult 9.4 +/- 4.2, egg 12.7 +/- 4.9, larva 4.1 +/- 1.1) habitat. Number of butterflies was highest in hummocks (adult 13.5 +/- 1.5, egg 12.9 +/- 5.7, larva 8.4 +/- 2.1). Adults avoided bare ground. We encountered most eggs in dense food plant patches with high plants. Food plant height also positively influenced the occurrence of the larvae. Although distribution of adults and juvenile forms showed quite similar patterns, we could also reveal some differences that caused by different environmental conditions in distinct vegetation types. Our study stresses the importance of habitat quality, which affects population size of butterflies even in a highly degraded habitat complex.
KW  - habitat quality
KW  - resource use
KW  - life stage
KW  - butterfly euphydryas-aurinia
KW  - ecology
KW  - metapopulation
KW  - conservation
KW  - quality
KW  - management
KW  - population
KW  - nympahlidae
KW  - fragmented landscapes
KW  - lepidoptera
KW  - tree plantations
KW  - habitat patch
Y1  - 2014
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-117810
VL  - 60
IS  - 4
ER  -