TY  - JOUR
A1  - Bartomeus, Ignasi
A1  - Potts, Simon G.
A1  - Steffan-Dewenter, Ingolf
A1  - Vaissiere, Bernard E.
A1  - Woyciechowski, Michal
A1  - Krewenka, Kristin M.
A1  - Tscheulin, Thomas
A1  - Roberts, Stuart P. M.
A1  - Szentgyoergyi, Hajnalka
A1  - Westphal, Catrin
A1  - Bommarco, Riccardo
T1  - Contribution of insect pollinators to crop yield and quality varies with agricultural intensification
JF  - PEERJ
N2  - Background. Up to 75% of crop species benefit at least to some degree from animal pollination for fruit or seed set and yield. However, basic information on the level of pollinator dependence and pollinator contribution to yield is lacking for many crops. Even less is known about how insect pollination affects crop quality. Given that habitat loss and agricultural intensification are known to decrease pollinator richness and abundance, there is a need to assess the consequences for different components of crop production. Methods. We used pollination exclusion on flowers or inflorescences on a whole plant basis to assess the contribution of insect pollination to crop yield and quality in four flowering crops (spring oilseed rape, field bean, strawberry, and buckwheat) located in four regions of Europe. For each crop, we recorded abundance and species richness of flower visiting insects in ten fields located along a gradient from simple to heterogeneous landscapes. Results. Insect pollination enhanced average crop yield between 18 and 71% depending on the crop. Yield quality was also enhanced in most crops. For instance, oilseed rape had higher oil and lower chlorophyll contents when adequately pollinated, the proportion of empty seeds decreased in buckwheat, and strawberries' commercial grade improved; however, we did not find higher nitrogen content in open pollinated field beans. Complex landscapes had a higher overall species richness of wild pollinators across crops, but visitation rates were only higher in complex landscapes for some crops. On the contrary, the overall yield was consistently enhanced by higher visitation rates, but not by higher pollinator richness. Discussion. For the four crops in this study, there is clear benefit delivered by pollinators on yield quantity and/or quality, but it is not maximized under current agricultural intensification. Honeybees, the most abundant pollinator, might partially compensate the loss of wild pollinators in some areas, but our results suggest the need of landscape-scale actions to enhance wild pollinator populations.
KW  - biodiversity
KW  - pollination
KW  - honeybee
KW  - wild bees
KW  - agroecosystems
KW  - native pollinators
KW  - species richness
KW  - bee pollinators
KW  - wild
KW  - ecosystemservices
KW  - fruit-quality
KW  - oilseed rape
KW  - land-use
KW  - honey
KW  - patterns
Y1  - 2014
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-116928
SN  - 2167-9843
VL  - 2
IS  - e328
ER  -