Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/13843
Title: Diurnal effectiveness of pollination by bees and flies in agricultural 'Brassica rapa': implications for ecosystem resilience
Contributor(s): Rader, Romina  (author)orcid ; Edwards, Will (author); Westcott, David A (author); Cunningham, Saul A (author); Howlett, Bradley G (author)
Publication Date: 2013
DOI: 10.1016/j.baae.2012.10.011
Handle Link: https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/13843
Abstract: Bees are known to provide pollination services to a wide range of crops, yet flies are rarely included in estimates of function. As bees and flies differ markedly in their life history characteristics and resource needs, they may be active and hence provide pollination services at different times of the day. Here, we explore the differences in bee and fly diurnal activity patterns and how this may impact upon pollination services provided to 'Brassica rapa', a mass-flowering crop. We observed pollinators at two-hourly intervals from 6:00 to 20:00 h in twelve fields in New Zealand in 2004-2005. Overall, bees were most active in the middle of the day and were more effective pollinators than flies, driven primarily by the high pollinator efficiency of 'Apis mellifera' and 'Bombus terrestris'. Some fly taxa however, visited flowers early and late in the day when there were few bees. The results of this study demonstrate that fine-scale temporal dynamics and the spatial distribution of crop pollinators may directly affect the quantity of pollination services. The maintenance of biodiversity in agro-ecosystems may therefore be critical to ensure pollinator taxa are available under a range of environmental conditions.
Publication Type: Journal Article
Source of Publication: Basic and Applied Ecology, 14(1), p. 20-27
Publisher: Elsevier GmbH
Place of Publication: Germany
ISSN: 1618-0089
1439-1791
Fields of Research (FoR) 2008: 060202 Community Ecology (excl Invasive Species Ecology)
060208 Terrestrial Ecology
060808 Invertebrate Biology
Fields of Research (FoR) 2020: 310302 Community ecology (excl. invasive species ecology)
310308 Terrestrial ecology
310913 Invertebrate biology
Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) 2008: 960904 Farmland, Arable Cropland and Permanent Cropland Land Management
960804 Farmland, Arable Cropland and Permanent Cropland Flora, Fauna and Biodiversity
Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) 2020: 180607 Terrestrial erosion
180603 Evaluation, allocation, and impacts of land use
180606 Terrestrial biodiversity
Peer Reviewed: Yes
HERDC Category Description: C1 Refereed Article in a Scholarly Journal
Appears in Collections:Journal Article

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