Diurnal effectiveness of pollination by bees and flies in agricultural 'Brassica rapa': implications for ecosystem resilience

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.