The value of biotic pollination and dense forest for fruit set of Arabica coffee: A global assessment

Author(s):Show less -

Moreaux, Celine ^{[1, 2]} ; Meireles, Desiree A. L. ^[3] ; Sonne, Jesper ^[4] ; Badano, I, Ernesto ; Classen, Alice ^[5] ; Gonzalez-Chaves, Adrian ^[6] ; Hipolito, Juliana ^{[7, 8, 9]} ; Klein, Alexandra-Maria ^[10] ; Maruyama, Pietro K. ^[11] ; Metzger, Jean Paul ^[6] ; Philpott, Stacy M. ^[12] ; Rahbek, Carsten ^{[13, 1, 4, 14]} ; Saturni, Fernanda T. ^[6] ; Sritongchuay, Tuanjit ^[15] ; Tscharntke, Teja ^[16] ; Uno, Shinsuke ^[17] ; Vergara, Carlos H. ^[18] ; Viana, Blandina F. ^{[7, 8]} ; Strange, Niels ^[2] ; Dalsgaard, Bo ^[1]

Affiliation:Show less -

^[1] Univ Copenhagen, Ctr Macroecol Evolut & Climate, GLOBE Inst, DK-2100 Copenhagen O - Denmark

^[2] Univ Copenhagen, Dept Food & Resource Econ, Rolighedsvej 23, DK-1958 Frederiksberg - Denmark

^[3] Univ Fed Goias, Inst Ciencias Biol, Dept Ecol, BR-74001970 Goiania, Go - Brazil

^[4] Univ Copenhagen, Ctr Global Mt Biodivers, GLOBE Inst, Univ Parken 15, DK-2100 Copenhagen - Denmark

^[5] Univ Wurzburg, Bioctr, Dept Anim Ecol & Trop Biol, D-97074 Wurzburg - Germany

^[6] Univ Sao Paulo, Inst Biociencias, Dept Ecol, Rua Matao 321, BR-05508090 Sao Paulo, SP - Brazil

^[7] Univ Fed Bahia, Biol Inst, Salvador, BA - Brazil

^[8] Natl Inst Sci & Technol Inter & Transdisciplinary, Salvador, BA - Brazil

^[9] Inst Nacl de Pesquisas da Amazonia, Av Andre Araujo 2-936, BR-69067375 Manaus, Amazonas - Brazil

^[10] Univ Freiburg, Chair Nat Conservat & Landscape Ecol, Tennenbacher Str 4, D-79106 Freiburg - Germany

^[11] Univ Fed Minas Gerais, Inst Biol Sci, Dept Genet Ecol & Evolut, BR-31270901 Belo Horizonte, MG - Brazil

^[12] Univ Calif Santa Cruz, Environm Studies Dept, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 - USA

^[13] Imperial Coll London, Dept Life Sci, Ascot SL5 7PY, Berks - England

^[14] Univ Southern Denmark, Danish Inst Adv Study, Campusvej 55, DK-5230 Odense M - Denmark

^[15] UFZ Helmholtz Ctr Environm Res, Dept Computat Landscape Ecol, Permoserstr 15, D-04318 Leipzig - Germany

^[16] Univ Gottingen, Dept Crop Sci, Agroecol, Gottingen - Germany

^[17] Hosei Univ, Tokyo - Japan

^[18] Univ Americas Puebla, Escuela Ciencias, Dept Ciencias Quim Biol, Cholula 72820 - Mexico

• Document type: Journal article
• Source: AGRICULTURE ECOSYSTEMS & ENVIRONMENT; v. 323, JAN 1 2022.
• Web of Science Citations: 0

Abstract

Animal pollinators are globally threatened by anthropogenic land use change and agricultural intensification. The yield of many food crops is therefore negatively impacted because they benefit from biotic pollination. This is especially the case in the tropics. For instance, fruit set of Coffea arabica has been shown to increase by 10-30% in plantations with a high richness of bee species, possibly influenced by the availability of surrounding forest habitat. Here, we performed a global literature review to (1) assess how much animal pollination enhances coffee fruit set, and to (2) examine the importance of the amount of forest cover, distance to nearby forest and forest canopy density for bee species richness and coffee fruit set. Using a systematic literature review, we identified eleven case studies with a total of 182 samples where fruit set of C. arabica was assessed. We subsequently gathered forest data for all study sites from satellite imagery. We modelled the effects of open (all forest with a canopy density of >= 25%), closed (>= 50%) and dense (>= 75%) forests on pollinator richness and fruit set of coffee. Overall, we found that animal pollination increases coffee fruit set by similar to 18% on average. In only one of the case studies, regression results indicate a positive effect of dense forest on coffee fruit set, which increased with higher forest cover and shorter distance to the forest. Against expectations, forest cover and distance to open forest were not related to bee species richness and fruit set. In summary, we provide strong empirical support for the notion that animal pollinators increase coffee fruit set. Forest proximity had little overall influence on bee richness and coffee fruit set, except when farms were surrounded by dense tropical forests, potentially because these may provide high-quality habitats for bees pollinating coffee. We, therefore, advocate that more research is done to understand the biodiversity value of dense forest for pollinators, notably assessing the mechanisms underlying the importance of forest for pollinators and their pollination services. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 13/23457-6 - Interface project: relationships among landscape structure, ecological processes, biodiversity and ecosystem services
• Grantee: Jean Paul Walter Metzger
• Support type: BIOTA-FAPESP Program - Thematic Grants
• FAPESP's process: 17/19411-1 - Bee conservation and pollination service provision: using a landscape approach to reach a common goal
• Grantee: Adrian David González Chaves
• Support type: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate