Conference Agenda

Fruit production strongly depends on insect pollination for fruit development. However, intensification of fruit production both at the local and landscape scale can influence pollinator communities, potentially impacting the corresponding pollination services. In this study we explored how agricultural intensification at local (organic vs. conventional) and landscape (distance from seminatural habitats) scale affect pollinator diversity, pollination services and production in sweet cherry orchards (Prunus avium) in Mediterranean areas. We found conventional orchard management (compared to organic) and distance from seminatural habitats to negatively affect both abundance and diversity of pollinator communities. Wild pollinator abundance and flower visitation was also negatively correlated to honeybee abundance, indicating potential competition for flower resources. Sweet cherry fruit set was positively influenced by pollinator diversity but not by honeybee abundance. These findings suggest that agricultural intensification both at the local and landscape can impair pollination services in cherry orchards. Interestingly, we found cherry quality (sugar content) to be negatively correlated to fruit set, highlighting a potential trade-off between cherry production and biodiversity conservation. Sustainable management strategies to support sweet cherry production need to consider wild pollinator communities and necessitate both local and landscape interventions.

Understanding the behaviour of insects when interacting at flowers is important because some taxa can impact the movement of others. We observed flower-visiting insects in raspberry and blackberry farms in the Coffs Harbour region, New South Wales, Australia. We recorded the behaviour of bees and non-bees on flowers as “resident” and “incoming” and determined the outcome of all interactions. Aggressive behaviour and subsequent response (e.g., move to another flower or fly away) was recorded for 619 interactions. In general, interactions between hymenopteran (honeybee, stingless bee, ants) taxa were aggressive (> 78%; n= 312), resulting in most of the resident and incoming individuals departing the flower, apart from when ants were resident. When flies interacted with hymenopterans, hymenopterans were less aggressive and shared 10% of flowers (n= 67). After interacting, Eristalis tenax and Apis mellifera commonly departed from the flower (E. tenax 80%; n= 264, A. mellifera 73%; n= 84) and some individuals moved to another flower as a result of the interaction (A. mellifera 27%; n= 84, E. tenax 20%; n= 264). This study demonstrates that interaction outcomes varied according to the identity of both incoming and resident individuals, and this has the potential to impact pollination success.

Research has shown that introducing floral resources through agri-environments schemes can increase pollinator abundance and diversity in agro-ecosystems with improvement in crop pollination reported. Most of these approaches, however have been developed and tested in large scale intensive production systems. Smallholders, often in tropical biomes, represent the majority of farmers globally, yet there is a lack of research into effective tools to promote crop pollination in these contexts. We tested co-designed floral interventions alongside tree crops on smallholder farms in India. Measuring effects on pollinators and pollination, we show that co-cropping with flowering crops increased abundance of pollinators by 50%, species richness by 30% as well as significantly reducing pollination deficits. Our results provide clear evidence that floral interventions in the form of intercropping and border cropping can enhance pollinator communities and the services they provide in tropical smallholder systems but that these interventions must be co-designed with farmers. These findings underpin a practical management option for farmers to enhance pollination as well as providing additional co benefits, improving livelihoods and sustainable production.

Agricultural intensification is among the most important causes of pollinator decline. Nowadays, many initiatives have been implemented to promote conservation actions for these key organisms, however, interventions aimed at safeguarding pollinators can have ripple effects on multiple ecosystem services that are equally important for human well-being. In this work, we investigated whether environmental conditions favouring pollinators were positively associated with the provision of multiple ecosystem services across habitats. We selected sites belonging to three habitat types with different roles in supporting pollinators, i.e., crop field margins, semi-natural patches, and urban green areas, along a gradient of flower cover. We sampled wild pollinators and seven ecosystem services, which included provisioning, cultural, and regulatory services, using which we calculated two ecosystem multi-functionality metrics. Crop field margins and semi-natural patches exhibited both the highest diversity of pollinators and ecosystem multi-functionality, i.e., habitats that supported pollinators also delivered a higher number of environmental co-benefits. However, increasing flower cover benefitted pollinators, but did not result in increased multi-functionality, indicating that single ESs exhibited non-linear responses. Therefore, conservation practitioners should carefully evaluate interventions in order to improve pollinator diversity while generating multiple environmental co-benefits.

Understanding the impacts of corporate agricultural activities upon biodiversity remains a significant challenge under rapidly developing sustainability reporting frameworks.

While many sustainability indicators focus on carbon and water, few outline the specific role of biodiversity in providing services and functions that support environmental sustainability in agroecosystems. Here, we review the literature to evaluate the relationship between agricultural production activities, management practices and biodiversity. We highlight the need to go beyond traditional metrics of species richness and abundances to include the complex interactions that directly or indirectly underpin agricultural production and the resilience of land and water systems. We present case studies of corporate horticultural production to demonstrate key concepts and findings. There is an urgent need to improve assessments of corporate environmental impacts to include complex biological interactions to reflect the high level functioning of natural systems. Appropriate indicators will better support decision-making and ensure compatibility with the stated intentions of investors.

Animal pollinators play an important role in global crop production by enhancing the quantity and quality of yields, but the strength of this relationship between animal pollinators and yield varies widely across different crop types. Using quantitative crop production data obtained through a systematic review and meta-analysis, we update and expand Klein’s 2007 study to provide pollinator-dependency estimates including varietal information of 250 crop species. Through combining meta-analysis results with global crop production values, we estimate 9.1% of global crop production, which is equivalent to $378 x 109 USD of farmgate monetary value, is dependent on animal pollination. Moreover, we found that for the subset of crops cultivated for human food, the relative proportion of production reliant on animal pollination is greater than this value, largely owing to extensive cultivation of wind-pollinated crops for industrial and livestock-feed uses. While these values provide a valuable indication of the importance of animal pollinators to global agriculture, we discuss the methodological limitations and uncertainty surrounding these estimates to highlight that a much greater understanding of the role of animals in crop pollination is needed to guide policy decisions and crop management practices into the future.