Effectiveness landscape of crop pollinator assemblages: Implications to pollination service management

HAEDO, JOANA P.; GRAFFIGNA, SOFÍA; MARTÍNEZ, LUCÍA C.; PÉREZ-MÉNDEZ, NESTOR; TORRETTA, JUAN P.; MARRERO, HUGO J.

AGRICULTURE, ECOSYSTEMS AND ENVIRONMENT

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

Año: 2023 vol. 348

0167-8809

There is agrowing consensus that the world is facing a pollination crisis. To mitigatecrop pollination deficits, some management strategies include the massiveintroduction of managed bee species, yet quite often they are applied blindly,as information on crop pollination effectiveness for each single pollinatorspecies of assemblages is usually not available. Therefore, the introduction onmanaged species is not always the best option to improve crop yields. Here, byusing the highly pollinator-dependent alfalfa crop (Medicago sativa L.) as acase study, we propose the use of the effectiveness landscape framework toidentify key crop pollinator species. According to this framework, in amutualistic interaction, each species´ effectiveness is represented by theproduct of a quantitative component and a qualitative one, these being measuresof the outcomes of this interaction. We applied this framework for two managedand four wild bee species that visit alfalfa in fields southwest of Buenos Airesprovince, Argentina. We dissected the quantity components of the pollinatoreffectiveness landscape by estimating two quantitative subcomponents:visitation rate and flower tripping rate. Also, we estimate pod set as aqualitative component without dissecting it in subcomponents. Our resultsshowed that the contribution of both components and the resulting pollinatoreffectiveness varied among pollinator species, indicating a contrastingeffectiveness of different bee species on alfalfa pollination. For example,pollinator effectiveness was higher for managed than for wild bees, asconsequence of their very high visitation rate, however, wild bee flowertripping rate and pod set were as high as managed ones. In fact, wild bees weremore effective in promoting flower tripping than one of the managed bees (A.mellifera). This approach allowed us to assess which effectiveness componentsand subcomponents make pollinator species more or less effective, thusproviding valuable information to identify key species to be enhanced to helpin closing yield gaps. We suggest that the application of the effectivenesslandscape framework would be useful to develop strategies to improve crop pollinationservice in pollinator-dependent crop systems.