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Brittain, C., N. Williams, et al. (2013). "Synergistic effects of
non-<i>Apis </i>bees and honey bees for pollination services."
<u>Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences</u>
<b>280</b>(1754).<br>
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<dd><x-tab> </x-tab>In
diverse pollinator communities, interspecific interactions may modify the
behaviour and increase the pollination effectiveness of individual
species. Because agricultural production reliant on pollination is
growing, improving pollination effectiveness could increase crop yield
without any increase in agricultural intensity or area. In California
almond, a crop highly dependent on honey bee pollination, we explored the
foraging behaviour and pollination effectiveness of honey bees in
orchards with simple (honey bee only) and diverse (non-Apis bees present)
bee communities. In orchards with non-Apis bees, the foraging behaviour
of honey bees changed and the pollination effectiveness of a single honey
bee visit was greater than in orchards where non-Apis bees were absent.
This change translated to a greater proportion of fruit set in these
orchards. Our field experiments show that increased pollinator diversity
can synergistically increase pollination service, through species
interactions that alter the behaviour and resulting functional quality of
a dominant pollinator species. These results of functional synergy
between species were supported by an additional controlled cage
experiment with Osmia lignaria and Apis mellifera. Our findings highlight
a largely unexplored facilitative component of the benefit of
biodiversity to ecosystem services, and represent a way to improve
pollinator-dependent crop yields in a sustainable manner.<br><br>
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