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<font size=2>Blitzer, E. J., et al. (2016). "Pollination services
for apple are dependent on diverse wild bee communities."
<u>Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment</u> <b>221</b>: 1-7.<br>
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Understanding the importance of biodiversity in applied settings is a
central theme for ecologists. Pollination is an essential ecosystem
service, which may rely on biodiversity for effectiveness and stability.
Empirical examples which link functional outcomes of increased
biodiversity to pollination services are rare. To investigate the
importance of wild and managed pollinator communities to apple
production, we assessed the effect of wild and managed bee abundance and
diversity on pollen limitation and seed set on commercial farms in New
York State. Seed set increased and pollen limitation decreased with
increasing wild bee species richness, functional group diversity (based
on nesting, sociality, and size traits), and abundance, but not with
honey bee abundance. Functional group diversity explained more variation
in apple seed set than species richness. Our findings demonstrate the
important role of functional complementarity of wild bees, defined here
as functional group diversity, to crop pollination even in the presence
of large populations of managed honey bees. Therefore, our results
suggest that management of diverse pollinator communities may decrease
reliance on managed honey bees for pollination services and enhance crop
yields.<br><br>
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