Os Seminários Novos e Velhos Saberes, atividade continuada de extensão dos programas de pós-graudação do Instituto de Biologia da Ufba (Diversidade Animal, Ecologia e Biomonitoramento, mestrado profissional em Ecologia Aplicada à Gestão Ambiental e Genética e Biodiversidade) apresentam a palestra do Prof. Dr. Lucas Garibaldi
O Prof. Dr. Lucas Garibaldi é professor da Universidad Nacional de Rio Negro, Conicet (Argentina) e bolsista do Programa Ciências sem Fronteiras junto ao Labea (Laboratório de Abelhas), coordenado pela Profª. Blandina F. Viana. A palestra acontece no dia 5 de agosto, às 9h00, no Salão Nobre do Instituto de Biologia.
Resumo
HONEY BEE COLONY QUALITY INFLUENCES POLLINATION, CROP YIELD, AND FARMER PROFITS IN POME FRUITS
Lucas A. Garibaldi, Georg Andersson, Nancy Garcia, Benoit Geslin, Marcelo A. Aizen, Juan Aguero, Carolina Morales, Carolina Quintero, Gerardo Gennari
Despite global interest in the role of pollinators for food production, their impact on farmer’s profit, a key variable affecting farmers’ livelihood and land-use decissions, is unclear. Although average values of pollinator benefits are generally assumed, there is potential for large spatial variation, even within the same region and year, among crop species and varieties or among pollinator management strategies.
We studied how the effect of honey bee (Apis mellifera) colony management in terms of density, sanitary condition (colony quality) and location on farmer’s profit (and it’s components) varies between apples and pears in the main fruit producing region of Argentina.
Colony quality, rather than density or location, influenced apple pollination and farmer’s profit. On average, high quality colonies increased visitation rates, fruit set, fruit weight, and farmer’s profits in comparison to colonies of conventional quality. On the other hand, colony quality only enhanced fruit weight of pears, despite being planted in the same area and subjected to similar management.
In contrast to studies elsewhere in the world, we did not observe any wild pollinartors visiting apple or pear flowers. Thus, the pollination of these crops relies solely on A. mellifera, highlighting the fragility of this conventionally intensified, crop production system.
We found that simplified, conventionally intensified orchard systems can suffer large pollinator deficits affecting farmer’s profit. Given that A. mellifera was the only flower visitor in our crop systems, we could estimate the impact of it’s management on farmer’s profit without the influence of other pollinators, and found that can be very important for apple orchards. Our study shows that spatial variation in pollinator benefits can be extremely large, and that the assumption of global average values for local recommendations can be misleading.