Is early pollination to lowbush blueberry an ecosystem service or disservice?

Laurel Schut, Peter Tyedmers, G. Chris Cutler, Andony Melathopoulos

Résultat de recherche: Articleexamen par les pairs

4 Citations (Scopus)

Résumé

Pollination is frequently identified as an important ecosystem service to agricultural production. In contrast, ecosystem disservices are rarely considered. This study explores pollinator service versus disservice in lowbush blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium) production. This crop is highly managed, requires insect pollination, and has a relatively long bloom; when combined, these characteristics may cause a portion of early season pollination to result in premature ripening and loss. To test this, we exposed early and late flowering clones to early season (wild) pollination only or late season (wild and managed) pollination only. Contrary to our hypothesis of disservice, pre-harvest loss, shatter, and sugar content were consistent across treatments, even though early season pollination plots exhibited heavier berries. Remarkably, early season pollination plots produced over 70% of the total production of late season pollination plots. These results suggest that early season pollination by wild pollinators does not present an ecosystem disservice to lowbush blueberry production.

Langue d'origineEnglish
Pages (de-à)368-375
Nombre de pages8
JournalAgriculture, Ecosystems and Environment
Volume239
DOI
Statut de publicationPublished - févr. 15 2017

Note bibliographique

Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Elsevier B.V.

ASJC Scopus Subject Areas

  • Ecology
  • Animal Science and Zoology
  • Agronomy and Crop Science

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