Sede Andina, Universidad Nacional de Río Negro (UNRN) and Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), San Carlos de Bariloche, Río Negro, Argentina.
Science. 2013 Mar 29;339(6127):1608-11. doi: 10.1126/science.1230200. Epub 2013 Feb 28.
The diversity and abundance of wild insect pollinators have declined in many agricultural landscapes. Whether such declines reduce crop yields, or are mitigated by managed pollinators such as honey bees, is unclear. We found universally positive associations of fruit set with flower visitation by wild insects in 41 crop systems worldwide. In contrast, fruit set increased significantly with flower visitation by honey bees in only 14% of the systems surveyed. Overall, wild insects pollinated crops more effectively; an increase in wild insect visitation enhanced fruit set by twice as much as an equivalent increase in honey bee visitation. Visitation by wild insects and honey bees promoted fruit set independently, so pollination by managed honey bees supplemented, rather than substituted for, pollination by wild insects. Our results suggest that new practices for integrated management of both honey bees and diverse wild insect assemblages will enhance global crop yields.
在许多农业景观中，野生传粉昆虫的多样性和丰富度都有所下降。这些下降是否会降低作物产量，或者是否可以通过管理传粉媒介（如蜜蜂）得到缓解，目前尚不清楚。我们发现，在全球 41 个作物系统中，野生昆虫对果实形成的普遍存在积极影响。相比之下，在调查的系统中，只有 14%的系统中，蜜蜂的花朵访问与果实形成呈显著正相关。总的来说，野生昆虫对作物的授粉效果更好；野生昆虫访问量的增加使果实形成量增加了一倍，而同等数量的蜜蜂访问量的增加只使果实形成量增加了一半。野生昆虫和蜜蜂的访问促进了果实的形成，独立于彼此，因此，管理蜜蜂的授粉只是补充了而不是替代了野生昆虫的授粉。我们的研究结果表明，新的实践可以综合管理蜜蜂和多样化的野生昆虫群体，从而提高全球作物产量。
