Plant Soil Environ., 2021, 67(10):600-607 | DOI: 10.17221/225/2021-PSE

Pollinators communities differ across years and cropsOriginal Paper

Danilo Bevk ORCID...*,1, Janez Pre¹ern2
1 Department of Organisms and Ecosystems Research, National Institute of Biology, Ljubljana, Slovenia
2 Animal Production Department, Agricultural Institute of Slovenia, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Insect pollination is one of the most important ecosystem services. Pollinator communities are rarely studied across years and crops in the same location. The aim of this study was to investigate the pollinator community structure on five different fruit crops, as well as the activity of different pollinator groups during the day and their temperature preferences. Pollinator activity was observed across two years on apple trees and blueberry, strawberry, blackcurrant and raspberry bushes. Pollinator community structure varied by plant and year. Honeybees were the most numerous pollinators on all plants except blueberry bushes (39-95% of visits). Bumblebee numbers were high on blackcurrant (up to 28%) and blueberry bushes (up to 61%). Solitary bees visited all plants except blueberries. Honeybees, solitary bees, and hoverflies were most active in the middle of the day, while bumblebees became active earlier in the morning and remained active later in the evening. Pollinators also differed greatly in their temperature preferences. This knowledge gained is necessary for less harmful pesticide application management and the development of more sustainable agriculture to maintain pollinator diversity and thus reliable pollination in extreme weather conditions.

Keywords: fruit pollination; agroecology; biodiversity; wild bees; conservation

Published: October 31, 2021  Show citation

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Bevk D, Pre¹ern J. Pollinators communities differ across years and crops. Plant Soil Environ. 2021;67(10):600-607. doi: 10.17221/225/2021-PSE.
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