Insect pollination is important in a smallholder bean farming system.
Insect pollination is important in a smallholder bean farming system.
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作者：
Elisante F;Ndakidemi P;Arnold SEJ;Belmain SR;Gurr GM;Darbyshire I;Xie G;Stevenson PC
许多农作物依赖昆虫授粉。农业景观中的生境管理可以支持授粉服务，甚至增加作物产量。菜豆（Phaseolus vulgaris L.）在许多低收入国家，特别是在东非，大豆是小农生计的重要豆类。虽然这种作物是自花受精的，但它经常被授粉昆虫访问，可以提高产量。然而，授粉服务对普通豆类（Kariasii）产量的价值尚不清楚。我们进行了传粉者排除实验，以确定昆虫传粉者对豆类产量的贡献。我们还进行了荧光染料实验，以评估作为避难所的花卉游客的字段边缘的作用。显着更高的产量，每株植物和每荚种子的基础上，记录从开放授粉和手授粉的花朵相比，植物授粉者已被排除在外，表明花游客有助于显着的豆产量。同样，开放和手工授粉的植物记录最高的平均种子重量。将产量数据外推到田间规模表明，每公顷自花授粉大豆的产量可能从681公斤增加到自由授粉大豆的1 478公斤，这表明访花者对大豆作物产量的贡献很大。我们的标记研究表明，访花昆虫，包括蜜蜂，苍蝇和鳞翅目昆虫从田间边缘花卉进入豆类作物。总的来说，这些结果表明，昆虫传粉者对于优化豆类产量和小农农场的重要粮食安全考虑非常重要。田野边缘的植被也为为给豆子授粉的访花昆虫提供了栖息地。因此，非作物生境值得进一步研究，重点是确定哪些田边物种是最重要的，以及它们支持其他生态系统服务的能力，如自然害虫调节甚至害虫。
Many crops are dependent on pollination by insects. Habitat management in agricultural landscapes can support pollinator services and even augment crop production. Common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is an important legume for the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in many low-income countries, particularly so in East Africa. While this crop is autogamous, it is frequently visited by pollinating insects that could improve yields. However, the value of pollination services to common beans (Kariasii) yield is not known. We carried out pollinator-exclusion experiments to determine the contribution of insect pollinators to bean yields. We also carried out a fluorescent-dye experiment to evaluate the role of field margins as refuge for flower-visitors. Significantly higher yields, based on pods per plant and seeds per pod, were recorded from open-pollinated and hand-pollinated flowers compared to plants from which pollinators had been excluded indicating that flower visitors contribute significantly to bean yields. Similarly, open and hand-pollinated plants recorded the highest mean seed weight. Extrapolation of yield data to field scale indicated a potential increase per hectare from 681 kg in self-pollinated beans to 1,478 kg in open-pollinated beans indicating that flower visitors contributed significantly to crop yield of beans. Our marking study indicated that flower-visiting insects including bees, flies and lepidopterans moved from the field margin flowers into the bean crop. Overall, these results show that insect pollinators are important for optimising bean yields and an important food security consideration on smallholder farms. Field margin vegetation also provides habitat for flower-visiting insects that pollinate beans. Hence, non-crop habitats merit further research focusing on establishing which field margin species are most important and their capacity to support other ecosystem services such as natural pest regulation or even pests.