Diversity of Floral Visitors in Apple Orchards: Influence on Fruit Characteristics Depends on Apple Cultivar
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INSECT POLLINATORS
Diversity of Floral Visitors in Apple Orchards: Influence on Fruit Characteristics Depends on Apple Cultivar P NUNES-SILVA1 , S WITTER2, JM M BOTTON6, B BLOCHTEIN1
DA
ROSA3, R HALINSKI1, LM SCHLEMMER4, CJ ARIOLI5, JD RAMOS1,
1
Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia e Evolução da Biodiversidade, Escola de Ciência, Pontifícia Univ Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brasil 2 Laboratório e Museu de Entomologia, Departamento de Diagnóstico e Pesquisa Agropecuária, Secretaria de Agricultura, Pecuária e Desenvolvimento Rural, Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil 3 Departamento de Fitossanidade, Univ Federal de Pelotas, Pelotas, Brasil 4 Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Biológicas – Bioquímica, Instituto de Ciências Básicas da Saúde, Univ Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil 5 Empresa de Pesquisa Agropecuária e Extensão Rural de Santa Catarina, São Joaquim, Brasil 6 Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária, Centro Nacional de Pesquisa de Uva e Vinho, Bento Gonçalves, Brasil
Keywords Pollination, Malus domestica, Apis mellifera, Hymenoptera, Fruit quality Correspondence P Nunes-Silva, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia e Evolução da Biodiversidade, Escola de Ciência, Pontifícia Univ Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brasil; [email protected] Edited by Márcia M Maués – Embrapa Received 21 June 2019 and accepted 30 January 2020 * Sociedade Entomológica do Brasil 2020
Abstract Most cultivars of apple trees are highly dependent on insects for successful pollination and fruit production. In this study, we evaluated the insect diversity in apple orchards of southern Brazil and verified whether or not there is a relationship between the diversity of insect visitors and the characteristics (weight, seed number, and symmetry) of the fruits of ‘Fuji’ and ‘Gala’ apples produced by the orchards. We also evaluated the diversity of insects on flowering weeds within apple orchards and compared it with the apple flowers. Diversity of anthophilous insects was low, in general, and differed between the regions. Furthermore, regarding insect diversity, orchards were grouped by management system: organic orchards were more similar to each other than to conventional orchards. The insect diversity of weed flowers was higher than apple flowers, but insect abundance was greater on apple flowers, suggesting that weeds may increase insect diversity within apple orchards and may sustain pollinators. We found a positive effect of insect diversity on the number of seeds of ‘Fuji’ apples and of honeybee abundance on their weight, suggesting that honeybee management is important in the studied areas. In contrast, we found no significant effect of insect diversity and abundance on ‘Gala’ apple characteristics. Despite this, the analyses of the seeds of ‘Gala’ apples indicate that the orchards may suffer a pollination deficit, which could be overcome by improving insect pollination. These results reinforce previous findings that insect diversity is important for apple yield, but its influe
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