Higher richness and abundance of flower-visiting insects close to natural vegetation provide contrasting effects on mustard yields

• Published in: Journal of insect conservation 2021-02, Vol.25 (1), p.1-11
• Main Authors: Devkota, Kedar, dos Santos, Charles Fernando, Blochtein, Betina
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Abundance; Agricultural production; Animal Ecology; Bees; Biodiversity; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Cluster analysis; Clustering; Conservation Biology/Ecology; Crops; Entomology; Flowers; Guilds; Insects; Life Sciences; Mustard; Natural vegetation; Original Paper; Plant reproduction; Pollination; Pollinators; Productivity; Seeds; Species richness; Statistical models; Vegetation
• ISSN: 1366-638X; 1572-9753
• DOI: 10.1007/s10841-020-00279-3

The conservation of pollinating insects in agriculture is a global concern since the diversity of such organisms may affect the productivity of pollination-dependent crops. In this study, we assessed (i) how distances from natural vegetation affect the diversity (guilds, richness, abundance) of flower-visiting insects within mustard crops in Nepal, (ii) how insect richness and abundance are related to mustard yields (weight of seeds) and (iii) the contribution of flower-visiting insects to mustard pollination by conducting pollinator exclusion experiments. To analyse these data, we carried out (i) hierarchical clustering followed by a Procrustes analysis as well as a generalized linear mixed model and (ii), (iii) linear mixed models. We found that the guild composition was not similar near and far from natural vegetation, indicating a tendency for Apis bees to displace in opposite directions relative to non- Apis bees. Nevertheless, while both richness and abundance were higher nearer natural vegetation, the former showed a stronger and more positive effect on mustard yields than the latter. Furthermore, we found that mustard flowers have a significant requirement for insect pollination since productivity increased by ~70% with insect visitation. Overall, our data suggest that the diversity of flower-visiting insects enlarges nearer to natural vegetation. However, the results indicate that species richness may be more relevant than abundance to mustard production. As such, we suggest that the maintenance of natural vegetation could be considered a strategy for ensuring the presence of multiple pollinator species within mustard fields to promote its long-term sustainability in Nepal. Graphic abstract