Organic farming improves pollination success in strawberries.

Summary, in English

Pollination of insect pollinated crops has been found to be correlated to pollinator abundance and diversity. Since organic farming has the potential to mitigate negative effects of agricultural intensification on biodiversity, it may also benefit crop pollination, but direct evidence of this is scant. We evaluated the effect of organic farming on pollination of strawberry plants focusing on (1) if pollination success was higher on organic farms compared to conventional farms, and (2) if there was a time lag from conversion to organic farming until an effect was manifested. We found that pollination success and the proportion of fully pollinated berries were higher on organic compared to conventional farms and this difference was already evident 2-4 years after conversion to organic farming. Our results suggest that conversion to organic farming may rapidly increase pollination success and hence benefit the ecosystem service of crop pollination regarding both yield quantity and quality.

• Författare: Georg Andersson; Maj Rundlöf; Henrik Smith
• Avdelning/ar: Biodiversitet; Centrum för miljö- och klimatvetenskap (CEC); BECC: Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate; Biodiversitet och bevarandevetenskap
• Publiceringsår: 2012
• Språk: Engelska
• Publikation/Tidskrift/Serie: PLoS ONE
• Volym: 7
• Issue: 2
• Länkar: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0031599
• Dokumenttyp: Artikel i tidskrift
• Förlag: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Ämne: Earth and Related Environmental Sciences; Ecology
• Status: Published
• Projekt: Effects of Farming Practice on Pollinators and Pollination across Space and Time
• Forskningsgrupp: Biodiversity and Conservation Science
• ISBN/ISSN/Övrigt: ISSN: 1932-6203