Interactive effects among ecosystem services and management practices on crop production: pollination in coffee agroforestry systems.

ABSTRACT: Crop productivity is improved by ecosystem services, including pollination, but this should be set in the context of trade-offs among multiple management practices. We investigated the impact of pollination services on coffee production, considering variation in fertilization, irrigation, shade cover, and environmental variables such as rainfall (which stimulates coffee flowering across all plantations), soil pH, and nitrogen availability. After accounting for management interventions, bee abundance improved coffee production (number of berries harvested). Some management interventions, such as irrigation, used once to trigger asynchronous flowering, dramatically increased bee abundance at coffee trees. Others, such as the extent and type of tree cover, revealed interacting effects on poll

SUBMITTER: Boreux V 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3666681 | biostudies-literature | 2013 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature