Complementary Contribution of Wild Bumblebees and Managed Honeybee to the Pollination Niche of an Introduced Blueberry Crop.

ABSTRACT: The entomophilous pollination niche (abundance, phenotypic traits, foraging behaviours and environmental tolerances of insect pollinators) helps to understand and better manage crop pollination. We apply this niche approach to assess how an entomophilous crop (blueberry, Vaccinium ashei) can be expanded into new territories (i.e., northern Spain) far from their original area of domestication (North America). Insect visits to blueberry flowers were monitored in a plantation on 12 different days, at 8 different times during day and covering various weather conditions. Abundance, visitation rate, pollen gathering behaviour, and frequency of inter-plant and inter-row movements were recorded. The pollinator assemblage was basically composed of one managed honeybee species (50.8% of visits) and

SUBMITTER: Minarro M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8307808 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature