The area requirements of an ecosystem service: crop pollination by native bee communities in California

Managing ecosystem services is critical to human survival, yet we do not know how large natural areas must be to support these services. We investigated how crop pollination services provided by native, unmanaged, bee communities varied on organic and conventional farms situated along a gradient of isolation from natural habitat. Pollination services from native bees were significantly, positively related to the proportion of upland natural habitat in the vicinity of farm sites, but not to any other factor studied, including farm type, insecticide usage, field size and honeybee abundance. The scale of this relationship matched bee foraging ranges. Stability and predictability of pollination services also increased with increasing natural habitat area. This strong relationship between natural habitat area and pollination services was robust over space and time, allowing prediction of the area needed to produce a given level of pollination services by wild bees within this landscape.

[1]  N. Williams,et al.  Effects of Cultivation and Proximity to Natural Habitat on Ground-nesting Native Bees in California Sunflower Fields , 2006 .

[2]  Miguel Martínez-Ramos,et al.  APPLYING COMMUNITY STRUCTURE ANALYSIS TO ECOSYSTEM FUNCTION: EXAMPLES FROM POLLINATION AND CARBON STORAGE , 2005 .

[3]  A. Merenlender.  EFFECTS OF SUBDIVIDING PRIVATE PROPERTY ON BIODIVERSITY IN CALIFORNIA'S NORTH COAST OAK WOODLANDS , 2005 .

[4]  T. Ricketts.  Tropical Forest Fragments Enhance Pollinator Activity in Nearby Coffee Crops , 2004 .

[5]  Rolf A. Groeneveld,et al.  Ecological Effectiveness of Agri‐Environment Schemes in Different Agricultural Landscapes in The Netherlands , 2004 .

[6]  Mercedes Pascual,et al.  Ecology for a Crowded Planet , 2004, Science.

[7]  Bill Weber,et al.  The Arrogance of America's Designer Ark , 2004 .

[8]  D. Shah,et al.  Weed seedbank community responses to crop rotation schemes , 2004 .

[9]  Jeffrey A. McNeely,et al.  Book Review: Ecoagriculture; Strategies to Feed the World and Save Wild Biodiversity , 2002, Biodiversity & Conservation.

[10]  S. Weiss,et al.  GLM versus CCA spatial modeling of plant species distribution , 1999, Plant Ecology.

[11]  D. Goulson.  Effects of introduced bees on native ecosystems , 2003 .

[12]  Teja Tscharntke,et al.  Mass flowering crops enhance pollinator densities at a landscape scale , 2003 .

[13]  Richard M. Cowling,et al.  A conservation plan for a global biodiversity hotspot— the Cape Floristic Region, South Africa , 2003 .

[14]  J. Roughgarden,et al.  The economic value of ecological stability , 2003, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[15]  Teja Tscharntke,et al.  Fruit set of highland coffee increases with the diversity of pollinating bees , 2003, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences.

[16]  R. M. Cowlinga,et al.  A conservation plan for a global biodiversity hotspot — the Cape Floristic Region , South Africa , 2003 .

[17]  Neal M. Williams,et al.  Crop pollination from native bees at risk from agricultural intensification , 2002, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[18]  Sandra A. Brown,et al.  Potential carbon mitigation and income in developing countries from changes in use and management of agricultural and forest lands , 2002, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences.

[19]  T. Simons,et al.  Spatial autocorrelation and autoregressive models in ecology , 2002 .

[20]  Teja Tscharntke,et al.  SCALE‐DEPENDENT EFFECTS OF LANDSCAPE CONTEXT ON THREE POLLINATOR GUILDS , 2002 .

[21]  Atte Moilanen,et al.  SIMPLE CONNECTIVITY MEASURES IN SPATIAL ECOLOGY , 2002 .

[22]  P. Pearman.  THE SCALE OF COMMUNITY STRUCTURE: HABITAT VARIATION AND AVIAN GUILDS IN TROPICAL FOREST UNDERSTORY , 2002 .

[23]  N. Williams,et al.  NATIVE BEES, NATIVE PLANTS, AND CROP POLLINATION IN CALIFORNIA , 2002 .

[24]  T. Ricketts.  The Matrix Matters: Effective Isolation in Fragmented Landscapes , 2001, The American Naturalist.

[25]  G. Katul,et al.  Soil fertility limits carbon sequestration by forest ecosystems in a CO2-enriched atmosphere , 2001, Nature.

[26]  G. Daily,et al.  Conserving Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services , 2001, Science.

[27]  S. Sarkar,et al.  Systematic conservation planning , 2000, Nature.

[28]  S W Pacala,et al.  Contributions of land-use history to carbon accumulation in U.S. forests. , 2000, Science.

[29]  Geoffrey Heal,et al.  Value or Incentive? Getting Society to Pay for Conservation@@@Nature and the Marketplace: Capturing the Value of Ecosystem Services , 2000 .

[30]  R. Frankl,et al.  Foraging habitats and foraging distances of bumblebees, Bombus spp. (Hym., Apidae), in an agricultural landscape , 2000 .

[31]  N. H. Ravindranath,et al.  Land Use, Land-Use Change, and Forestry: A Special Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , 2000 .

[32]  K. Delaplane,et al.  Crop Pollination by Bees , 2000 .

[33]  Xiangming Xiao,et al.  AN ASSESSMENT OF ECOSYSTEM SERVICES: WATER FLOW REGULATION AND HYDROELECTRIC POWER PRODUCTION , 2000 .

[34]  A. Merenlender.  Mapping vineyard expansion provides information on agriculture and the environment , 2000 .

[35]  S. Murray,et al.  Pilot analysis of global ecosystems: forest ecosystems. , 2000 .

[36]  A. G. Thomas,et al.  Weed communities associated with arable Saskatchewan farm management systems. , 2000 .

[37]  C. Carter,et al.  Defying expectations, Asian financial crisis had little impact on California farm exports , 1999 .

[38]  D. Tilman,et al.  Diversity‐Stability Relationships: Statistical Inevitability or Ecological Consequence? , 1998, The American Naturalist.

[39]  C. Brooks,et al.  Effects of Subdividing Private Property on Biodiversity in California's North Coast Oak Woodlands , 1998 .

[40]  G. Nabhan,et al.  Services provided by pollinators , 1997 .

[41]  D. Roubik,et al.  Pollination of cultivated plants in the tropics. , 1995 .

[42]  P. Legendre.  Spatial Autocorrelation: Trouble or New Paradigm? , 1993 .

[43]  David W. Inouye,et al.  Techniques for Pollination Biologists , 1993 .

[44]  S. Chatterjee,et al.  Regression Analysis by Example (2nd ed.). , 1992 .

[45]  Harold A. Mooney,et al.  EFFECTS OF SOIL RESOURCES ON PLANT INVASION AND COMMUNITY STRUCTURE IN CALIFORNIAN SERPENTINE GRASSLAND , 1990 .

[46]  E. A. Clark,et al.  Insect pollinators and sustainable agriculture , 1990 .

[47]  C. Johansen,et al.  Pollinator protection: a bee & pesticide handbook. , 1990 .

[48]  F. Parker,et al.  New pollinators for our crops , 1987 .

[49]  D. Lovejoy,et al.  The Economy of Nature , 1977 .

[50]  R. Ricklefs,et al.  The Economy of Nature , 1976 .

[51]  S. Mcgregor.  Insect pollination of cultivated crop plants. , 1976 .

[52]  Robert L. Metcalf,et al.  Introduction to insect pest management , 1975 .

[53]  P. D. Hurd,et al.  Ecology of the squash and gourd bee, Peponapis pruinosa, on cultivated cucurbits in California (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) , 1974 .

[54]  J. Free.  Insect pollination of crops , 1970 .

[55]  W. C. Adlerz.  Honey Bee Visit Numbers and Watermelon Pollination , 1966 .

[56]  W. Stephen.  Alfalfa Pollination in Manitoba , 1955 .