Drivers of cultivated and wild plant pollination in urban agroecosystems
Pollination is a vital ecosystem service in urban agriculture. Yet the environmental drivers of both crop and wild plant pollination in urban agroecosystems are still not well understood. Pollination experiments involve the manipulation of pollen transfer between plants, for instance, to study the e...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2023-11-01
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| Series: | Basic and Applied Ecology |
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| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1439179123000518 |
| _version_ | 1797660141589364736 |
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| author | Hien Nguyen Julia Marion Schmack Monika Egerer |
| author_facet | Hien Nguyen Julia Marion Schmack Monika Egerer |
| author_sort | Hien Nguyen |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Pollination is a vital ecosystem service in urban agriculture. Yet the environmental drivers of both crop and wild plant pollination in urban agroecosystems are still not well understood. Pollination experiments involve the manipulation of pollen transfer between plants, for instance, to study the effects of pollinators on fruit and seed production (pollination service). In this study, we conducted a pollination exclusion experiment using four experimental plants: two cultivated plant species, strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa) and chili pepper (Capsicum frutescens), and two wild plant species, buttercup (Ranunculus acris) and clover (Trifolium pratense). We placed experimental plants for over 20 days in 13 urban community gardens in Munich, Germany. We compared fruit and seed mass between “open” and “bagged” flowers and tested the effect of biotic factors (floral resources and pollinator diversity) and abiotic factors (urbanization, microclimate) on pollination service (fruit and seed mass) on the experimental plant species. For the two cultivated plants (F. ananassa and C. frutescens), we found that fruit and seed mass were both positively correlated with temperature and pollinator diversity. For the two wild plants (R. acris and T. pretense), we found that floral abundance was negatively related to R. acris seed mass but was positively related to T. pratense seed mass. In summary, we found that biotic and abiotic parameters affected the plant species studied here in different ways, suggesting that there may be synergies and trade-offs in what factors promote the overall pollination of urban plant communities. Our results suggest that gardeners can potentially increase the pollination services on certain garden plants by providing floral resources for pollinating insects. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T18:25:28Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-d91ec1d484ce4c83ad8f9087979e75c6 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1439-1791 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T18:25:28Z |
| publishDate | 2023-11-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Basic and Applied Ecology |
| spelling | doaj.art-d91ec1d484ce4c83ad8f9087979e75c62023-10-14T04:44:21ZengElsevierBasic and Applied Ecology1439-17912023-11-01728292Drivers of cultivated and wild plant pollination in urban agroecosystemsHien Nguyen0Julia Marion Schmack1Monika Egerer2Urban Productive Ecosystems, Department of Life Science Systems, TUM School of Life Sciences, Technical University of Munich, Hans Carl-von-Carlowitz-Platz 2, 85354 Freising, GermanyUrban Productive Ecosystems, Department of Life Science Systems, TUM School of Life Sciences, Technical University of Munich, Hans Carl-von-Carlowitz-Platz 2, 85354 Freising, GermanyCorresponding author.; Urban Productive Ecosystems, Department of Life Science Systems, TUM School of Life Sciences, Technical University of Munich, Hans Carl-von-Carlowitz-Platz 2, 85354 Freising, GermanyPollination is a vital ecosystem service in urban agriculture. Yet the environmental drivers of both crop and wild plant pollination in urban agroecosystems are still not well understood. Pollination experiments involve the manipulation of pollen transfer between plants, for instance, to study the effects of pollinators on fruit and seed production (pollination service). In this study, we conducted a pollination exclusion experiment using four experimental plants: two cultivated plant species, strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa) and chili pepper (Capsicum frutescens), and two wild plant species, buttercup (Ranunculus acris) and clover (Trifolium pratense). We placed experimental plants for over 20 days in 13 urban community gardens in Munich, Germany. We compared fruit and seed mass between “open” and “bagged” flowers and tested the effect of biotic factors (floral resources and pollinator diversity) and abiotic factors (urbanization, microclimate) on pollination service (fruit and seed mass) on the experimental plant species. For the two cultivated plants (F. ananassa and C. frutescens), we found that fruit and seed mass were both positively correlated with temperature and pollinator diversity. For the two wild plants (R. acris and T. pretense), we found that floral abundance was negatively related to R. acris seed mass but was positively related to T. pratense seed mass. In summary, we found that biotic and abiotic parameters affected the plant species studied here in different ways, suggesting that there may be synergies and trade-offs in what factors promote the overall pollination of urban plant communities. Our results suggest that gardeners can potentially increase the pollination services on certain garden plants by providing floral resources for pollinating insects.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1439179123000518Urban pollinatorsUrban agricultureEcosystem servicesUrbanization |
| spellingShingle | Hien Nguyen Julia Marion Schmack Monika Egerer Drivers of cultivated and wild plant pollination in urban agroecosystems Basic and Applied Ecology Urban pollinators Urban agriculture Ecosystem services Urbanization |
| title | Drivers of cultivated and wild plant pollination in urban agroecosystems |
| title_full | Drivers of cultivated and wild plant pollination in urban agroecosystems |
| title_fullStr | Drivers of cultivated and wild plant pollination in urban agroecosystems |
| title_full_unstemmed | Drivers of cultivated and wild plant pollination in urban agroecosystems |
| title_short | Drivers of cultivated and wild plant pollination in urban agroecosystems |
| title_sort | drivers of cultivated and wild plant pollination in urban agroecosystems |
| topic | Urban pollinators Urban agriculture Ecosystem services Urbanization |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1439179123000518 |
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