Bees increase tomato crop production and are impacted by both landscape context and farm management

• Ano de defesa: 2018
• Autor(a) principal: Barbosa, Fernando Mendes
• Tipo de documento: Tese
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: eng
• Instituição de defesa: Universidade Federal de Viçosa
• Palavras-chave em Português: Abelhas; Solos - Uso; Polinização; Tomate - Cultivo; Entomologia Agrícola
• Link de acesso: https://locus.ufv.br//handle/123456789/27262

Most agricultural crops depend on animal-mediated pollination to some degree. Among insects, bees are the main pollinators, increasing yield and improving the quality of the agricultural production. On the other hand, the changes resulting from the intensification of the agriculture are pointed out as the main causes of the loss of diversity in pollinator communities, which may compromise the stability of food production. Given this, understanding how bees affect agricultural production and how changes resulting from intensification of agriculture impact the community of these pollinators is important to outline strategies that promote the increase and stability of the pollination services in agroecosystems. Thus, initially, I identified bees visiting the tomato flowers and the main characteristics of the identified species; I verified the effect of climatic variables and the period of day in which bees’ activity took place in the tomato flower; and I evaluated fruit production under different types of pollination. Subsequently, I evaluated how the landscape configuration (landscape scale) and farm management (local scale) affect the diversity of bees in small tomato crops in the region of Zona Mata, Minas Gerais state, Brazil. Finally, I assessed the effect of the irrigation method on pollination and pollinators in a tomato crop. Overall, bees increase tomato production and respond negatively to loss of natural habitat and increased use of agrochemicals. In this study, an important step was taken in understanding how bees affect tomato production and how the community of these pollinators responds to changes resulting from the intensification of agriculture. Considering the current discussion involving expansion of agricultural activity and biodiversity conservation, the results of this study are particularly relevant for providing important data that can guide pollinator management plans.