Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T20:20:46.980Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Dominance of the semi-wild honeybee as coffee pollinator across a gradient of shade-tree structure in Ethiopia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 July 2014

Ulrika Samnegård ,
Peter A. Hambäck ,
Sileshi Nemomissa  and
Kristoffer Hylander
Ulrika Samnegård*
Affiliation:
Stockholm University, Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences, SE 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
Peter A. Hambäck
Affiliation:
Stockholm University, Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences, SE 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
Sileshi Nemomissa
Affiliation:
Addis Ababa University, Department of Plant Biology and Biodiversity Management, P.O. Box 3434, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Kristoffer Hylander
Affiliation:
Stockholm University, Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences, SE 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
*
1Corresponding author. Email: ulrika.samnegard@su.se
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

Mass-flowering plant species are often pollinated by social bees that are able to use the abundant resource by recruiting workers from their colonies. In this study we surveyed pollinators on the mass-flowering perennial crop coffee (Coffea arabica) in its native range in Ethiopia. Previous studies in areas where coffee is introduced often find the social honeybee, Apis mellifera, to be the dominant pollinator. In those areas, the bee-species composition visiting coffee varies with a higher bee diversity closer to forest or in less modified habitats. We surveyed pollinators of coffee under different shade-tree structures, by collecting hoverflies and bees landing on coffee flowers in 19 sites in south-west Ethiopia. We found the native honeybee (A. mellifera) to be the dominant visitor of coffee flowers in all sites. Honeybee abundance was not affected by the local shade-tree structure, but was positively affected by the amount of coffee flower resources. Other pollinators were positively affected by complex shade-tree structures. To conclude, the honeybee is clearly the dominant pollinator of coffee in Ethiopia along the whole shade-tree structure gradient. Its high abundance could be a consequence of the provision of traditional bee hives in the landscape, which are colonized by wild swarming honeybees.

Keywords

agroforestryApis mellifera subsp. simensisCoffea arabicalandscape ecologymoist afromontane forestpollinationspecies composition
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 30 , Issue 5 , September 2014 , pp. 401 - 408
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

LITERATURE CITED

ALBRECHT, M., SCHMID, B., HAUTIER, Y. & MÜLLER, C. B. 2012. Diverse pollinator communities enhance plant reproductive success. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 279:4845–4852.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
ANTHONY, F., BERTRAND, B., QUIROS, O., WILCHES, A., LASHERMES, P., BERTHAUD, J. & CHARRIER, A. 2001. Genetic diversity of wild coffee (Coffea arabica L.) using molecular markers. Euphytica 118:53–65.Google Scholar
BADANO, E. I. & VERGARA, C. H. 2011. Potential negative effects of exotic honey bees on the diversity of native pollinators and yield of highland coffee plantations. Agricultural and Forest Entomology 13:365–372.Google Scholar
BEEKMAN, M. & RATNIEKS, F. L. W. 2000. Long-range foraging by the honey-bee, Apis mellifera L. Functional Ecology 14:490–496.Google Scholar
BOREUX, V., KUSHALAPPA, C. G., VAAST, P. & GHAZOUL, J. 2013. Interactive effects among ecosystem services and management practices on crop production: pollination in coffee agroforestry systems. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 110:8387–8392.Google Scholar
BRITTAIN, C., WILLIAMS, N., KREMEN, C. & KLEIN, A.-M. 2013. Synergistic effects of non-Apis bees and honey bees for pollination services. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 280:20122767.Google Scholar
DIETEMANN, V., PIRK, C. W. W. & CREWE, R. 2009. Is there a need for conservation of honeybees in Africa? Apidologie 40:285–295.Google Scholar
DONALDSON-MATASCI, M. C. & DORNHAUS, A. 2012. How habitat affects the benefits of communication in collectively foraging honey bees. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 66:583–592.Google Scholar
DORNHAUS, A. & CHITTKA, L. 2004. Why do honey bees dance? Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 55:395–401.Google Scholar
EARDLEY, C. D., KUHLMANN, M. & PAULY, A. 2010. The bee genera and subgenera of sub-Saharan Africa. ABC Taxa 7:1–145.Google Scholar
HUNDERA, K., AERTS, R., FONTAINE, A., VAN MECHELEN, M., GIJBELS, P., HONNAY, O. & MUYS, B. 2013. Effects of coffee management intensity on composition, structure, and regeneration status of Ethiopian moist evergreen afromontane forests. Environmental Management 51:801–809.Google Scholar
HYLANDER, K., NEMOMISSA, S., DELRUE, J. & ENKOSA, W. 2013. Effects of coffee management on deforestation rates and forest integrity. Conservation Biology 27:1031–1040.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
JHA, S. & VANDERMEER, J. H. 2009. Contrasting foraging patterns for Africanized honeybees, native bees and native wasps in a tropical agroforestry landscape. Journal of Tropical Ecology 25:13–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
JOHNSON, S. D. & STEINER, K. E. 2000. Generalization versus specialization in plant pollination systems. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 15:140–143.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
KAJOBE, R. & ROUBIK, D. W. 2006. Honey-making bee colony abundance and predation by apes and humans in a Uganda forest reserve. Biotropica 38:210–218.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
KLEIN, A. M., STEFFAN-DEWENTER, I., BUCHORI, D. & TSCHARNTKE, T. 2002. Effects of land-use intensity in tropical agroforestry systems on coffee flower-visiting and trap-nesting bees and wasps. Conservation Biology 16:1003–1014.Google Scholar
KLEIN, A. M., STEFFAN-DEWENTER, I. & TSCHARNTKE, T. 2003a. Fruit set of highland coffee increases with the diversity of pollinating bees. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 270:955–961.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
KLEIN, A. M., STEFFAN-DEWENTER, I. & TSCHARNTKE, T. 2003b. Pollination of Coffea canephora in relation to local and regional agroforestry management. Journal of Applied Ecology 40:837–845.Google Scholar
KLEIN, A. M., CUNNINGHAM, S. A., BOS, M. & STEFFAN-DEWENTER, I. 2008. Advances in pollination ecology from tropical plantation crops. Ecology 89:935–943.Google Scholar
KOVACS-HOSTYANSZKI, A., HAENKE, S., BATARY, P., JAUKER, B., BALDI, A., TSCHARNTKE, T. & HOLZSCHUH, A. 2013. Contrasting effects of mass-flowering crops on bee pollination of hedge plants at different spatial and temporal scales. Ecological Applications 23:1938–1946.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
KRISHNAN, S., KUSHALAPPA, C. G., SHAANKER, R. U. & GHAZOUL, J. 2012. Status of pollinators and their efficiency in coffee fruit set in a fragmented landscape mosaic in South India. Basic and Applied Ecology 13:277–285.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MEIXNER, M. D., LETA, M. A., KOENIGER, N. & FUCHS, S. 2011. The honey bees of Ethiopia represent a new subspecies of Apis mellifera–Apis mellifera simensis n. ssp. Apidologie 42:425–437.Google Scholar
NGO, H. T., MOJICA, A. C. & PACKER, L. 2011. Coffee plant–pollinator interactions: a review. Canadian Journal of Zoology 89:647–660.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
OLLERTON, J. 1996. Reconciling ecological processes with phylogenetic patterns: the apparent paradox of plant-pollinator systems. Journal of Ecology 84:767–769.Google Scholar
PERSSON, A. S. & SMITH, H. G. 2013. Seasonal persistence of bumblebee populations is affected by landscape context. Agriculture Ecosystems and Environment 165:201–209.Google Scholar
POTTS, S. G., BIESMEIJER, J. C., KREMEN, C., NEUMANN, P., SCHWEIGER, O. & KUNIN, W. E. 2010. Global pollinator declines: trends, impacts and drivers. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 25:345–353.Google Scholar
RICKETTS, T. H. 2004. Tropical forest fragments enhance pollinator activity in nearby coffee crops. Conservation Biology 18:1262–1271.Google Scholar
ROUBIK, D. W. 2002. Tropical agriculture – the value of bees to the coffee harvest. Nature 417:708.Google Scholar
SCHMITT, C. B., SENBETA, F., DENICH, M., PREISINGER, H. & BOEHMER, H. J. 2010. Wild coffee management and plant diversity in the montane rainforest of southwestern Ethiopia. African Journal of Ecology 48:78–86.Google Scholar
STOUT, J. C. & MORALES, C. L. 2009. Ecological impacts of invasive alien species on bees. Apidologie 40:388–409.Google Scholar
VEDDELER, D., KLEIN, A. M. & TSCHARNTKE, T. 2006. Contrasting responses of bee communities to coffee flowering at different spatial scales. Oikos 112:594–601.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
VERGARA, C. H. & BADANO, E. I. 2009. Pollinator diversity increases fruit production in Mexican coffee plantations: the importance of rustic management systems. Agriculture Ecosystems and Environment 129:117–123.Google Scholar
ZUUR, A. F., IENO, E. N. & WALKER, N. 2009. Mixed effects models and extensions in ecology with R. Springer-Verlag, New York. 574 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar