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Organic farming improves pollination success in strawberries.

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Author

Summary, in English

Pollination of insect pollinated crops has been found to be correlated to pollinator abundance and diversity. Since organic farming has the potential to mitigate negative effects of agricultural intensification on biodiversity, it may also benefit crop pollination, but direct evidence of this is scant. We evaluated the effect of organic farming on pollination of strawberry plants focusing on (1) if pollination success was higher on organic farms compared to conventional farms, and (2) if there was a time lag from conversion to organic farming until an effect was manifested. We found that pollination success and the proportion of fully pollinated berries were higher on organic compared to conventional farms and this difference was already evident 2-4 years after conversion to organic farming. Our results suggest that conversion to organic farming may rapidly increase pollination success and hence benefit the ecosystem service of crop pollination regarding both yield quantity and quality.

Publishing year

2012

Language

English

Publication/Series

PLoS ONE

Volume

7

Issue

2

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Public Library of Science (PLoS)

Topic

  • Earth and Related Environmental Sciences
  • Ecology

Status

Published

Project

  • Effects of Farming Practice on Pollinators and Pollination across Space and Time

Research group

  • Biodiversity and Conservation Science

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1932-6203