Wild bees mediate fruit quality via seed set in highbush blueberry : A quantitative synthesis
(2025) In Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 394.- Abstract
Insect-mediated pollination enhances global production of many crops, and evidence highlights that insect pollination can also improve crop quality. The link between insect-mediated pollination and crop quality is driven not only by insect pollinators, but by a complex of interactions between pollinators, plant genotype, levels of cross pollination, plant physiology, environmental conditions, farm management, etc. To further optimize food production, the link between insect-mediated pollination and crop quality requires additional examination. In this study, we used a dataset of 260 sites across multiple production regions to explore how flower visitation of honey bees and wild bees drives fruit quality in highbush blueberry, measured... (More)
Insect-mediated pollination enhances global production of many crops, and evidence highlights that insect pollination can also improve crop quality. The link between insect-mediated pollination and crop quality is driven not only by insect pollinators, but by a complex of interactions between pollinators, plant genotype, levels of cross pollination, plant physiology, environmental conditions, farm management, etc. To further optimize food production, the link between insect-mediated pollination and crop quality requires additional examination. In this study, we used a dataset of 260 sites across multiple production regions to explore how flower visitation of honey bees and wild bees drives fruit quality in highbush blueberry, measured as fruit weight. Our hypothesis was that bee visitation mediates fruit quality through fruit set and seed set. These effects were evaluated using both linear and structural equation modeling (SEM). Our analyses show that seed set mainly influences fruit quality and SEM analyses reveal a positive cascading effect of wild bee visitation on fruit quality, mediated via seed set. Similar effects of fruit set or honey bee visitation on fruit quality were not detected. This study highlights that bee visitation mainly affects blueberry fruit quality via seed set and that analyses beyond the pollinator visitation-crop quality relation can inform pollination research and management. Possible measures to improve crop quality by enhancing pollinator visitation by means of farm management or landscape management are discussed.
(Less)
- author
- Eeraerts, Maxime
; Kogan, Clark
; Isaacs, Rufus
; Batáry, Péter
; Blaauw, Brett R.
; Bobiwash, Kyle
; Campbell, Joshua W.
; Cavigliasso, Pablo
; Daniels, Jaret C.
; Ellis, James D.
; Gibbs, Jason
; Goldstein, Lauren
; Mallinger, Rachel E.
; Melathopoulos, Andony
; Miller, Sharron Z.
; Montero-Castaño, Ana
; Naranjo, Shiala M.
; Nicholson, Charlie C.
LU
; Perkins, Jacquelyn A.
; Raine, Nigel E.
; Ricketts, Taylor H.
; Rogers, Emma
; Ternest, John Jay
; Verheyen, Kris
and DeVetter, Lisa W.
(Less) - publishing date
- 2025-12-01
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Crop pollination, Fruit weight, Pollinators, Vaccinium spp
- in
- Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment
- volume
- 394
- article number
- 109872
- publisher
- Elsevier
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:105011386336
- ISSN
- 0167-8809
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.agee.2025.109872
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- no
- additional info
- Publisher Copyright: © 2025 Elsevier B.V.
- id
- 4aa1ea41-cb91-4c4d-b19e-1f9dcd15b918
- date added to LUP
- 2026-01-13 15:01:48
- date last changed
- 2026-01-20 16:19:32
@article{4aa1ea41-cb91-4c4d-b19e-1f9dcd15b918,
abstract = {{<p>Insect-mediated pollination enhances global production of many crops, and evidence highlights that insect pollination can also improve crop quality. The link between insect-mediated pollination and crop quality is driven not only by insect pollinators, but by a complex of interactions between pollinators, plant genotype, levels of cross pollination, plant physiology, environmental conditions, farm management, etc. To further optimize food production, the link between insect-mediated pollination and crop quality requires additional examination. In this study, we used a dataset of 260 sites across multiple production regions to explore how flower visitation of honey bees and wild bees drives fruit quality in highbush blueberry, measured as fruit weight. Our hypothesis was that bee visitation mediates fruit quality through fruit set and seed set. These effects were evaluated using both linear and structural equation modeling (SEM). Our analyses show that seed set mainly influences fruit quality and SEM analyses reveal a positive cascading effect of wild bee visitation on fruit quality, mediated via seed set. Similar effects of fruit set or honey bee visitation on fruit quality were not detected. This study highlights that bee visitation mainly affects blueberry fruit quality via seed set and that analyses beyond the pollinator visitation-crop quality relation can inform pollination research and management. Possible measures to improve crop quality by enhancing pollinator visitation by means of farm management or landscape management are discussed.</p>}},
author = {{Eeraerts, Maxime and Kogan, Clark and Isaacs, Rufus and Batáry, Péter and Blaauw, Brett R. and Bobiwash, Kyle and Campbell, Joshua W. and Cavigliasso, Pablo and Daniels, Jaret C. and Ellis, James D. and Gibbs, Jason and Goldstein, Lauren and Mallinger, Rachel E. and Melathopoulos, Andony and Miller, Sharron Z. and Montero-Castaño, Ana and Naranjo, Shiala M. and Nicholson, Charlie C. and Perkins, Jacquelyn A. and Raine, Nigel E. and Ricketts, Taylor H. and Rogers, Emma and Ternest, John Jay and Verheyen, Kris and DeVetter, Lisa W.}},
issn = {{0167-8809}},
keywords = {{Crop pollination; Fruit weight; Pollinators; Vaccinium spp}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{12}},
publisher = {{Elsevier}},
series = {{Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment}},
title = {{Wild bees mediate fruit quality via seed set in highbush blueberry : A quantitative synthesis}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2025.109872}},
doi = {{10.1016/j.agee.2025.109872}},
volume = {{394}},
year = {{2025}},
}