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Organic farming improves pollination success in strawberries.

Andersson, Georg LU orcid ; Rundlöf, Maj LU orcid and Smith, Henrik LU (2012) In PLoS ONE 7(2).
Abstract
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... (More)
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. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
PLoS ONE
volume
7
issue
2
article number
e31599
publisher
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
external identifiers
  • wos:000302741300080
  • pmid:22355380
  • scopus:84857099448
  • pmid:22355380
ISSN
1932-6203
DOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0031599
project
Effects of Farming Practice on Pollinators and Pollination across Space and Time
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
dbe63c41-7028-4286-98fa-7f781d72461d (old id 2366396)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 14:22:28
date last changed
2022-10-12 22:46:33
@article{dbe63c41-7028-4286-98fa-7f781d72461d,
  abstract     = {{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.}},
  author       = {{Andersson, Georg and Rundlöf, Maj and Smith, Henrik}},
  issn         = {{1932-6203}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{2}},
  publisher    = {{Public Library of Science (PLoS)}},
  series       = {{PLoS ONE}},
  title        = {{Organic farming improves pollination success in strawberries.}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0031599}},
  doi          = {{10.1371/journal.pone.0031599}},
  volume       = {{7}},
  year         = {{2012}},
}