Title |
Organic Farming Improves Pollination Success in Strawberries
|
---|---|
Published in |
PLOS ONE, February 2012
|
DOI | 10.1371/journal.pone.0031599 |
Pubmed ID | |
Authors |
Georg K. S. Andersson, Maj Rundlöf, Henrik G. Smith |
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. |
X Demographics
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
United States | 15 | 48% |
Netherlands | 2 | 6% |
Australia | 2 | 6% |
Canada | 1 | 3% |
Norway | 1 | 3% |
Sweden | 1 | 3% |
Germany | 1 | 3% |
United Kingdom | 1 | 3% |
Unknown | 7 | 23% |
Demographic breakdown
Type | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Members of the public | 26 | 84% |
Scientists | 2 | 6% |
Science communicators (journalists, bloggers, editors) | 2 | 6% |
Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals) | 1 | 3% |
Mendeley readers
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
United States | 5 | 2% |
Brazil | 2 | <1% |
United Kingdom | 2 | <1% |
Austria | 1 | <1% |
Kenya | 1 | <1% |
Sweden | 1 | <1% |
Italy | 1 | <1% |
France | 1 | <1% |
Canada | 1 | <1% |
Other | 6 | 2% |
Unknown | 233 | 92% |
Demographic breakdown
Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Student > Ph. D. Student | 57 | 22% |
Student > Master | 49 | 19% |
Researcher | 46 | 18% |
Student > Bachelor | 25 | 10% |
Professor | 11 | 4% |
Other | 33 | 13% |
Unknown | 33 | 13% |
Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 115 | 45% |
Environmental Science | 47 | 19% |
Economics, Econometrics and Finance | 8 | 3% |
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology | 7 | 3% |
Social Sciences | 7 | 3% |
Other | 23 | 9% |
Unknown | 47 | 19% |