Pollinator's diversity and pollination effectiveness of coffee in landscapes with different amounts of forest cover

Abstract

Lots of studies are trying to relate ecosystem services and biodiversity. Pollination is an important ecosystem service provided by flower visitors, mainly bees, to a variety of crops worldwide, including coffee. Even after some studies demonstrated that the presence of bees in coffee plantations increased fruit set, more studies are necessary to better understand the mechanisms that control the effectiveness of pollination in a bigger spatial scale. Aiming to cover this gap, this study will evaluate the relation between landscape structure, especially amount of forest cover, and pollination in coffee plantations. For that, the diversity of pollinators will be estimated and the effectiveness of pollination will be evaluated in coffee plantations located in landscapes with different amount of forest cover. This relation will also be evaluated in coffee plantations at different distances from forest fragments. The effectiveness of pollination will be measured by pollinator's exclusion experiments and quantified by the amount and weight of fruits. It is expected to find a more diverse community of pollinators and a bigger effectiveness of pollination in landscapes with bigger amount of forest cover and in plantations closer of forest fragments.