• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
Monday, September 25, 2023
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News Biology

Pollination by more than one bee species improves cherry harvest

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
September 14, 2023
in Biology
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

To obtain the biggest cherry harvest, trees should be pollinated by both honey bees and mason bees. A new study led by a researcher at the University of Gothenburg shows yet another benefit of biodiversity.

Julia Osterman

Credit: Veronika Conrady

To obtain the biggest cherry harvest, trees should be pollinated by both honey bees and mason bees. A new study led by a researcher at the University of Gothenburg shows yet another benefit of biodiversity.

Like many other fruit trees, most sweet cherry cultivars depend on cross-pollination to produce their fruit. This means that there need to be several different cultivars of sweet cherry trees in an orchard for the bees to transport pollen from one to another.

“Sweet cherry trees are usually planted in alternate rows of different cultivars. In some cases, you can put different cultivars in the same row, but this can make the harvesting logistics tricky. In other words, the bees have to fly from one row of trees to the next to ensure that the trees set fruit,” says Julia Osterman, a biologist at the University of Gothenburg and lead author of the study published in the scientific journal Ecology and Evolution.   

Two bee species produce a synergy effect

Working with German researcher colleagues at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Julia Osterman found that if trees were pollinated by more than one bee species, they produced more cherries. The researchers observed bees in a total of 17 cherry orchards in eastern Germany. Some growers used honey bees in hives as pollinators, while others used wild mason bees. Some orchards used both species to different extents. The researchers noticed a synergy effect in those orchards in which both species of bee were present.

“It had an impact on the sweet cherry fruit set. The orchards with honey bees and lots of mason bees could have cherries on up to 70 per cent of the blossom. In orchards with only honey bees or only mason bees as pollinators the rate could be as low as 20 per cent,” says Julia Osterman.

Many growers were already using two species of bees, often as a back-up if the weather was too cold for the honey bees when the cherry trees were in bloom, as cherries flower early. Honey bees only become active once the temperature is above 12°C, but mason bees can cope with lower temperatures. The sharp increase in fruiting occurred when both species were active. The researchers are now speculating on the reasons for this.

Bamboo sticks as nest material

“One theory is that the presence of mason bees affects the foraging behavior of honey bees,” says Julia Osterman. “This disturbs them and so they change rows more often, resulting in more cross-pollination. But all we know at the moment is that interaction between the bees produces a synergy effect.”

Of course, this is valuable data for cherry growers who can attract wild mason bees to their orchards by providing good nest material.

“Mason bees are solitary and don’t make honey in honeycombs like honey bees,” Julia Osterman explains. “They are more focused on collecting pollen to feed their offspring. They like to crawl into tube-shaped spaces where they can lay their eggs. Fruit growers can encourage mason bees to nest in their orchards by placing bamboo or wood with holes drilled in it at the site. However, it only seems to work up to a certain limit, after which you won’t attract any more mason bees, no matter how much nest material you bring in.”

Similar results have been observed in almond orchards and Julia Osterman’s next step will be to investigate whether this synergy effect applies to other fruit trees, as well as trying to determine exactly how the two bee species are affecting each other.

Facts: The study was conducted in Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia in Germany in spring 2020 with researchers from Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg and a research institute in Erfurt and is published in Ecology and Evolution. To the study: Mason bees and honey bees synergistically enhance fruit set in sweet cherry orchards



Journal

Ecology and Evolution

DOI

10.1002/ece3.10289

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Mason bees and honey bees synergistically enhance fruit set in sweet cherry orchards

Article Publication Date

9-Jul-2023

Share12Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

S Texas parrots

Texas A&M researchers show endangered parrot species is thriving in urban areas

September 22, 2023
Wildlife mitigating measures no help for Ottawa’s freshwater turtles

Wildlife mitigating measures no help for Ottawa’s freshwater turtles

September 22, 2023

Jellyfish are smarter than you think

September 22, 2023

Jellyfish shown to learn from past experience for the first time

September 22, 2023

POPULAR NEWS

  • blank

    Microbe Computers

    58 shares
    Share 23 Tweet 15
  • A pioneering study from Politecnico di Milano sheds light on one of the still poorly understood aspects of cancer

    34 shares
    Share 14 Tweet 9
  • Fossil spines reveal deep sea’s past

    34 shares
    Share 14 Tweet 9
  • Scientists go ‘back to the future,’ create flies with ancient genes to study evolution

    75 shares
    Share 30 Tweet 19

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

ETRI unveiled hyper-realistic technologies for the metaverse world

Global study provides new insights into barriers to effective cardiovascular rehabilitation for women and why women are less likely to participate

Chromosome-scale genome sequence of Suaeda glauca sheds light on salt stress tolerance in halophytes

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 57 other subscribers
  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In