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Portrait of Henrik Smith. Photo.

Henrik Smith

Professor

Portrait of Henrik Smith. Photo.

When ecosystem services interact: crop pollination benefits depend on the level of pest control.

Author

  • Ola Lundin
  • Henrik Smith
  • Maj Rundlöf
  • Riccardo Bommarco

Summary, in English

Pollination is a key ecosystem service which most often has been studied in isolation although effects of pollination on seed set might depend on, and interact with, other services important for crop production. We tested three competing hypotheses on how insect pollination and pest control might jointly affect seed set: independent, compensatory or synergistic effects. For this, we performed a cage experiment with two levels of insect pollination and simulated pest control in red clover (Trifolium pratense L.) grown for seed. There was a synergistic interaction between the two services: the gain in seed set obtained when simultaneously increasing pollination and pest control outweighed the sum of seed set gains obtained when increasing each service separately. This study shows that interactions can alter the benefits obtained from service-providing organisms, and this needs to be considered to properly manage multiple ecosystem services.

Department/s

  • Biodiversity
  • Centre for Environmental and Climate Science (CEC)
  • BECC: Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate
  • Biodiversity and Conservation Science

Publishing year

2013

Language

English

Publication/Series

Royal Society of London. Proceedings B. Biological Sciences

Volume

280

Issue

1753

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Royal Society Publishing

Topic

  • Ecology
  • Earth and Related Environmental Sciences

Keywords

  • Bombus
  • Apion
  • herbivore
  • seed predator
  • pollen limitation

Status

Published

Research group

  • Biodiversity and Conservation Science

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1471-2954