Pollination of strawberries and biological pest control on different spatial scales, from crop varieties and fields to landscapes

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Teja Tscharntke
• Subject Area: Ecology of Land Use
• Term: from 2010 to 2013
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 175695669

Pollination and biological pest control are important ecosystem services provided by nature. These are endangered due to the increasing agricultural intensification on local and landscapes scales. In the current study we will analyse, for the first time, the combination of pollination and biological pest control and their influence on strawberry yield and quality, comparing experiments on different spatial scales (plant, field, landscape) to value the relative importance of influencing factors. We will analyse the effects of pollen diversity (diversity of cultivars that participate in pollination) on yield (weight), trade quality, ingredients and taste of strawberries based on an experimental field at the University of Göttingen. In addition, the influence of different pollination modes (self, wind and insect pollination) will be assessed. Further experiments will take place on commercial strawberry fields. We will compare the behaviour of different pollinator species and guilds on strawberry flowers and analyse the dependence of pollinator, pest and natural enemy diversity on landscape composition and lastly, its influence on strawberry yield. We will also increase the population of solitary bees using experimentally exposed nesting sites (trap nests) and examine the potential influence on strawberry yield. Increasing bee abundance and diversity on strawberry fields and using different cultivars may cause higher pollen diversity on acceptor plants, increasing yield and fruit quality.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Participating Person: Privatdozentin Dr. Andrea Holzschuh