Influência da composição da paisagem e de métodos de cultivo do café na comunidade de abelhas

Abstract

Suppression of natural habitats has been one of the main causes of biodiversity loss. The reduction of natural habitats causes an environmental unbalance and in consequence a deregulation of essential ecosystem services. These services are key to flora and fauna survival, also key to maintain the survival of humans on Earth. Pollinator’s diversity is directly impacted by the loss of its natural habitats; therefore, the pollination service is seriously harmed. This service directly affects Coffea arabica production, since the knowledge advance on this crop pollination revealed a high importance of pollinators, increasing both quality and quantity of production. Assuming the principle that higher bee diversity can guarantee higher resilience and efficacy of coffee pollination, in this work, we aimed to evaluate de impact of landscape composition, management type (conventional and organic) and the supply of floral resources in coffee fields, on bee diversity in coffee growing areas in the South of Minas Gerais and Northeast of São Paulo, Brazil. Local agricultural practices rather than landscape variables had more impact on bee diversity. Native bee diversity and bee abundance were all positively related to the flowering plant richness and the organic cultivation method. Flowering Plant richness had a stronger effect on organic sites, which showed higher bee abundance and diversity with increasing flowering plant richness, in comparison to conventional sites. Bee diversity was also positively related to native forest cover. Thus, to apply these results, we highlight that the best scenario for properly maintaining the pollination service in coffee fields is combining organic cultivation with active planting of complementary floral resources within and near coffee fields and conserve the higher area of natural habitats as possible at the landscape scale.