More than 70% of the world’s crops benefit from biotic pollination, and bees are their main pollinators. Despite the fact that some of these insects have been broadly studied, understanding the interactions between plant crops and their pollinators with a local scale approach is necessary when aiming to apply proper protection and management measures to pollinators and their respective crops. In this context, we analyzed the pollination status of open-field tomato crops (Solanum Lycopersicum L.), regarding fruit-set, visitation rate, and the quality of fruits. We recorded the formation of fruits through spontaneous self-pollination and open-pollination, and the occurrence of pollinators in 24 areas of open-field tomato crops. We performed experiments of apomixis, spontaneous self-pollination, manual cross-pollination, and supplemental cross-pollination (simulating the pollinator behavior) in a greenhouse. The fruit quality was evaluated according to circumference, weight, volume, and a number of seeds. Higher production of fruits after open-pollination compared to spontaneous self-pollination indicates the importance of pollinators to increment the productivity of S. Lycopersicum in the study area. The circumference and the number of seeds from tomatoes of the greenhouse plantation did not differ between spontaneous self-pollination and manual cross-pollination. In the open-field crops, the number of seeds was higher for fruits resulting from open pollination. Our results indicate that the importance of bees is mainly related to the increase in fruit production, thus incrementing the productivity of tomato crops.
Pollination deficit in open-field tomato crops (Solanum Lycopersicum L., Solanaceae) in Rio De Janeiro state, southeast Brazil
Year: 2014
