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130432 - Limited cross plant movement and non-crop preferences reduce the efficiency of honey bees as pollinators of hybrid carrot seed crops.pdf (413.1 kB)

Limited cross plant movement and non-crop preferences reduce the efficiency of honey bees as pollinators of hybrid carrot seed crops

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posted on 2023-05-20, 00:13 authored by Gaffney, A, Bohman, B, Stephen QuarrellStephen Quarrell, Brown, PH, Geoff AllenGeoff Allen
Pollination rates in hybrid carrot crops remain limited after introduction of honey bee hives. In this study, honey bee foraging behaviour was observed in commercial hybrid carrot seed crops. Significantly more visits were made to male-fertile (MF) rather than cytoplasmically male-sterile (CMS) flowers. Pollen was collected from bees returning to a hive, to determine daily variation in pollen loads collected and to what level the bees were foraging for carrot pollen. Honey bees visited a wide range of alternative pollen sources and made relatively few visits to carrot plants throughout the period of flowering. Visitation rates to other individual floral sources fluctuated but visitation to carrot was consistently low. The underlying rate of carrot pollen visits among collecting trips was modelled and estimated to be as low as 1.4%, a likely cause of the limited success implementing honey bee hives in carrot crops.

Funding

Horticulture Innovation Australia

Bejo Seeds Pty Ltd

Midlands Seeds

History

Publication title

Insects

Volume

10

Article number

34

Number

34

Pagination

1-15

ISSN

2075-4450

Department/School

Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture (TIA)

Publisher

MDPIAG

Place of publication

Switzerland

Rights statement

Copyright 2019 The Authors. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Repository Status

  • Open

Socio-economic Objectives

Processed non-food agricultural products (excl. wood, paper and fibre) not elsewhere classified; Field grown vegetable crops

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