My last post summarized research on current and historical pollinators and their role in robusta coffee fruit set in India, and I noted it was in recognition that this is Pollinator Week — an international celebration of the valuable ecosystem services provided by bees, birds, butterflies, bats and beetles.
I’ve summarized a couple of other papers on pollinators and coffee:
- Research: Shade coffee = more pollinators = higher fruit set (Pollinator diversity increases fruit production in Mexican coffee plantations: The importance of rustic management systems)
- Research: Shade coffee conserves bee diversity (Impacts of coffee agroforestry management on tropical bee communities)
These are by no means the only research done on pollination, pollinators, and coffee! Below I have listed many peer-reviewed papers specifically dealing with bees and coffee pollination, and often the role of preserving shade in and near the coffee farm to preserve the habitat of pollinators and improve the fruit set of the coffee and other crops on the farm. If you are especially interested in one of the papers and do not have academic access, please let me know and I can try to provide you with a copy.
Meanwhile, I also encourage everybody to head over the the website of the Pollinator Partnership, which sponsors Pollinator Week. They have every resource you can think of regarding pollination and pollinators — not just bees, but all the other insects and animals that perform this incredible service — and their conservation and status. New this year is a free app (iPhone or Android) called BeeSmart, a database of hundreds of North American native plants for attracting pollinators.
Hedstrom, I., A. Denzel, and G. Owens. 2006. Orchid bees as bio-indicators for organic coffee farms in Costa Rica: Does farm size affect their abundance? Revista de Biologia Tropical. 54:965—969.
Hedstrom, I., J. Harris, and K. Fergus. 2006. Euglossine bees as potential bio-indicators of coffee farms: Does forest access, on a seasonal basis, affect abundance? Revista de Biologia Tropical. 54:1188—1195.
Jha, S., and C.W. Dick. 2010. Native bees mediate long-distance pollen dispersal in a shade coffee landscape mosaic. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 107:13760 —13764.
Jha, S., and J.H. Vandermeer. 2009. Contrasting bee foraging in response to resource scale and local habitat management. Oikos. 118:1174—1180.
Jha, S., and J.H. Vandermeer. 2010. Impacts of coffee agroforestry management on tropical bee communities. Biological Conservation. 143:1423—1431.
Karanja, R.H.N., G. Njoroge, M. Gikungu, and L.E. Newton. 2010. Bee interactions with wild flora around organic and conventional coffee farms in Kiambu district, central Kenya. Journal of Pollination Ecology. 2:7—12.
Klein, A.-M. 2009. Nearby rainforest promotes coffee pollination by increasing spatio-temporal stability in bee species richness. Forest Ecology and Management. 258:1838—1845.
Klein, A.M., I. Steffan-Dewenter, and T. Tscharntke. 2003. Bee pollination and fruit set of Coffea arabica and C. canephora (Rubiaceae). American Journal of Botany. 90:153—157.
Klein, A.M., I. Steffan-Dewenter, and T. Tscharntke. 2003. Fruit set of highland coffee increases with the diversity of pollinating bees. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 270:955—961.
Klein, A.-M., I. Steffan-Dewenter, and T. Tscharntke. 2003. Pollination of Coffea canephora in relation to local and regional agroforestry management. Journal of Applied Ecology. 40:837—845.
Manrique, A.J., and R.E. Thimann. 2002. Coffee (coffea arabica) pollination with africanized honeybees in venezuela. Interciencia. 27:414—416.
Olschewski, R., T. Tscharntke, P.C. Benitez, S. Schwarze, and A. Klein. 2006. Economic evaluation of pollination services comparing coffee landscapes in Ecuador and Indonesia. Ecology and Society. 11:[online] URL: http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol11/iss1/art7/.
Peters, V., and C. Carroll. 2012. Temporal variation in coffee flowering may influence the effects of bee species richness and abundance on coffee production. Agroforestry Systems. 85:95—103.
Philpott, S.M., S. Uno, and J. Maldonado. 2006. The importance of ants and high-shade management to coffee pollination and fruit weight in Chiapas, Mexico. Biodiversity and Conservation. 15:487—501.
Priess, J.A., M. Mimler, A.-M. Klein, S. Schwarze, T. Tscharntke, and I. Steffan-Dewenter. 2007. Linking deforestation scenarios to pollination services and economic returns in coffee agroforestry systems. Ecological Applications. 17:407—417.
Ricketts, T.H. 2004. Tropical forest fragments enhance pollinator activity in nearby coffee crops. Conservation Biology. 18:1262—1271.
Veddeler, D., A.-M. Klein, and T. Tscharntke. 2006. Contrasting responses of bee communities to coffee flowering at different spatial scales. Oikos. 112:594—601.
Veddeler, D., R. Olschewski, T. Tscharntke, and A.-M. Klein. 2008. Contribution of non-managed social bees to coffee production: new economic insights based on farm-scale yield data. Agroforestry Systems. 73:109—114.
Vergara, C.H., and E.I. Badano. 2009. Pollinator diversity increases fruit production in Mexican coffee plantations: The importance of rustic management systems. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment. 129:117—123.
Willmer, P.G., and G.N. Stone. 1989. Incidence of entomophilous pollination of lowland coffee (Coffea canephora); the role of leaf cutter bees in Papua New Guinea. Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata. 50:113—124.
Revised on October 30, 2020
I am familiar with some of this literature. I would love to read the last paper mentioned! Do you have a copy or know where I can obtain/read one?
Thanks!
Willmer, P.G., and G.N. Stone. 1989. Incidence of entomophilous pollination of lowland coffee (Coffea canephora); the role of leaf cutter bees in Papua New Guinea. Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata. 50:113—124.
I’m sending the paper via email, Brian. Thanks for reading!
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