Smart orchard design improves crop pollination
Data files
Oct 05, 2023 version files 498.37 KB
Abstract
1. More sustainable and environmentally-friendly agricultural practices, including ecological intensification, are needed to reduce biodiversity loss and environmental degradation.
2. We evaluated the potential of ecological intensification through the enhancement of pollination services in an intensively managed and insect-pollinated crop, Macadamia integrifolia. We compared the effects and importance of agronomic practices that include agronomic input (i.e. irrigation and managed honeybees), orchard design requiring no external inputs (i.e. spatial orchard structure) and landscape factors in ten South African macadamia orchards.
3. In comparison to experimental pollinator exclusion, insect pollination increased the initial and final nut set by 304% and 23%, respectively. However, nut set was pollination limited as hand pollination further improved nut set.
4. Flower visitation rates increased with the cover of semi-natural habitats in the surrounding landscape (1km radius). This effect was outperforming the effect of the number of managed honeybee colonies, as agronomic practice.
5. Initial nut set increased with orchard design and flower visitation rates. Perpendicular orientation of the planted macadamia rows towards the semi-natural habitats increased initial nut set more than threefold compared to parallel row orientation. The initial nut set was 80% higher at the edge to semi-natural habitats than in the orchard centre. In contrast, agronomic practices, such as irrigation, did not increase initial nut set.
6. Final nut set depended on the preconditions of the initial nut set, additionally, high altitudes and the position in the centre of the orchard had positive effects.
7. Synthesis and applications. Pollination services were prerequisites for high yields in macadamia and could be improved without further agronomic input. Especially, the orchard design, i.e. spatial arrangement of tree rows and semi-natural habitats at local and landscape scales, was more important to boost insect pollination and the initial development of macadamia nuts than agronomic practices, such as high levels of irrigation. Considering the urgency to reduce the environmental impacts of agricultural production, we highlight the high potential of ecological intensification by a smart orchard design and the restoration and conservation of semi-natural habitats in the orchards and their surrounding landscape.
README
This README file was generated on 2023-09-28 by Mina Anders.
GENERAL INFORMATION
- Title of Dataset: Smart Orchard Design Improves Crop Pollination
- Author Information A. Principal Investigators Contact Information Name: Catrin Westphal Institution: Georg-August Universtiy Göttingen Address: Goettingen, Germany Email: catrin.westphal@uni-goettingen.de <br> B. Principal Investigators Contact Information Name: Ingo Grass Institution: Universität Hohenheim Address: Stuttgart, Germany Email: ingo.grass@uni-hohenheim.de <br> C. Associate or Co-investigator Contact Information Name: Mina Anders Institution: Georg-August Universtiy Göttingen Address: Goettingen, Germany Email: mina.anders@uni-goettingen.de
- Date of data collection (single date, range, approximate date): July 2019- 2020
- Geographic location of data collection: Louis Trichard, Limpopo, South Africa
- Information about funding sources that supported the collection of the data:
- German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (http://www.bmbf.de/bmbf/en/) grant number: 01LL1802A ,
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG; Project number 405945293 and 493487387)
SHARING/ACCESS INFORMATION
- Licenses/restrictions placed on the data: CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain
- Links to publications that cite or use the data:
Anders, M., Grass, I., Linden, V.M.G., Taylor, P.J., Westphal, C., 2022. Smart orchard design improves crop pollination.
Journal of Applied Ecology n/a. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.14363
- Links to other publicly accessible locations of the data: None
- Links/relationships to ancillary data sets: None
- Was data derived from another source? No A. If yes, list source(s): NA
- Recommended citation for this dataset:
Anders, M., Grass, I., Linden, V., Taylor, P.J. & Westphal, C. (2022). Data from: Smart orchard design improves crop pollination. Dryad Digital Repository.
https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.c866t1gb6
DATA & FILE OVERVIEW
- File List: A)bush_alt_hive_temp_irrigation_var.csv B)Temperatures_all_sites_July_Sept_2019.csv C)initial_final_nut_set_2020.csv D)pollinator_observations_2019.csv
- Relationship between files, if important: temperature values in A)bush_alt_hive_temp_irrigation_var.csv are derived from data in file B)Temperatures_all_sites_July_Sept_2019.csv
- Additional related data collected that was not included in the current data package: None
- Are there multiple versions of the dataset? No A. If yes, name of file(s) that was updated: C)initial_final_nut_set_2020.csv i. Why was the file updated? obsolete data was deleted ii. When was the file updated? 2023-09-28
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DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR: bush_alt_hive_temp_irrigation_var.csv
- Number of variables: 19
- Number of cases/rows: 10
- Variable List:
- pair: The macadamia farms are paired according to their altitude
- Site_ID: individual code for each of the ten macadamia farms
- Farm: Name of the macadamia farm
- alt: altitude in m.a.s.l.
- latitude: geographical location of the study site on the farm
- longitude: geographical location of the study site on the farm
- mean_temp: mean temperature [°C] during the period July - Sept 2019
- min_temp: minimum temperature [°C] during the period July - Sept 2019
- max_temp: maximum temperature [°C] during the period July - Sept 2019
- hive500: number of managed bee hives in 500m radius around the study site
- hive1000: number of managed bee hives in 1000m radius around the study site
- hive2000: number of managed bee hives in 2000m radius around the study site
- bush500: cover of semi-natural habitiat ("bush") [%] in a 500m radius around the study site
- bush1000: cover of semi-natural habitiat ("bush") [%] in a 1000m radius around the study site
- irrigation: irrigation of the study block (yes/no)
- varieties: number of macadamia varieties or cultivars in the study block
- age: age of the macadamia trees in the study block
- row: tree row orientation towards the orchard edge to semi-natural habitats
- cp: = cross pollination; did the supplementally handpollinated flowers recieve pollen from a different variety?
- Missing data codes: None
- Specialized formats or other abbreviations used: None
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DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR: Temperatures_all_sites_July_Sept_2019.csv
- Number of variables: 12
- Number of cases/rows: 592
- Variable List:
- Date: Date of the measurement in the format MM/DD/YYYY
- Time: time of day of the measurement e.g. 3= 3.00 a.m., 18= 6.00 p.m. ...
- MA: measured temperature on study site on farm "MA" in [°C]
- S2: measured temperature on study site on farm "S2" in [°C] ...
- M2: measured temperature on study site on farm "M2" in [°C]
- Missing data codes: None
- Specialized formats or other abbreviations used: None
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DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR: initial_final_nut_set_2020.csv
- Number of variables: 34
- Number of cases/rows: 2608
- Variable List:
- RacID: Raceme ID, composed of tree ID and a number for the individual raceme
- final: final nut set, number of nuts/raceme, counted 18–20 weeks after flowering
- Site_ID: individual code for each of the ten macadamia farms
- Tree_ID: individual code for each of the studied macadamia trees
- Date_bagging.poll: the date (DD/MM/YYYY) when the raceme was covered with the pollinator exclusion bag or when the supplemental hand pollination took place or NA if no treatment was applied
- Date_counting: the date (DD/MM/YYYY) when the initial nut set was counted
- Raceme: individual number of the racemes
- length: Raceme length in cm at the date of the initial nut set counting
- initial: intitial nut set, number of nuts/raceme, counted 3-5 weeks after flowering
- pos_in_tree: position of the raceme in the tree, either high (h) > 2m, middle (m) =2m, or low (l) <2m above the ground
- together_with: if the raceme was bagged, was it enclosed together with other recemes? the raceme numbers ale listed in the cell
- comment
- N: Composed treatment of the columns excl_control (cages around the trees) and pos_in_block (position in the block)
- pos_in_block: tree position in the block. Either at the block edge to semi-natural habitat (E) or in the block (B), i.e. in 50m distance to the block edge
- excl_control: Predator exlusion cages around the macadamia trees. Either with exclusion cage (E) or without = control (C)
- Tr: pollination treatment. open pollination (or rather no treatment = O), supplemental hand-pollination (H), pollinator exclusion wiht exclusion bags (E)
- days_diff: days between pollination treatment and the cound of the initial nut set
- pair: The macadamia farms are paired according to their altitude
- alt: altitude in m.a.s.l.
- latitude: geographical location of the study site on the farm
- longitude: geographical location of the study site on the farm
- mean_temp: mean temperature [°C] during the period July - Sept 2019
- min_temp: minimum temperature [°C] during the period July - Sept 2019
- max_temp: maximum temperature [°C] during the period July - Sept 2019
- hive500: number of managed bee hives in 500m radius around the study site
- hive1000: number of managed bee hives in 1000m radius around the study site
- hive2000: number of managed bee hives in 2000m radius around the study site
- veg500: cover of semi-natural habitiat ("bush") [%] in a 500m radius around the study site
- veg1000: cover of semi-natural habitiat ("bush") [%] in a 1000m radius around the study site
- orchard500: cover of orchard area [%] in a 500m radius around the study site
- orchard1000: cover of orchard area [%] in a 1000m radius around the study site
- varieties: number of macadamia varieties or cultivars in the study block
- dif_temp: temperature difference bewteen the lowest and highest temperature of the study site in the measured period
- nuts_per_len: initial nuts per cm of the raceme (=initial / length)
- nut_100flowers: for each variety the number of flowers per cm was assessed by measrung 30 reacemes. The initial nut set relative to 100 flowers was calulated.
- Missing data codes: NA
- Specialized formats or other abbreviations used: yes, explained for each variable
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DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR: D)pollinator_observations_2019.csv
- Number of variables: 14
- Number of cases/rows: 331
- Variable List:
- Site_ID: individual code for each of the ten macadamia farms
- Tree_ID: individual code for each of the studied macadamia trees
- Date: date of pollinator observation in the format MM/DD/YYYY
- time_slot: 1= morning: 8 AM–11AM, 2= midday: 11AM–2PM, 3= afternoon: 2PM–5PM
- time_start: begin of the observation (duration always 5 min)
- time_end: end of the observation
- Pos_in_tree: position of the observed racemes in the tree: high > 2m, low < 2m
- sun_shade: were the observed flowers in the sun or in the shade? 4 levels (sun, shade, half-shade, NA)
- observer: name of the observer
- weather: weather conditions during observation
- obs_racemes: number of observed racemes
- tree_racemes: estimated number of flowering racemes in the macadamia tree
- Species: name of the observed species
- species_no: abundance of the observed species
- Missing data codes: NA
- Specialized formats or other abbreviations used: None
Methods
Please see the README document ("README_Data-set_SmartOrchardDesignImprovesCropPollination.txt") and the accompanying published article: 2023). Smart orchard design improves crop pollination. Journal of Applied Ecology, 60, 624–637. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.14363
, , , , & (Usage notes
The data tables are stored as text files (.csv) and can be opened by any text editor, Excel, Numbers or LibreOffice.
The scripts for the data analysis are written for R and can be opened also by any text editor or R.