Pollinator Diversity and Behaviour in Brassica Crops in New Zealand:

The overall aim of the study was to assess the risk of gene flow from Brassica crops by insect mediated pollen transport. In order to evaluate the relative importance of different species in pollen transport, I measured abundance of flower visitors during crop development, and the foraging behaviour of five key pollinator species throughout the growing season, as influenced microclimate, crop phenology and the relative abundance of other pollinator species competing for flower resources. I found that: (i) insect abundance and diversity changed with crop phenology and Diptera was the most abundant order collected, (ii)flower density, plant density, and the abundance of other insect pollinators were important factors explaining pollinator behaviour for all key pollinators, except B. terrestris, (iii) B. terrestris might contribute to gene flow to a greater extent than other key pollinators, because it has a greater rate of flower visitation and a greater flight distance between flowers than other pollinators, and (iv) pollen viability tended to decrease with crop development and declined sharply even just 50 m outside the edge of the crop.

Autorentext

Laura A. Mesa Ramírez got her B.Sc. at University of Chile in 2000. She worked in research and production for the wine industry in Chile until 2003. She moved to New Zealand in 2003 where she did her M.Sc. at Canterbury University ending in 2009. She worked in reasearch in NZ and now works in Chile as a consultant in agricultural sciences.