Authors
Michael PD Garratt, Tom D Breeze, Nigel Jenner, Chiara Polce, Jacobus C Biesmeijer, Simon G Potts
Publication date
2014/2/1
Journal
Agriculture, ecosystems & environment
Volume
184
Pages
34-40
Publisher
Elsevier
Description
Insect pollination is important for food production globally and apples are one of the major fruit crops which are reliant on this ecosystem service. It is fundamentally important that the full range of benefits of insect pollination to crop production are understood, if the costs of interventions aiming to enhance pollination are to be compared against the costs of the interventions themselves. Most previous studies have simply assessed the benefits of pollination to crop yield and ignored quality benefits and how these translate through to economic values. In the present study we examine the influence of insect pollination services on farmgate output of two important UK apple varieties; Gala and Cox. Using field experiments, we quantify the influence of insect pollination on yield and importantly quality and whether either may be limited by sub-optimal insect pollination. Using an expanded bioeconomic model we value insect …
Total citations
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Scholar articles
MPD Garratt, TD Breeze, N Jenner, C Polce… - Agriculture, ecosystems & environment, 2014