scholarly journals Proximity to forest edge does not affect crop production despite pollen limitation

2008 ◽  
Vol 275 (1637) ◽  
pp. 907-913 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natacha P Chacoff ◽  
Marcelo A Aizen ◽  
Valeria Aschero

A decline in pollination function has been linked to agriculture expansion and intensification. In northwest Argentina, pollinator visits to grapefruit, a self-compatible but pollinator-dependent crop, decline by approximately 50% at 1 km from forest edges. We evaluated whether this decrease in visitation also reduces the pollination service in this crop. We analysed the quantity and quality of pollen deposited on stigmas, and associated limitation of fruit production at increasing distances (edge: 10, 100, 500 and 1000 m) from the remnants of Yungas forest. We also examined the quantitative and qualitative efficiency of honeybees as pollen vectors. Pollen receipt and pollen tubes in styles decreased with increasing distance from forest edge; however, this decline did not affect fruit production. Supplementation of natural pollen with self- and cross-pollen revealed that both pollen quantity and quality limited fruit production. Despite pollen limitation, honeybees cannot raise fruit production because they often do not deposit sufficient high-quality pollen per visit to elicit fruit development. However, declines in visitation frequency well below seven visits during a flower's lifespan could decrease production beyond current yields. In this context, the preservation of forest remnants, which act as pollinator sources, could contribute to resilience in crop production. Like wild plants, pollen limitation of the yield among animal-pollinated crops may be common and indicative not only of pollinator scarcity, but also of poor pollination quality, whereby pollinator efficiency, rather than just abundance, can play a broader role than previously appreciated.

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 20160253 ◽  
Author(s):  
James G. Rodger ◽  
Allan G. Ellis

Global synthesis indicates that limitation of plant fecundity by pollen receipt (pollen limitation) is positively related to regional plant diversity and is higher for self-incompatible than self-compatible species. While self-incompatible species are always dependent on pollinating agents, self-compatible species may be pollinator-dependent or autofertile. This should cause variation in pollen limitation among self-compatible species, with lower pollen limitation in autofertile species because they do not depend on pollinators. We hypothesized that the intensity of pollen limitation in self-incompatible compared with pollinator-dependent self-compatible species should depend on whether pollen limitation is determined more by quantity than quality of pollen received. We compared pollen limitation between these three groups using a dataset of 70 biotically pollinated species from biodiverse regions of South Africa. Comparison with a global dataset indicated that pollen limitation in the South African biodiversity hotspots was generally comparable to other regions, despite expectations of higher pollen limitation based on the global plant diversity–pollen limitation relationship. Pollen limitation was lowest for autofertile species, as expected. It was also higher for pollinator-dependent self-compatible species than self-incompatible species, consistent with increased pollen-quality limitation in the former group due to negative consequences of pollinator-mediated self-pollination. However, there was a higher frequency of plants with zygomorphic flowers, which were also more pollen-limited, among pollinator-dependent self-compatible species. Thus, we could not attribute this difference in pollen limitation exclusively to a difference in pollen quality. Nevertheless, our results indicate that comparative studies should control for both pollinator dependence and self-incompatiblity when evaluating effects of other factors on pollen limitation.


2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 60-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dwi Yulianto ◽  
Retno Nugroho Whidhiasih ◽  
Maimunah Maimunah

ABSTRACT   Banana fruit is a commodity that contributes a great value to both national and international fruit production achievement. The government through the National Standardization Agency establishes standards to maintain the quality of bananas. The purpose of this Project is to classify the stages of maturity of Ambon banana base on the color index using Naïve Bayes method in accordance with the regulations of SNI 7422:2009. Naive Bayes is used as a method in the classification process by comparing the probability values generated from the variable value of each model to determine the stage of Ambon banana maturity. The data used is the primary data image of 105 pieces of Ambon banana. By using 3 models which consists of different variables obtained the same greatest average accuracy by using the 2nd model which has 9 variable values (r, g, b, v, * a, * b, entropy, energy, and homogeneity) and the 3rd model has 7 variable values (r, g, b, v , * a, entropy and homogeneity) that is 90.48%.   Keywords: banana maturity, classification, image processing     ABSTRAK   Buah pisang merupakan komoditas yang memberikan kontribusi besar terhadap angka produksi buah nasional maupun internasional. Pemerintah melalui Badan Standarisasi Nasional menetapkan standar untuk buah pisang, menjaga mutu  buah pisang. Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah klasifikasi tahapan kematangan dari buah pisang ambon berdasarkan indeks warna menggunakan metode Naïve Bayes  sesuai dengan SNI 7422:2009. Naive bayes digunakan sebagai metode dalam proses pengklasifikasian dengan cara membandingkan nilai probabilitas yang dihasilkan dari nilai variabel penduga setiap model untuk menentukan tahap kematangan pisang ambon. Data yang digunakan adalah data primer citra pisang ambon sebanyak 105. Dengan menggunakan 3 buah model yang terdiri dari variabel penduga yang berbeda didapatkan akurasi rata-rata terbesar yang sama yaitu dengan menggunakan model ke-2 yang mempunyai 9 nilai variabel (r, g, b, v, *a, *b, entropi, energi, dan homogenitas) dan model ke-3 yang mempunyai 7 nilai variabel (r, g, b, v, *a, entropi dan homogenitas) yaitu sebesar 90.48%.   Kata Kunci : kematangan pisang,  klasifikasi, pengolahan citra


HortScience ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 498e-498
Author(s):  
S. Paramasivam ◽  
A.K. Alva

For perennial crop production conditions, major portion of nutrient removal from the soil-tree system is that in harvested fruits. Nitrogen in the fruits was calculated for 22-year-old `Hamlin' orange (Citrus sinensis) trees on Cleopatra mandarin (Citrus reticulata) rootstock, grown in a Tavares fine sand (hyperthermic, uncoated, Typic Quartzipsamments) that received various N rates (112, 168, 224, and 280 kg N/ha per year) as either i) broadcast of dry granular form (DGF; four applications/year), or ii) fertigation (FRT; 15 applications/year). Total N in the fruits (mean across 4 years) varied from 82 to 110 and 89 to 111 kg N/ha per year for the DGF and FRT sources, respectively. Proportion of N in the fruits in relation to N applied decreased from 74% to 39% for the DGF and from 80% to 40% for the FRT treatments. High percentage of N removal in the fruits in relation to total N applied at low N rates indicate that trees may be depleting the tree reserve for maintaining fruit production. This was evident, to some extent, by the low leaf N concentration at the low N treatments. Furthermore, canopy density was also lower in the low N trees compared to those that received higher N rates.


Agronomy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 1551
Author(s):  
Tamoor Khan ◽  
Jiangtao Qiu ◽  
Hafiz Husnain Raza Sherazi ◽  
Mubashir Ali ◽  
Sukumar Letchmunan ◽  
...  

Agricultural advancements have significantly impacted people’s lives and their surroundings in recent years. The insufficient knowledge of the whole agricultural production system and conventional ways of irrigation have limited agricultural yields in the past. The remote sensing innovations recently implemented in agriculture have dramatically revolutionized production efficiency by offering unparalleled opportunities for convenient, versatile, and quick collection of land images to collect critical details on the crop’s conditions. These innovations have enabled automated data collection, simulation, and interpretation based on crop analytics facilitated by deep learning techniques. This paper aims to reveal the transformative patterns of old Chinese agrarian development and fruit production by focusing on the major crop production (from 1980 to 2050) taking into account various forms of data from fruit production (e.g., apples, bananas, citrus fruits, pears, and grapes). In this study, we used production data for different fruits grown in China to predict the future production of these fruits. The study employs deep neural networks to project future fruit production based on the statistics issued by China’s National Bureau of Statistics on the total fruit growth output for this period. The proposed method exhibits encouraging results with an accuracy of 95.56% calculating by accuracy formula based on fruit production variation. Authors further provide recommendations on the AGR-DL (agricultural deep learning) method being helpful for developing countries. The results suggest that the agricultural development in China is acceptable but demands more improvement and government needs to prioritize expanding the fruit production by establishing new strategies for cultivators to boost their performance.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 4392
Author(s):  
Apolka Ujj ◽  
Kinga Percsi ◽  
Andras Beres ◽  
Laszlo Aleksza ◽  
Fernanda Ramos Diaz ◽  
...  

The use and quality analysis of household compost have become very important issues in recent years due to the increasing interest in local food production and safe, self-produced food. The phenomenon was further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic quarantine period, which gave new impetus to the growth of small home gardens. However, the knowledge associated with making high-quality compost is often lacking in home gardeners. Therefore, the objective of this research was to find answers to the following questions: can the quality of backyard compost be considered safe in terms of toxicity and nutrient content? Can weed seed dispersion affect the usability of backyard compost? In general, can the circulation of organic matter be increased with the spread of home composting? In this study, 16 different house composts were analysed for stability, weed seed contamination, toxic elements, and nutrient content using analysis of variance. The results of the research showed that the quality properties of the composts (including their weed seed dispersion effect) were greatly influenced by the different techniques and raw materials used. The toxicity levels, as well as the content of macro and microelements, were within the parameters of safe-quality compost. The specific macronutrient (Ca, Mg) and micronutrient (Fe, Mn) contents of the tested composts have a similar and, in some cases, more favorable nutrient supply capacity in crop production than the frequently-used cow manure-based composts. With a plan of basic education on composting, there is potential to encourage farmyard composting.


Agriculture ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 386
Author(s):  
Natalia Matłok ◽  
Józef Gorzelany ◽  
Adam Figiel ◽  
Maciej Balawejder

The study presents the effects of fertilisation on selected quality parameters of the dried material obtained from plants of lovage and coriander. During the crop production process, the plants were treated with two fertilisers containing substances potentially acting as elicitors. The dried material was obtained in course of a drying process carried out in optimum conditions and based on the CD-VMFD method which combines convective pre-drying (CD) at a low temperature (40 °C) with vacuum-microwave finish drying with the use of 240 W microwaves (VMFD). The quality of the dried material was evaluated through measurement of the total contents of polyphenols, total antioxidant potential (ABTS and DPPH method), and the profile of volatile compounds (headspace-solid phase microextractio-HS-SPME) as well as assessment of the colour. It was found that by applying first fertilisation (with organic components) it is possible to significantly increase the contents of both bioactive compounds and volatile substances responsible for the aroma. It was determined that the higher content of bioactive compounds was related to the composition of the first fertiliser, presumably the extract from common nettle. The study showed that the application of the first fertiliser contributed to enhanced quality parameters of the raw material obtained.


2003 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 443-447 ◽  
Author(s):  
Márcio S. de Lima ◽  
Antonio I. I. Cardoso ◽  
Marcelo F. Verdial

Squash seeds yield and quality can be improved by proper population plant spacing and the pollen quantity, which influences the pollination quality and fertilization. Nine experiments were conducted as a factorial combination of three spacing between plants (0.8 x 0.3, 0.8 x 0.6 and 0.8 x 0.9 m), two quantities of pollen (50% of an anther and another entire one) and natural insect pollination. Seed and fruit production parameters, and seed quality were evaluated. A randomized complete block design, five replications, with ten plants per plot was adopted. Larger plant spacing increased the average number of mature fruits and seed yield per plant. Seed yield was directly proportional to the amount of pollen used during pollination. Higher amounts of pollen resulted in higher seed yield per area, but the plant spacing did not affect this characteristic. Manual pollination, using a whole anther, did not differ from natural pollination in relation to seed yield and quality.


2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (No. 2) ◽  
pp. 76-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rodica Soare ◽  
Maria Dinu ◽  
Cristina Babeanu

This study was aimed at observing the effect of the grafting of tomato plants on morphological (vegetative growth), production and nutritive characteristics (quantity and quality of production). For this purpose, the ‘Lorely F1’ cultivar was used as a scion grafted onto the ‘Beaufort’ rootstock. Plants were cultivated with a stem and two stems. The observations collected in this study were concerned with the characteristics of plant growth. The studied morphological characteristics were plant height, stem diameter and number of leaves, and the studied production characteristics were the characteristics of fructification and productivity (the average number of fruit per plant, the average weight of the fruit, production per plant). Particular attention was paid to the nutritional characteristics of the fruit, to the fruit quality (total soluble solids, total sugar, acidity, vitamin C, antioxidant activity (by the Trolox method) and the contents of lycopene and beta-carotene). The results showed that grafting positively influenced the growth and production characteristics. Grafting of tomato plants had an appreciable effect on the vegetative growth of the variant 2-grafted tomatoes with a stem. The best option in terms of productivity and production was the variant 3-grafted tomatoes with two stems, which yielded 9.2 kg per plant. Fruit quality was not improved in any of the grafted variants. 


2011 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 600-604 ◽  
Author(s):  
Damiana Cleuma de Medeiros ◽  
José Francismar de Medeiros ◽  
Francisco Aécio de L Pereira ◽  
Sonally Cristina de M Silva ◽  
Maria das Graças Amâncio

Among the problems faced by the melon crop in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, northeastern Brazil, the effect of water and soil salinity is considered one of the key factors to limit fruit production and quality. The aim of this work was to study the effects of using irrigation waters with different salinity levels on yield and quality of fruits of the yellow melon hybrid Mandacaru. A randomized complete block design was used with five treatments (irrigation water salt concentrations: 0.54, 1.48, 2.02, 3.03, 3.9 dS m-1) and four replications. The effects of these concentrations were evaluated through, number of marketable fruits per plant, marketable and total fruit yield, average marketable fruit mass, soluble solids content and pulp firmness. Increment in water salinity level negatively influenced crop yield. The 3.9 dS m-1 salinity level caused yield losses of 20.31%, due to the reduction of fruit number per plant. The highest soluble solid content and the highest pulp firmness values were estimated to occur at salinity levels 2.09 and 3.5 dS m-1, respectively.


2011 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marija Bodroza-Solarov ◽  
Petar Kljajic ◽  
Goran Andric ◽  
Marijana Prazic-Golic ◽  
Bojana Filipcev ◽  
...  

The aim of study was to investigate the influence of naturally occurring zeolite and diatomaceous earth, as inert dusts approved for insect pest control in certified organic crop production, on trading and breadmaking quality of treated wheat. The treatments significantly reduced the trading quality of wheat which was reflected through lowering of test weight. This effect was more marked in the case of low-vitreous wheat rather than in high-vitreous one. Investigation of rheological properties of flours made from the treated wheat demonstrated that treatments with natural zeolite and diatomaceous earth at all applied doses significantly increased the water absorption, which consequently increased the bread yield. However, these changes in the flour properties were not high enough to modify the quality attributes of bread as was shown by instrumentally measuring crumb hardness and springiness as well as sensory evaluation.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document