• The secret to better coffee? The birds a

    From ScienceDaily@1:317/3 to All on Mon Apr 4 22:30:44 2022
    The secret to better coffee? The birds and the bees
    Study calculates winged helpers' effects on coffee--while pioneering a
    better way to measure nature's `unpaid labor'

    Date:
    April 4, 2022
    Source:
    University of Vermont
    Summary:
    A groundbreaking study reveals that without birds and bees
    working together, some traveling thousands of miles, coffee
    farmers would see a whopping 25% drop in crop yields. Coffee is
    bigger and more plentiful when birds and bees team up to protect
    and pollinate coffee plants. The study is also the first to show,
    with real-world experiments, that the contributions of nature --
    ie. from bees and birds -- are larger combined than their individual
    contributions. This suggests researchers may be underestimating
    how much the environment benefits society.



    FULL STORY ==========================================================================
    A groundbreaking new study finds that coffee beans are bigger and more plentiful when birds and bees team up to protect and pollinate coffee
    plants.


    ========================================================================== Without these winged helpers, some traveling thousands of miles, coffee
    farmers would see a 25% drop in crop yields, a loss of roughly $1,066
    per hectare of coffee.

    That's important for the $26 billion coffee industry -- including
    consumers, farmers, and corporations who depend on nature's unpaid labor
    for their morning buzz -- but the research has even broader implications.

    The forthcoming study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of
    Sciences is the first to show, using real-world experiments at 30 coffee
    farms, that the contributions of nature -- in this case, bee pollination
    and pest control by birds -- are larger combined than their individual contributions.

    "Until now, researchers have typically calculated the benefits of
    nature separately, and then simply added them up," says lead author
    Alejandra Marti'nez-Salinas of the Tropical Agricultural Research and
    Higher Education Center (CATIE). "But nature is an interacting system,
    full of important synergies and trade-offs. We show the ecological
    and economic importance of these interactions, in one of the first
    experiments at realistic scales in actual farms." "These results
    suggest that past assessments of individual ecological services --
    including major global efforts like IPBES -- may actually underestimate
    the benefits biodiversity provides to agriculture and human wellbeing,"
    says Taylor Ricketts of the University of Vermont's Gund Institute for Environment. "These positive interactions mean ecosystem services are
    more valuable together than separately." For the experiment, researchers
    from Latin America and the U.S. manipulated coffee plants across 30 farms, excluding birds and bees with a combination of large nets and small lace
    bags. They tested for four key scenarios: bird activity alone (pest
    control), bee activity alone (pollination), no bird and bee activity
    at all, and finally, a natural environment, where bees and birds were
    free to pollinate and eat insects like the coffee berry borer, one of
    the most damaging pests affecting coffee production worldwide.

    The combined positive effects of birds and bees on fruit set, fruit
    weight, and fruit uniformity -- key factors in quality and price --
    were greater than their individual effects, the study shows. Without
    birds and bees, the average yield declined nearly 25%, valued at roughly
    $1,066 per hectare.

    "One important reason we measure these contributions is to help protect
    and conserve the many species that we depend on, and sometimes take
    for granted," says Natalia Aristiza'bal, a PhD candidate at UVM's Gund Institute for Environment and Rubenstein School of Environment and
    Natural Resources. "Birds, bees, and millions of other species support
    our lives and livelihoods, but face threats like habitat destruction and climate change." One of the most surprising aspects of the study was
    that many birds providing pest control to coffee plants in Costa Rica had migrated thousands of miles from Canada and the U.S., including Vermont,
    where the UVM team is based. The team is also studying how changing farm landscapes impact birds' and bees' ability to deliver benefits to coffee production. They are supported by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
    through the Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act.

    In addition to Marti'nez-Salinas (Nicaragua), Ricketts (USA), Aristiza'bal (Colombia), the international research team from CATIE included Adina
    Chain- Guadarrama (Me'xico), Sergio Vilchez Mendoza (Nicaragua), and
    Rolando Cerda (Bolivia).


    ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Vermont. Original
    written by Basil Waugh.

    Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


    ========================================================================== Journal Reference:
    1. Alejandra Marti'nez-Salinas, Adina Chain-Guadarrama, Natalia
    Aristiza'bal, Sergio Vilchez-Mendoza, Rolando Cerda, Taylor
    H. Ricketts.

    Interacting pest control and pollination services in coffee systems.

    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2022; 119 (15)
    DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2119959119 ==========================================================================

    Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/04/220404152702.htm

    --- up 5 weeks, 10 hours, 51 minutes
    * Origin: -=> Castle Rock BBS <=- Now Husky HPT Powered! (1:317/3)