Nanyika Kingazi RPC.
Temu, Agnes Sirima, and Mattias Jonsson, from the different institute
of Tanzania. wrote a Reseach Article about, Woody Allies: How Chagga Home
Gardens Sustain Insect Pollinators in Northern Tanzania. Entitled, Woody plants
supporting insect pollinators in Chagga home Gardens, Northern Tanzania. This
research paper published by the Journal of Biodiversity and Environmental Sciences | JBES. an open access scholarly research journal
on Biodiversity. under the affiliation of the International Network
For Natural Sciences| INNSpub. an open access multidisciplinary research
journal publisher.
Abstract
Insects play a great role in the pollination of flowers in many agricultural systems, and they rely on floral resources for their survival. However, a significant decline and extinction of these crucial insects have been witnessed globally as a result of fragmentation and/or loss of their habitat such as floral resources using data from the Chagga home garden (CHGs), we aimed at (1) examining the composition and species richness of pollinator forage plants in the CHGs, (2) determining how elevation affects the diversity of pollinator forage species in CHG, (3) determining the temporal availability of pollinator forage plants in the CHGs, (4) determining the pollinator groups foraging on the plants in the CHGs, (5) determining the type of floral rewards for the insect pollinators in CHGs. It was observed that: (1)of the 302 wood species in the CHGs, 293 (97%) from 62 families were pollinator forage of which 170 species (58.02%) were trees while 123 species (41.98%) were shrubs; (2) pollinator forage species diversity decreased with increase in elevation gradient; (3) Flowering of the pollinator forage plants was spread throughout the year; (4) Bees were the most dominant group of plant visitors, visiting about 93% of the plants; (5) the majority of plants provided both pollen and nectar to insect pollinators. The results from this study suggest that traditional agroforestry systems such as Chagga home gardens can contribute to increasing the spatial and temporal availability of diverse floral resources for insect pollinators.
Read more : Healing from theIslands: Hypoglycemic Power of Cagayan’s Endemic Flora | InformativeBD
Introduction
The importance of
pollinators' protection is underscored by the fact that they are essential for
pollination of the majority of the world's wild flowering plants (Ollerton et
al., 2011) and 75% of crop species (Klein et al., 2007). With regard to crop
pollination, understanding factors influencing pollinator populations in
farmlands is critical in designing conservation strategies that ensure their
longtime survival in agricultural landscapes (Timberlake & Vaughan, 2019).
Insect pollinators are
the main pollinator group in agricultural areas and their population is
affected by several factors including the availability of floral resources
(nectar and pollen) and nesting sites in farmlands (Fowler et al., 2016). One
way to ensure the availability of floral and nesting resources for insect
pollinators in agricultural areas is by integrating trees and shrubs in
farmlands (Bentrup et al., 2019; Centeno-Alvarado et al., 2023). The trees and
shrubs in farmlands provide nesting sites and ensure floral resources
availability for insect pollinators even when crops are not in bloom (Lowe et
al., 2021). However, this depends on whether the integrated trees and shrubs species
are suitable for insect pollinators such as supplying food resources in terms
of pollen, nectar, or both as well as nest sites.
The Chagga home gardens
in Tanzania are one of the agricultural land use systems whereby farmers
integrate trees and shrubs with crops and livestock in the same unit of land
(Mbeyale &mcharo, 2022). The trees and shrubs in Chagga home gardens are
either retained or planted for different purposes such as providing shade to
the crops, especially bananas and coffee, fodder, live fences, and fruits
(Soini, 2005). According to Hemp (2005), the Chagga home gardens maintain a
high diversity of plants with over 500 plant species (including wood and
herbaceous plants). However, despite of the high floral diversity of Chagga
home gardens, there is little information concerning their potential in
supplying floral and nesting resources to insect pollinators. Previous studies
such as Arnold et al. (2021), Sawe et al.
(2020), and Elisante et
al. (2019) focused on assessing the pollination service of insect pollinator
communities in the Chagga home garden and not their ecological habitat (floral
resources and nesting sites).
The diversity of
pollinator forage plants in the landscape reflects the continuous supply of
floral resources from different plant species and hence encourages the insect
pollinators to remain on site (Mensah et al., 2017a). This is because trees and
shrub species differ in flowering time and duration hence due to their
intermittently flowering, they provide floral resources for insect visitors
throughout the year (Torne-́Noguera et al., 2014). Also, floral availability to
insect pollinators in the landscape depends on the flowering time and spatial
distribution of pollinator forage plants in the landscapes. In the Chagga home
garden, farmers play a great role in determining the species composition in
their garden since they plant or retain species based on their preferences and
needs (Fernandes et al., 1985). However environmental factors such as elevation
affects the composition of plant species in the landscape (Malizia et al.,
2020).
This paper aimed at
quantifying the availability of forage resources to insect pollinators in CHGs.
A survey was carried out in CHGs to: (1) examine the composition and species
richness of pollinator forage plants; (2) determine how elevation affects the
diversity of pollinator forage species in CHG; (3) determine the temporal
availability of pollinator forage plants in CHG, (4) determine the pollinator
groups foraging on the pollinator forage species in CHGs (5) determine the type
of floral rewards among insect pollinators forage species in CHGs. The results
from this study are a crucial part of formulating efficiency policies, plans,
and strategies to manage and conserve insect pollinators in agricultural
landscapes in Tanzania.
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