Interplay between Cotton, Native Bees, and the Surrounding Landscape: Reciprocal Benefits to Cotton and Bee Pollinators

Anthropogenic intensification has caused the simplification of many agroecosystems, leaving only small fragments of natural habitat. These fragments of natural habitats within agricultural landscapes may provide ecosystem services to nearby agricultural crops such as natural pest control and pollination. In addition to natural habitat fragments providing ecosystem services, the agricultural crop itself may provide reciprocal benefits. We hypothesize that cotton provides a resource for local native pollinators which in turn provide pollination services to the cotton plant. Across two years of study in our cotton agroecosystem, we found that native bee diversity, abundance and visitation in cotton is increased when cotton is in proximity to other crops. Out of 4041 individuals, greater than 30 species and morphospecies were detected and 78% consisted of the species Melissodes tepaneca (Hymenoptera: Apidae). Examined through two replicated experiments, we also hypothesized that cotton benefits from pollination via native bees facilitating cross-pollination and increasing yield. Cotton bolls that were caged and hand-crossed and bolls on uncaged plants exposed to pollinators had higher pre-gin weight and post gin weight than caged bolls excluded from pollinators. When cotton plants were caged with the local native bee Melissodes tepaneca, pre-gin lint weight was 0.8 grams higher than cotton plants excluded from bees. This information can provide insight into future conservation benefits provided to native pollinators and the return services they provide to agriculture in the cotton agroecosystem.