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The Importance of Ants and High-Shade Management to Coffee Pollination and Fruit Weight in Chiapas, Mexico

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Abstract

Recent reports show importance of pollinators to coffee and importance of ants as pollinators or floral protectors in many systems. Arthropod and pollinator diversity, however, declines with management intensification of coffee (Coffea arabica) agroecosystems. We investigated influences of both flying pollinators and ants on coffee fruit set and fruit weight in one high-shade (high-biodiversity) and one low-shade (low-biodiversity) coffee farm in Chiapas, Mexico through exclusion experiments. Contradictory to previous reports, flying pollinators alone did not affect coffee fruit set or fruit weight. Individual fruit weights, however, were higher on branches with both ants and flying pollinators (1.78 g ± 0.312 (SE)) compared to branches without ants (1.03 ± 0.029) or branches without ants or flying pollinators (1.05 ± 0.049), but only in the high-shade site. Although the mechanisms producing higher fruit weights are unknown, we discuss how ants or ant-flying pollinator interactions under high-shade coffee management may contribute to increased fruit weight and the implications of high-shade management for both sustainable coffee production and biodiversity conservation.

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  1. Stacy M. Philpott

    Present address: Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center, National Zoological Park, 3001 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington, DC, 20008, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, 830 N. University Ave., Ann Arbor, MI, 48109-1048, USA

    Stacy M. Philpott

  2. School of Natural Resources and the Environment, University of Michigan, 430 E. University Ave, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109-1115, USA

    Shinsuke Uno

  3. c/o El Colegio de la Frontera Sur (ECOSUR), Carretera Antiguo Aeropuerto, Km 2.5, Tapachula, Chiapas, 30700, Mexico

    Jorge Maldonado

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Philpott, S.M., Uno, S. & Maldonado, J. The Importance of Ants and High-Shade Management to Coffee Pollination and Fruit Weight in Chiapas, Mexico. Biodivers Conserv 15, 487–501 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-005-0602-1

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