| Abstract Detail
The impact of climate change on plants and their interactions with pollinators Giannini, Tereza Cristina [1], Miranda, Leonardo [2], Borges, Rafael Cabral [2]. Climate change, pollinators and crop production. Anthropogenic climate change impacts biodiversity and species interactions worldwide. An interaction deserving special attention is that between crops and their pollinators, given its importance to sustaining food security. We have been conducting a series of studies to evaluate the role of crop pollinator bees to agricultural production in Brazil, and how this interaction will potentially be affected by climate change. As a first step, we determined that 60% of Brazilian crops are dependent on pollinators, with higher or lesser degree of dependence. Secondly, we estimated 250 species of bees as pollinators of Brazilian crops, being essential to crop production. We them evaluated 95 pollinator species from 13 pollinator-dependent crops and found that suitable habitats for pollinators could be reduced in 13% by 2050 due to climate change. Almost 90% of the 4,975 Brazilian counties analyzed will probably experience loss of suitable habitats for pollinators in the next 30 years. Currently, our focus is centered in the Eastern portion of the Amazon biome, and we found that 188 species of edible-fruit plants are used by traditional people. An important knowledge gap still remains regarding the pollination system of most local plants, which precludes anticipating the pervasive effects of climate change. However, we already found that for about 216 bee species occurring in the Eastern Amazon a potential suitable habitats reduction of 85 to 95% has been predicted, depending on the different scenarios. Crop pollinator bees and bee species with a restricted distributional range will be potentially more affected. Moreover, Eastern Amazon municipalities rely on a small number of highly pollinator-dependent crops, which could affect economy and food production. However, some protected areas in the Eastern Amazon showed high climatic stability considering future scenarios, and we now are assessing the feasibility of ecological corridor application to connect these areas and promote biodiversity conservation under climate-driven range shifts of species. One restoration/conservation strategy for climatic stable regions on Amazon forest biome is based on agroforestry, which could also provide income to rural communities. Anticipating the effects of climate change is urgent to guide biodiversity conservation strategies, especially to protect regional food security and crop-pollination services provision on the long term.
1 - Instituto Tecnologico Vale, Biodiversidade e Serviços, Rua Boaventura da Silva 955, Bele,, Para, 66055900, Brazil
2 - Instituto Tecnologico Vale
Keywords:
Pollinators
Crops
Amazon.
Presentation Type: Symposium Presentation
Number: S3002
Abstract ID:693
Candidate for Awards:None |
