[en] Agroecosystems are often impoverished ecosystems, but they can host diverse communities of insects which provide ecosystem services. Specifically, crops may benefit from insect pollinators that increase their quantity and quality of yields. Basic knowledge is still needed regarding the identity, diversity, abundance, and ecology of insect pollinators in many parts of the world, especially in low and middle-income countries. In this study we investigate the potential of agroecosystems and crops in Morocco to host a high diversity of insect pollinators. We sampled insects in four eco-climatic regions encompassing a total of 22 crops for 2 years (2018–2019). After describing the general pattern of diversity and abundance of insect pollinators, we focused our comparative analyses on bees as they are known to be the most efficient and abundant group of insect pollinators. We recorded a total of 53,361 insect pollinators in all agroecosystems among which 37,091 were visiting crop flowers. Bees were by far the most abundant group visiting crops. Honeybees represented 49% of crop visitors followed by wild bees representing 33% of relative abundance. Three genera (Lasioglossum, Andrena, and Xylocopa) represented 53% of the total abundance of wild bees visiting crops. We identified a total of 213 species visiting crops (22% of national wild bee species richness). A comparison of the abundance, species richness, and community composition of wild bees visiting the same crops showed significant inter-regional differences for zucchini, faba bean, and eggplant. This study highlights the high diversity of pollinators in Moroccan agroecosystems and represents an important step toward exploring the Moroccan pollinator fauna. It provides basic information for future studies on pollinator conservation and pollination services.
Disciplines :
Agriculture & agronomy Zoology
Author, co-author :
El Abdouni, Insafe; Laboratory of Zoology, Research Institute for Biosciences, University of Mons, Mons, Belgium ; International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas, Rabat, Morocco
Lhomme, Patrick ; Université de Mons - UMONS > Faculté des Sciences > Service de Zoologie ; International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas, Rabat, Morocco
Christmann, Stefanie; International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas, Rabat, Morocco
Dorchin, Achik ; Université de Mons - UMONS ; The Steinhardt Museum of Natural History, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
Sentil, Ahlam ; Université de Mons - UMONS ; International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas, Rabat, Morocco
Pauly, Alain; Operational Directorate Taxonomy and Phylogeny, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Brussels, Belgium
Hamroud, Laila ; Université de Mons - UMONS ; International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas, Rabat, Morocco
Ihsane, Oumayma; Laboratory of Zoology, Research Institute for Biosciences, University of Mons, Mons, Belgium ; International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas, Rabat, Morocco
Reverte saiz, Sara ; Université de Mons - UMONS > Faculté des Sciences > Service de Zoologie
Patiny, Sebastien; Laboratory of Zoology, Research Institute for Biosciences, University of Mons, Mons, Belgium
Wood, Thomas J.; Laboratory of Zoology, Research Institute for Biosciences, University of Mons, Mons, Belgium
Bencharki, Youssef ; Université de Mons - UMONS ; International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas, Rabat, Morocco
DFG - Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft F.R.S.-FNRS - Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique FWO - Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek Vlaanderen
Funding number :
3094785
Funding text :
This work was part of an ICARDA project funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Protection and Nuclear Safety (BMU) within the International Climate Initiative (IKI). It was also partly supported by the “Research Foundation of Flanders (FWO)” and the “Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS) under EOS Project CLIPS (no. 3094785)”. The publication was supported by the Institute for bioscience, Belgium.
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