與“陽光”咖啡不同,，在樹陰中生長的咖啡（在大樹的陰影中栽培的咖啡）可能支持當地原生的傳粉蜜蜂，幫助維持世界上最具生物多樣性的一些地區(qū)的健康,。為了研究原生蜜蜂在樹陰咖啡棲息地的傳粉成功,，Shalene Jha 和Christopher Dick在墨西哥的一個咖啡種植地區(qū)進行了Miconia affinis（一種只對原生蜜蜂的嗡嗡聲做出反應釋放花粉的樹）的種子淵源分析的現場實驗。
這組科學家發(fā)現,，盡管更多的蜜蜂訪問了森林中的Miconia affinis,，在樹陰咖啡農場中生長的樹比在森林其余地區(qū)的樹獲得了來自更多棵雄樹的花粉。原生蜜蜂在樹陰咖啡棲息地里也把花粉攜帶得比在森林棲息地里更遠,。
咖啡作物覆蓋了熱帶地區(qū)超過1100萬公頃的土地,，盡管此前的研究表明樹陰咖啡農場可以為原生動物提供棲息地，科學家不確定這種作物對原生傳粉者的影響,。這組作者說,，該研究提示樹陰咖啡棲息地的原生蜜蜂除了能夠增加作物產量，還可能有助于幫助維持其余原生樹木種群的遺傳多樣性,。(生物谷Bioon.com)
生物谷推薦原文出處：
PNAS doi: 10.1073/pnas.1002490107
Native bees mediate long-distance pollen dispersal in a shade coffee landscape mosaic
Shalene Jhaa,b,1 and Christopher W. Dickb,c,d
aDepartment of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720;
bDepartment of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109;
cUniversity of Michigan Herbarium, Ann Arbor, MI 48108-2287; and
dSmithsonian Tropical Research Institute, P.O. Box 0843-03092, Balboa Ancón, Republic of Panama
Coffee farms are often embedded within a mosaic of agriculture and forest fragments in the world's most biologically diverse tropical regions. Although shade coffee farms can potentially support native pollinator communities, the degree to which these pollinators facilitate gene flow for native trees is unknown. We examined the role of native bees as vectors of gene flow for a reproductively specialized native tree, Miconia affinis, in a shade coffee and remnant forest landscape mosaic. We demonstrate extensive cross-habitat gene flow by native bees, with pollination events spanning more than 1,800 m. Pollen was carried twice as far within shade coffee habitat as in nearby forest, and trees growing within shade coffee farms received pollen from a far greater number of sires than trees within remnant forest. The study shows that shade coffee habitats support specialized native pollinators that enhance the fecundity and genetic diversity of remnant native trees.
