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We couldn’t have coffee without birds and bees

While many farmers might think that birds are the ultimate pests that steal valuable crops, they are vital when it comes to the cultivation of coffee beans.

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By Joe Morgan via SWNS

The right birds and bees can boost the yield of coffee by 25 percent, biologists have found.

While many farmers might think that birds are the ultimate pests that steal valuable crops, they are vital when it comes to the cultivation of coffee beans.

Researchers found that the effects of birds combined with bees greater than their individual parts to increase their crop.

In a real-world experiment at 30 coffee farms, researchers manipulated plants to test four scenarios: bird activity alone to act as pest control, bee activity alone to pollinate, no bird and bee activity, and finally, a natural environment where birds and bees could do both.

The combined positive effects of birds and bees on fruit set, fruit weight, and fruit uniformity—key factors in quality and price—were greater than their individual effects, the study shows.

Without birds and bees, the average yield declined nearly 25 percent.

Alejandra Martínez-Salinas, an ecologist at the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center, said: “Until now, researchers have typically calculated the benefits of nature separately, and then simply added them up.

A cute, frontal closeup on a male Jersey Mason Bee, Osmia Nivedita
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“But nature is an interacting system, full of important synergies and trade-offs.

"We show the ecological and economic importance of these interactions, in one of the first experiments at realistic scales in actual farms.”

Dr. Taylor Ricketts, of the University of Vermont, said: “These results suggest that past assessments of individual ecological services—including major global efforts like IPBES—may actually underestimate the benefits biodiversity provides to agriculture and human wellbeing.

“These positive interactions mean ecosystem services are more valuable together than separately.”

Natalia Aristizábal, a PhD student at the University of Vermont, added: “One important reason we measure these contributions is to help protect and conserve the many species that we depend on, and sometimes take for granted.

“Birds, bees, and millions of other species support our lives and livelihoods, but face threats like habitat destruction and climate change.”

The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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