Figure 5.

Species recommendation for restoration and pollination intensification

We here present a workflow to reach specific recommendations of plant species for restoration that maximize pollination services. Importantly, this should be viewed as a method to complement existing lists since pollination is one of many other desired functions while restoring native vegetation. Several plant species should be used to reach a multi-functional restoration. We here used the same municipalities of the Bragança Paulista region in Brazil (BP, Figure 3). First, we build a tripartite network between crops, pollinators and native plants. The tripartite network was based on crop production data (sidra.ibge.gov.br/pam) and native floras.⁶⁴ Then, we used databases on crop-pollinator⁴⁵ and native plant-pollinator (abelhaseplantas.cria.org) interactions to infer the links in the tripartite network. For this example, we selected four pollinator-dependent crops which are among the most produced in BP: chayote, coffee, eggplant and zucchini. We then identified 26 native plant species that share pollinators with these crops (Appendix A).

The list containing 26 species can then be ranked according to criteria enhancing pollination intensification. Maximizing the number of distinct pollinator species is important because pollinator richness and functional diversity are often associated with higher crop yield.⁵⁷ Therefore, we recommend the number of pollinator species a plant species shares with crops as a criterion. To minimize potential trade-offs, we recommend native species that do not co-flower with crops. We gathered phenology data from virtual collections to estimate flowering peaks of native plants in the region (splink.org.br). Finally, we also gathered data on native plant availability in nurseries⁶⁵ to reach plant species recommendations for immediate restoration efforts. Thirteen species are already available in nurseries (Appendix A). Another implication of our approach is a special attention to the species not available in nurseries, as producing them will enhance the capacity of restoration actions aligned with pollination intensification. This can also alleviate the need to remove only some species from native areas to keep nursery production.