Enrichment plots phytometer plants

Phytometer plants were used to assess the ecosystem service provisioning within the B11 enrichment plots. Chili pepper plants (Capsicum annuum) were used for this purpose, as its fruit production is partially dependent on pollination. Chili plants were raised from seed starting October 2017. Before transfer to field sites, NPK fertilizer and pesticide (imidacloprid, deltamethrin, mancozeb, and abamectin) were applied following local practices to standardize growing conditions and control pest damage. We halted fertilizer and pesticide application one week prior to placement in the plots and only watered as conditions required thereafter. Immediately prior to placement, we removed any flowers that had already opened to ensure pollination could be attributed to plot conditions. Four chili plants were placed in each enrichment plot, approximately in the center of the plot, avoiding subplot and study areas of other experiments. We placed the four chili plants in each plot together, with plant stems forming a 60 cm square at approximately the plot center in a location receiving at least partial sunlight and free from encroaching vegetation. Plants were kept in their original polyethylene containers to isolate them from local soil conditions. For 20 of the enrichment plots, 4 chili plants were also placed 15m outside of the plot, along the same cardinal direction of the monitored palm trees. The phytometer chili plants remained in the enrichment plots for five weeks, during which time assistants conducted five rounds of pollinator monitoring and plant assessments. Pollinator monitoring consisted of visual observation for 5 minutes and recording the taxonomic order of insects that visited flowers and their visiting time. Plant assessments included biometrics such as plant height, number of leaves, number of plants, and number and extent of pest damage. At the same time that chili plants were placed in the plots, two other treatments were conducted in a nursery area near the Humusindo field station. One treatment was the complete exclosure of pollinators by placing netting around plants. Another treatment was complete pollination of all flowers using manual pollination. Treatments groups had 11 and 12 chili plants, respectively. Once phytometer plants began to fruit, 10 developing fruits were marked for tracking fruit development success. Once fruits matured, they were harvested, counted and weighed. A subset of 10 fruits from each plant were subsequently dried and their seeds were counted.