Impact of mulches on floral visitors in day-neutral strawberries and contribution of syrphid flies to strawberry pollination

Animal-mediated pollination is essential for the production of many specialty crops with insects, primarily bees, serving as the predominant pollinators in many agroecosystems. However, increasing management problems with honey bees and declines in native bee populations due to various environmental stressors have highlighted the importance of promoting wild bees and other insect pollinators to ensure sustainable pollination services. This study explores the impact of various mulches on the abundance and richness of floral visitations by insects and the role of syrphid flies in a day-neutral strawberry system. Four different types of mulches were evaluated at the University of Wisconsin West Madison Agricultural Research Station in Wisconsin, USA, during the 2022 and 2023 growing seasons, and included three polyethylene mulches of different color (black, white on black, and reflective metallic) and one brown soil-biodegradable paper mulch. Observations of pollinator floral visitations w..., Floral Visitor Observations To assess pollinator visitation, observations were conducted between 9:30 am and 3:30 pm on days with no or partial cloud cover, and sustained wind speeds below 24 kmph. Observations were done every other week from July 13 to October 5 in 2022 and weekly from July 27 to October 5 in 2023. In each row, up to five flower clusters were observed for 10 min and any flower visitors were recorded, with the order of rows observed randomized on each sampling date. The total number of flowers observed was recorded as the number of open flowers varied across clusters. A flower visitor was defined as any insect which appeared to be interacting with flowers, or which landed on open flowers. Insects visiting were identified to species when possible, including all honey bees and bumble bees. If a species was not identifiable due to short visit duration, small size, or complex identification traits (such as syrphid flies), they were recorded into one of the following visuall..., , # Impact of Mulches on Floral Visitors in Day-Neutral Strawberries and Contribution of Syrphid Flies to Strawberry Pollination [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.v9s4mw76h](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.v9s4mw76h) ## Description of the data and file structure The data is presented with two files. A file on syrphid observations and pollen collection from syrphid flies sampled and the number of pollen grains that belong to the target crop, strawberry. Another file reports on the floral observations made on strawberry flowers of all floral visitors. ### Files and variables #### File: Syrphid\_pollen.xlsx **Description:**Â ##### Variables * Common names: syrphid species/morphogroups used in the manuscript * Letter:Â Letter is an indicator group for date of collection, * Date: date of observation in mm/dd/year format * Block (1-4) indexes the replication level of the observation, with a total of four blocks. * Row (M, P, W, B) represents the mulch treatments where the level represents th...,动物介导的授粉对众多特色作物的生产至关重要，在多数农业生态系统中，昆虫（以蜂类为主）是主要的传粉者。然而，蜜蜂饲养管理问题日益凸显，加之各类环境胁迫导致本土蜂群数量下降，推广野生蜂类与其他昆虫传粉者以保障可持续传粉服务的重要性愈发凸显。 本研究探讨了不同覆盖物对昆虫访花丰度与物种丰富度的影响，以及食蚜蝇（syrphid flies）在日中性草莓栽培体系中的作用。 本研究于2022与2023年生长季在美国威斯康星州威斯康星大学西麦迪逊农业研究站开展，共评估4种覆盖物：3种不同颜色的聚乙烯（polyethylene）覆盖物（黑色、黑底白色、反光金属色），以及1种棕色土壤可降解纸质覆盖物。传粉者访花观测…… # 访花昆虫观测 为评估传粉者访花情况，观测于无云或少云、持续风速低于24公里/小时的时段开展，具体为每日9:30至15:30。2022年的观测频率为每两周一次，时段为7月13日至10月5日；2023年则调整为每周一次，时段为7月27日至10月5日。 每次观测选取最多5个花簇，持续观测10分钟并记录所有访花昆虫；每个采样日期的观测行顺序均经过随机化处理。由于不同花簇的开放花朵数量存在差异，因此需记录本次观测的总开放花朵数。访花昆虫定义为任何表现出与花朵互动行为，或停留在开放花朵上的昆虫。在可行范围内，所有到访昆虫均鉴定至物种水平，包括所有蜜蜂与熊蜂。若因访花时长过短、体型过小或鉴定特征复杂（如食蚜蝇（syrphid flies））无法确定物种，则将其归类至以下视觉类别…… # 覆盖物对日中性草莓访花昆虫的影响及食蚜蝇对草莓传粉的贡献 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.v9s4mw76h]("https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.v9s4mw76h") ## 数据与文件结构说明 本数据集包含两个文件：其一涵盖食蚜蝇观测数据、采样食蚜蝇的花粉收集情况，以及隶属于目标作物草莓的花粉粒数量；其二则记录了草莓花朵上所有访花昆虫的观测结果。 ### 文件与变量 #### 文件：Syrphid_pollen.xlsx **描述：** ##### 变量说明 * 通用名称：论文中使用的食蚜蝇物种/形态类群 * 字母标记（Letter）：用于指示采样日期的分组标识 * 日期（Date）：观测日期，格式为mm/dd/year * 区组（Block，1-4）：代表观测的重复水平，本研究共设4个区组 * 行号（Row，M、P、W、B）：代表覆盖物处理组，其取值分别对应……