与“阳光”咖啡不同，在树阴中生长的咖啡（在大树的阴影中栽培的咖啡）可能支持当地原生的传粉蜜蜂，帮助维持世界上最具生物多样性的一些地区的健康。为了研究原生蜜蜂在树阴咖啡栖息地的传粉成功，Shalene Jha 和Christopher Dick在墨西哥的一个咖啡种植地区进行了Miconia affinis（一种只对原生蜜蜂的嗡嗡声做出反应释放花粉的树）的种子渊源分析的现场实验。
这组科学家发现，尽管更多的蜜蜂访问了森林中的Miconia affinis，在树阴咖啡农场中生长的树比在森林其余地区的树获得了来自更多棵雄树的花粉。原生蜜蜂在树阴咖啡栖息地里也把花粉携带得比在森林栖息地里更远。
咖啡作物覆盖了热带地区超过1100万公顷的土地，尽管此前的研究表明树阴咖啡农场可以为原生动物提供栖息地，科学家不确定这种作物对原生传粉者的影响。这组作者说，该研究提示树阴咖啡栖息地的原生蜜蜂除了能够增加作物产量，还可能有助于帮助维持其余原生树木种群的遗传多样性。(生物谷Bioon.com)
生物谷推荐原文出处：
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.
