![]() ![]() In such cases, cultural measures to synchronize the lines even by a few days can substantially increase yield. For example, if flowering of the male-fertile and male-sterile lines is poorly synchronized, yields can suffer as the cross-pollination window may not overlap sufficiently. ![]() Characters surrounding plant fertility are intrinsic to the plant, such that increased pollinator activity will not improve yield. Traits that affect the yield of insect-pollinated plants can broadly be placed into two categories: plant fertility and plant attractiveness. ![]() However, it is unclear if the observed poor yields are due to the lack of pollen, other characteristics that have inadvertently been selected for during the process of crop breeding and selection, or a combination of plant traits and environmental variables. When hybrid crops that are grown for seed fail to produce adequate yields, pollinators are often blamed, particularly as male-sterile plants, which have no pollen reward, are notoriously unattractive to honey bees. In itself, this generates economic uncertainty, but it also makes determining which cultivars are best suited to the changing environment a difficult task. Yields of any given hybrid crop can vary significantly between varieties and also from year to year. Global reports of declines in many pollinator communities, changing climate shifting pollinating insects' active time away from peak bloom, and that pollinator reliance has been linked with reduced yield stability, indicate that hybrid systems may be at greater risk from additional disturbances than open-pollinated systems. Because these production systems rely on crossing two parent lines, one of which is rendered male-sterile by hand-emasculation or genetic techniques, they are even more reliant on insect pollinators than their open-pollinated counterparts, do not require insects to cross from one parent line to the other. Many of these plants owe their present uniformity, disease resistance, and high yields to hybrid production systems, including carrot, tomato, onion, melons, squash, brassicas, and eggplant -together totaling nearly 20% of global crop production. Insect-pollinated crops comprise approximately one-third of the global food supply. Given existing predictions of lower pollinator populations in a warmer climate, reduced attractiveness would add yet another challenge to future food production. However, elevated temperature did negatively affect several characteristics relating to the attraction and reward of pollinators (lower volatile production and higher nectar sugar concentration) across all varieties, which may decrease the attractiveness of this already pollinator-limited crop. We found that there were significant intrinsic differences in nectar phenolics, pollen viability, and seed set between the carrot varieties, and that higher temperatures did not exaggerate those differences. We tested how temperature affected the plants' ability to set seed (seed set, pollen viability) as well as attract pollinators (nectar composition, floral volatiles). In this study, we examined how three hybrid carrot varieties with differential performance in the field responded to three temperature regimes (cooler than the historical average, average, and warmer that the historical average). We already observe a wide range of fruit and seed yields between different cultivars of the same crop species, and it is unknown how existing variation will be affected in a changing climate. Insect-pollinated crops produced via hybrid breeding (20% of fruit and vegetable production globally) are especially at risk as they are even more reliant on pollinators than open-pollinated plants. The dependence on pollinators has been linked to yield instability, which could potentially become worse in a changing climate. Approximately one-third of our food globally comes from insect-pollinated crops. ![]()
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