Assessing the biodiversity and the impact of pollinators on carob production

All traps placed in the male tree collected pollen (Fig 6), and there was a trend of a lower probability of collecting pollen as the distance from the male tree increased. Discussion The results of the current study highlight the important role of insects in C. siliqua pollination, fruit set and improved quality of carob pods. Pollination by wind alone resulted in poor yield Fig 4. Heat map of wild bee and wasp species collected from carob groves in 2016 and 2017. Each carob grove was visited for five times at weekly intervals during carob blooming each year. The heatmap shows the number of weeks a species was recorded as present in each carob grove. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0291431.g004 Table 1. Statistical analyses for the generalized mixed-effects model evaluating the effect of region, week, tree sex, tree side, A. mellifera and wasp presence on wild bee presence in three regions in 2016. Fixed Effects df F-value P-value Region (NW Coast, S. Coast, S. Plateau) 2 56 0.18 0.84 Week 4 1131 1.84 0.12 Tree sex (male or female) 1 56 19.79 < 0.001 Tree side (N, S, E, W) 3 1131 0.48 0.70 Apis mellifera presence 1 1131 52.37 < 0.001 Wasp presence 1 1131 27.62 < 0.001 *SD for Random Effect of Carob Tree (n = 60) 2.76 Residual degrees of freedom 1186 * SD: standard deviation. See Materials and Methods and Results for more information on statistical analyses. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0291431.t001 PLOS ONE Biodiversity and the impact of pollinators on carobs

PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0291431 October 20, 2023 8 / 16