The Argentinian pampas and agro-ecological approaches to

studying pollination of entomophilous crops

Mariano Devoto

Outline

• My main interests• Focal species (description, importance)• Focal area• Climate conditions• Climate change scenarios• My expertise towards the project• What I want to get from this project

My interests

Focal species: soybean

Insect pollination can increase yield by 18-50%

Sown surface: 20,000,000 haYield 2013/2014: 54,000,000 ton

10% grain world trade (105,000,000 tons)49% of flour world trade (62,400,000 tons)

48% of oil world trade (8,900,000 tons)

Exports represent 5.5% of Argentina's GDP

Focal area: Pampean region

535 000 km²

Study sites

Agro-ecosystem Mosaic of crop fields (soybean, maize, sunflower

and lucerne), sown pastures, and semi-natural grasslands used for live stock grazing.

Temperate sub-humid (1022 mm/year). Mean monthly temperatures: 7.2 °C in July to

23.8 °C in January. Regional flora includes 25 % of exotic species.

Previous, current and future projects in the area

2003-2007Sunflower pollination

2006-2009Grassland restoration

after agriculture

2008-2011Impact of agriculture

2012-2015Linear elementsin the landscape

2014-2016Soybean pollination atpopulation, community

and landscape level

N-S temperature gradientE-W rainfall gradient

Things are likely to get warmer…

…and wetter

My expertise towards the project

Trained as an agriculture engineer Traditional pollination biology Community ecology Ecological networks (theory and practice) Environmental gradients (space and time) Climate change simulations Modeling stuff

What I want to get from this project

Good science; interesting challenge Long-term international collaboration Synergy between projects Visitors to Argentina A heap of papers