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380 Ecosystems Biodiversity

path and locate food sources (Chittka & Geiger, 1995; Dyer, 1996; Dyer et al., 2008). As such, linear landscape elements are generally considered to promote landscape connectivity (Taylor et al., 1993), i.e. to facilitate movement of organisms among their resource patches by

The mismatch between theoretical expectations of higher foraging activity in complex landscapes on one hand, and the opposite pattern actually observed by Steffan-Dewenter et al. (2002) on the other hand, most probably reveal an interplay of behavioral processes acting at different spatial scales. The study by Steffan-Dewenter et al. (2002) reports broadscale patterns, with landscape context characterized within 250-m to 3-km radii around experimental plots, i.e. a spatial window scaled on the foraging range of honeybee colonies. However, the facilitative effect of visual landmarks for the orientation of foragers probably acts at a very local scale. Perception and orientation in honeybees imply short-scale behavioral processes. For instance, an experimental modification of landmark arrangements within a range of only several tens of meters altered the capacity of honeybees to retrieve

Recent foraging surveys conducted in an intensive cereal farming system support the previous hypothesis that semi-natural and/or linear landscape elements enhance the use of floral schemes by honeybees at a local scale (Henry et al., in press). Honeybee foraging activity was monitored in 170 plots (22m) of *Phacelia tanacetifolia* Benth. scattered among 17 field margins, all positioned within the foraging range of a single experimental apiary. The presence of hedgerows and forest edges within a 160-m radius around the phacelia plots had a strong positive effect on honeybee foraging activity. Conversely, the presence of mass flowering crops within the same distance had a negative effect, probably because they exerted a concurrent attraction. This critical range of 160 m was not covered by the study of

Altogether, the above-mentioned studies suggest that the effectiveness of floral enhancement schemes varies with landscape context in a multi-scale fashion. On a broad scale, i.e. at the landscape level envisioned by the foraging range of a honeybee colony (3 km grain), floral schemes will be more successful in intensive agricultural landscapes (with <15% of land cover occupied by semi-natural habitat remnants). At a smaller scale, within intensive landscapes, floral schemes will be more successful if they are implanted nearby (< 160 m) existing networks of hedgerows, forest edges, or other salient semi-natural elements. Priority should be given to areas farther (> 160 m) from other existing mass-flowering crops. These tentative recommendations still need further validation, depending on the type of

Even if much research remains to be done to improve the assessment of the nutritive value of specific nectar, pollen and their mixes, it is clear that these resources are complementary and essential throughout the lifetime of honeybees. We have seen that, by a feedback loop system, a deficiency in quantity and quality of pollen and nectar can lead to a demographic decrease of the colony. A reduced pollen intake leads to low production of larvae and of course adults, and in turn less pollen and nectar foragers. The role of nectar and pollen is empirically so obvious that beekeepers now provide supplements in the form of syrup or pollen in case of deficiency. However, it must be highlighted that the suitability of pollen feeding depends on the storage method and duration of the pollen. The same holds true for

forming flight corridors (Townsend & Levey, 2005; Van Geert et al., 2010).

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This work is a product of UMT PrADE, a unit which associates different groups of stakeholders towards bee protection, from researchers to apicultural engineers. It was financially supported in part by a grant from the French Ministry of Agriculture (MIRES). The research on the melliferous and polleniferous flora and pollen nutrients was supported by grants from FEAGA, L'Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA "Département Santé des Plantes et Environnement"), and a French-Romanian bilateral program (PHC Brancusi).

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**17** 

João Silva Dias

*Portugal* 

*Tapada da Ajuda, Lisboa* 

**Biodiversity and Vegetable Breeding** 

*Technical University of Lisbon, Instituto Superior de Agronomia,* 

Farming and plant breeding have been closely associated since the early days when crops were first domesticated. Plant breeding was built on biodiversity and on the work of 10,000 years of farmers's selection and some generations of breeders. Without understanding the science behind it, early farmers saved the seed from the best portion of their crop each season. Over the years, they selected the traits that they liked the best, transforming and domesticating the vegetable crops they grew. Every vegetable product we see on the market has benefited from plant breeding in one way or another. New varieties were created by breeders by making use of the total genetic information that was present in a gene pool. Access to that genetic variation, the biodiversity, was required to achieve variety

In the 18th and 19th centuries the Vilmorin-Andrieux family, owner of the first commercial seed company, played an important role in a number of theoretical and technical advances in commercial vegetable breeding, such as producing the first vegetable seed catalog for horticulturists, developing the principles of genealogical breeding programs, improving seed quality through cross-breeding initiatives, and creating disease-resistant and hybrid varieties of vegetables (Gayon & Zallen, 1998). In 1856 Louis Vilmorin published "*Note on the creation of a new race of beetroot and considerations on heredity in plants*" establishing the theoretical groundwork for the modern vegetable breeding industry. The first suggestion to exploit hybrid vigor or heterosis in vegetables was made by Hayes & Jones (1916) for cucumber. Commercial hybridization of vegetable species began in the United States in the middle 1920s with sweet corn, followed by onions in the 1940s. Since that time, private breeding companies have been placing more and more emphasis on the development of vegetable hybrids, and many species of vegetables have been bred as hybrid varieties for the marketplace. Besides heterosis, hybrids also allow breeders to combine the best horticultural traits and multiple disease and stress resistances. Furthermore, if the parents are homozygous, the hybrids will be uniform, an increasingly important trait in commercial vegetable market production. The creation of vegetable hybrid varieties requires homozygous inbred parental lines, which provide a natural protection of plant breeders'

rights without legal recourse and ensure a market for seed companies.

**1. Introduction** 

improvement.

**in the Light of Developments in** 

**Intellectual Property Rights** 

