(Lamiaceae) Floral Mixture in Conservation of Pollinators in Central Spain
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UNIVERSIDAD POLITÉCNICA DE MADRID ESCUELA TÉCNICA SUPERIOR DE INGENIEROS AGRÓNOMOS HABITAT MANAGEMENT FOR CONSERVATION OF POLLINATORS IN AGRO-ECOSYSTEMS OF CENTRAL SPAIN TESIS DOCTORAL JELENA BARBIR BSc in Biology Madrid, 2014 UNIVERSIDAD POLITÉCNICA DE MADRID ESCUELA TÉCNICA SUPERIOR DE INGENIEROS AGRÓNOMOS Habitat management for conservation of pollinators in agro-ecosystems of Central Spain TESIS DOCTORAL Jelena Barbir BSc in Biology Madrid, 2014 Departamento de Producción Vegetal: Botánica y Protección Vegetal Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Agrónomos Habitat management for conservation of pollinators in agro-ecosystems of Central Spain PhD candidate: Jelena Barbir BSc in Biology Supervisors: José Dorado PhD in Agronomy (ICA, CSIC, Madrid) Francisco Rubén Badenes Pérez PhD in Entomology (ICA, CSIC, Madrid) Madrid, 2014 Tribunal nombrado por el Magfco. Y Excmo. Sr. Rector de la Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, el día de de 2014. Presidente D./Da Vocal D./D.a Vocal D./D.a Vocal D./D.a Secretario D./D.a Suplente D./D.a Suplente D./D.a Realizada la lectura y defensa de la tesis el día de de 2014 en Madrid, en la Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Agrónomos. Calificación: El Presidente Los Vocales El Secretario To the planet Earth ... ... with hope that this work will contribute its beauty and magnificence; ... and to my family. Acknowledgments First of all, I would like to use this opportunity to express gratitude to my supervisors, José Dorado and Francisco Rubén Badenes Pérez. José, thank you for being like a father to me, for helping me to adapt easily to the new environment and group. Thank you for sharing with me your knowledge in the field and your passion for science and agriculture. Thank you for your patience, for all your time spent helping me out with my decisions, experimental designs and doubts. Also, thank you for being always available when I needed someone to talk about anything (work, stress, happy moments, vacations, health or even about missing my family). It was a real pleasure to work with you during those 4 years. Ruben, thank you for sharing with me all your knowledge and passion for science and entomology. It was a unique experience to work with you and I am happy that I had an opportunity to learn so much from you about science and life in general. I would like to thank you for encouraging me to participate in several international conferences and for financing all the inscriptions and trips. Thank you for being always there for me when I needed an advice regarding my work, and also thank you for always being available to prioritize my deadlines. Although not my supervisor, I feel like he was one of them. César, thank you for recognizing my passion for science and for giving me an opportunity to be part of your research team where I felt as another member of the family. Also, I want to thank you for being always so nice to me, and always finding time for me with a big smile on your face. Thank you for your positive energy! In addition, I would like to thank to all members of the group “Weed Ecology”: to David and José Manuel, who were always there for me whenever I needed help in the field, lab or to share a tortilla in a bar; to Carolina, for her smiles and amazing trip to Japan; to Bea, for her positive energy, empathy, smiles and help in the field where we shared some great moments counting Plutellas; also special thanks to my friend, colleague and flatmate Dioni, for motivating me to finish my thesis as soon as possible and have life again:). I would also like to use this chance to thank Elisa Viñuela, my tutor at Polytechnic University of Madrid, who helped me to identify some of the first pollinators in my study area and for always being so positive and energetic. Also, I would like to use this chance to thank all members of her group for being supportive and nice to me. Especially, I would like to thank to my friend Agustin for sharing with me all those happy and frustrating moments during the PhD thesis “process”, and to Celeste, who helped me in the field during that hot summer of 2012, patiently counting bees and keeping aromatic plants alive. My thanks go to Cedo Maksimovic (Imperial College London, UK) and Tijana Blanusa (University of Reading, UK) who warmly received me during my 3-month research visit and helped me with the experiments I was conducting there. Also, thanks to Rebeka Siling who was helping me with my experiments in Reading and to Simon Potts and Robert Stuart for finding time to receive me in Reading and help me sort out some of my major doubts regarding experimental designs. I would like to express my gratitude to Luis Oscar Aguado Martín and Mike Edwards. Those two entomologists made me understand bees. Their passion reflects through my work, my experiments and love for what I was doing those 4 years. Without this passion, all this work would be just boring. So, Oscar and Mike, thank you for enabling me to have fun during those 4 years of my PhD, and thanks to your wives for being so friendly and cooking such a lovely dishes while I was visiting you. Probably none of my field experiments would turn out right without help of Pedro Hernaiz and his “crew”, who solved all my problems in the experimental farm “La Poveda”. Pedro, gracias por tu paciencia y todo el esfuerzo que hiciste para que mis experimentos salgan bien. Muchas gracias a José, Tasio, Jesús, Paulino y especialmente quiero dar las gracias a Carlos que venía incluso durante sus vacaciones a regar mis plantas en el campo. I would like to thank to the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) that awarded me with the JAEpredoc scholarship, to the head of the Institute of Agricultural Sciences - María Teresa García González, and to the CSIC staff: Cristina, Maria Cruz, Belen, Raimundo and Chelo for helping me out with all the paperwork and documentation I needed to deal with during those 4 years; to Clara for assuring me to get any weird or super old article I needed to include in my thesis; to Laura Barrios for her help with statistic analysis and experimental designs; to Antonio for having the cars always ready for me; to David and Victor for constantly repairing my office light; and last but not least, I would like to thank to my “polish” friend Casimiro for keeping my plants happy and in a good condition and to Elisa and Antonio who were always so helpful and nice to me, maintaining my greenhouse experiments running. Also, I would like to thank to all techs, master, PhD and postdoc students I have met in CSIC: to Clara, Sergio, Raul, Lilia, Mikel, Pablo, MJ, Vanesa, Irene, Francesca, Leti, Carlos, Carlos, Dani, Mario, Miguel, Celia, Anita, Rocco, Mariana... thanks for your friendship, for sharing with me Spanish food, Madrid and “out of Madrid” excursions, parties ... Thanks to all those amazing people I have met in Madrid: José, Paula, Fahmi, Ruth (for being so patient correcting my English), Gorjana, Alicia, Ana Cobo ..., and of course to my “precious” friend Clemence, for being always there for me whenever I needed a nice word or a hug. To all my great international friends for being there for me: to Sergio, Paul, Andy, Marta, Manal, Jojo, Jasna, Mike, Rob, Quentin, Hara, Jovanka, Meera, Gabi, Catalan group ... Many thanks to my fantastic Serbian friends: Jelena, Duska, Ivana, Marija, Sanja NS, Elvira, Vesna, Sanela, Ranko, Alpi, Zeljko... guys thank you for all those years of friendship and time we have spent together. Especially, I would like to thank to Sanja and Jovanka for always, always, always being there for me weather I am feeling good or bad, happy or sad, being annoying or super-fun. Thanks girls for always holding my back! The most important people in my life, I saved for the end. To my parents, Ljubisa and Dragana, who passed through the war and fights, but they never stopped believing in life and people. I want to thank them, for transmitting that kind of thinking to me and for making me the person I am. Thank you for all fantastic moments, endless chats, trips, advices, hugs and positive energy... but above all thank you for believing in me. Mama, tata, ne zaboravite, vi ste najbolji roditelji koje jedno dete moze pozeleti. Ponosna sam na vas i volim vas do neba! I would like to thank to my sister, Natasa, for her endless love, for her happy and funny spirit that always cheers me up, for her “lousy” karaoke singing, for helping me out in the field and for never stopping to believe in me. Also, I would like to thank to my super-grandmas, Milica and Zlata, for being my inspiration and support. Hvala vam na vasoj neizmernoj ljubavi, na svakom telefonskom razgovoru, savetu, poljupcu i zagrljaju. Takodjer, hvala vam na svakom obroku, torti i soku pripremljenom sa ogromnom kolicinom ljubavi. Also, I would like to thank to the rest of my family for always being there for me: Vedo, Tiki, Ivana, Bojana, tetka and Saco, teco, strikan and Vesna, tetka Anica, Bojan, Bojan, Bilja, cika Mijo, and of course thanks to the youngest crew of our family: Stefku, Daci and Dori! Also, I thank to the newest members of our family, Alonso and Maite, for their love, support and for being part of my life. Finally, I would like to thank to the love of my life and the best life partner one can imagine - Xavieru.