How does landscape restoration in La Junquera farm affect pollination & biological control services by insects on almond cultivation Enya Ramírez del Valle MSc Thesis in Environmental System Analysis 2020 May Supervisor(s): Examiners: 1) Dr. Dolf de Groot (ESA) 1st: Dr. Dolf de Groot (ESA) [email protected] [email protected] 2 st: Prof. dr Rik Leemans (ESA) [email protected] Disclaimer: This report is produced by a student of Wageningen University as part of his/her MSc-programme. It is not an official publication of Wageningen University and Research and the content herein does not represent any formal position or representation by Wageningen University and Research. Copyright © 2020All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, without the prior consent of the Environmental Systems Analysis group of Wageningen University and Research. 2 Preface I wrote this thesis to meet the requirements of the Master program of Environmental Sciences at Wageningen University & Research. I did my research from September 2019 until April 2020. The idea of this thesis initially stemmed from my passion for insects and their benefits produced in the agriculture sector. Currently, the world is facing environmental impacts due to unsustainable management in agriculture. It is my passion to find out solutions that contribute to reducing those impacts by using insects that exert benefits to nature and crop production. In order to conduct a research that fulfils my interest, the Regeneration Academy gave me the opportunity to conduct this thesis in its crop management project. My research questions were formulated together with my supervisor, Dr. Dolf de Groot. The research was difficult but conducting an extensive study has allowed me to find useful data to answer the research questions. Fortunately, Yanniek Schoonhoven and Jacobo Monereo of the Regeneration Academy were always available and willing to assist my queries. In truth, I could not have achieved my current level of success without a strong support group. First of all, Dr. Dolf de Groot, who provided patience advice and excellent guidance throughout the research process. I also thank all his feedbacks; without his cooperation, I would not have been able to conduct this thesis. Yanniek Schoonhoven and Jacobo Monereo, who assisted me during my fieldwork, their advice, and monitoring the process of this thesis. Laura Nuñes, Arantza Ilarduya, Frank Ohlenschlaeger, Fernando Baustista, Miguel Ángel, Alfonso Chico, and Ángel Triguero to assisted with finding data and provided me useful information to conduct this investigation. Paulina Cifuentes and Stefanie Korswagen, who helped me in improving this thesis. Last but not least, thanks to Rik Leemans, who provided me excellent feedbacks. I gratefully acknowledge the support of Commonland and Erasmus+ grant of Wageningen University & Research. I also thank Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT) to provide me the opportunity to do my master abroad and the support throughout this professional experience. I also thank the Regeneration Academy students (Mariska Daniëlle Rijk, Anouk de Koning, Yue Huang, Alisa van Gent, and Eloi Ryelandt), who made this experience amazing and enjoyable. I want to express my gratitude to my family, Rocio del Valle, Samuel Ramírez and Naara Y. Ramirez and Yafté Y. Gómez, who supported me with love, understanding and for the encouragement. Finally, thank to Stefanie Korswagen, Erich Castro, Sayidjakhon Khasanov, Job Den Heeten, Daniela Diaz, Silvia López, Marina Chen, Katha Schwan, Pilar Bobadilla, Lorena Esquivias, Rodrigo Muñoz, Ángel Marquez, Daniel Orrico, Hector Reider, Nelson Rios, and Esteban Gutiérrez. I am very grateful for their supportive friendship, for providing me enjoyable moments, and good humoured encourage when I was writhing (and not writing) this thesis. Summary Worldwide, land degradation is increasing, and two billion hectares are already degraded over the last decades due to non-sustainable agro-silvopastoral practices and social factors and currently the most threatened are in Europe is Mediterranean Spain. Despite agro-silvopastoral systems are essential as they produce food, fiber, and fuel. Producing these provisioning ecosystem services are only possible if these systems are supported by other ecosystems services such as water retention, pollination and biological control. Almond cultivation is an essential tree crop in Spain, which is the world’s third-largest almond producer. Almond production depends on a large extend of natural insect pollination and biological pest control. However, the interactions between these two ecosystem services and almonds production, and the effects of on-going landscape restoration and climate change are still poorly understood. My thesis, therefore, aims to better understand of these interactions and to assess impacts of landscape restoration and climate change on both services. I analysed the situation of La Junquera farm in Murcia, Spain, by reviewing the literature and doing fieldwork in the last two months of 2019. I developed a research scheme that includes stakeholder analysis, ecosystem services analysis, and climate scenario development and analysis to analyse the impacts of landscape restoration on pollinators and biological control. Data collection was based on stakeholder interviews, questionnaires, literature review and climate statistics. My results showed that fifty-one different species provide benefits to almonds by suppressing pest and pollinating trees. Thirty are pollinator insects, seventeen are natural insect enemies, and the rest are non-insects. Biological control insects found are likely to kill between five- hundred insects pest per day. This depends on their precise natural enemy. Natural pollinator insects likely contribute to increasing fruit setting by maximally forty percent and for apply pollination up to almost sixty percent. Nevertheless, the latter pollination affects the native pollination species. My thesis also demonstrated that the effect of landscape restoration stimulates this interaction by planting native woody species that function as a reservoir for the wild species. Interestingly, the projected climate change suggested adverse effects on almonds and insects. The future climate conditions impact pest populations. New pests probably expand their distribution and adversely affect almonds productivity. My thesis also shows that the on-going landscape restoration activities likely serve as a ‘buffer’ that improves the on-going climate change by providing more shelter to pollinators and biological control insect species. This thesis provided better understanding into almond production and their interactions with ecosystem services that are provided by insects, in La Junquera farm. These insights help to increase awareness about the need to planning. Table of content 1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 bACKGROUND ............................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 DESCRIPTION OF THE STUDY AREA & ITS LANDSCAPE RESTORATION PLAN ............................. 2 1.3 PROBLEM STATEMENT .................................................................................................................. 4 1.4 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS................................................................. 5 2. METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................................................. 6 2.1 PLANNING THE STUDY ................................................................................................................. 6 2.1.1 Research scheme ..................................................................................................................... 6 2.1.2 What is pollination and biological control ............................................................................. 7 2.1.3 Regenerative almond production on La Junquera farm......................................................... 8 2.2 METHODS .................................................................................................................................... 10 2.2.1 Stakeholder Analysis. .......................................................................................................... 10 2.2.2 Ecosystem Services Analysis ............................................................................................... 10 2.2.3 Climate scenario development and analysis ........................................................................ 11 2.2.4 Impact Assessment of beneficial insects .............................................................................. 12 2.3 DATA COLLECTION ..................................................................................................................... 13 2.4 DATA ANALYSIS AND DATA MANAGEMENT ............................................................................. 15 3. RESULTS ........................................................................................................................................... 16 3.1 STAKEHOLDER ANALYSIS ................................................................................................................. 16 3.1.1 Stakeholder involved ...........................................................................................................