The theme of this segment so far has been the impacts of climate change on the food supply, and this story isn’t different, but there is a tiny bit of good news. Plus cute animals. Coffee is basically the reason this show gets done every day, so we’re bringing you this story.

Coffee is a fickle plant, requiring a narrow range of growing conditions, which are changing because of climate change. This is making coffee more expensive. 

The leading coffee plant, arabica, is self-pollinating, but there is a significant benefit to other animals helping. Birds eat pests that damage the beans, and bees provide more pollination help. Fortunately, insects and birds do this for free, even traveling thousands of miles to do so as new research in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows. The purpose of the study was to quantify the benefit of the pollination of both species together, as previous studies considered them separately. According to first author Alejandra Martínez-Salinas: …nature is an interacting system, full of important synergies and trade-offs. We show the ecological and economic importance of these interactions, in one of the first experiments at realistic scales on actual farms.

Turns out the difference is quite significant and well more than the separate benefits added together. The coffee plants helped by insects and birds had bigger fruit weight and uniformity. The researchers calculated that each field would see a 25% drop in yield without the combination of pollinators. This works out to over $1,000 per hectare less profit for the farmer.

The research study involved first excluding bees, then birds, then both and finally letting both at the plants. The work was done at thirty farms across Latin America and the U.S.

Tying this back to climate change, the researchers caution that the habitat that these beneficial animals live in is being impacted by climate change and human activity. Natalia Aristizábal, a Ph.D. student at the University of Vermont involved in the study, said: One important reason we measure these contributions is to help protect and conserve the many species that we depend on, and sometimes take for granted.

More Information

The University of Vermont press release

“Interacting pest control and pollination services in coffee systems,” Alejandra Martínez-Salinas et al., 2022 April 4, PNAS