DOI: 10.5061/dryad.6t1g1jx49
title: Data for: Assessing the biodiversity and the impact of pollinators on carob production

description: As the current climate crisis intensifies, drought-resistant crops are
 becoming more important due to their ability to withstand the increasingly
 hotter and drier summers. Such crops are valuable for pollinators as they
 provide food resources for wild and managed species. The carob tree
 (Ceratonia siliqua L.) represents an example of a heat- and
 drought-resistant crop, able to grow in dry areas with practically no
 inputs. The current study assessed over two growing seasons the diversity
 of wild bees and other pollinators relying on carob flowers, as well as
 the contribution of animal pollination to carob production. Carob flowers
 were subjected to two treatments: Open pollination, where inflorescences
 were left untreated, and wind pollination, where inflorescences were
 bagged in a mesh during blooming. Weekly observations during blooming
 showed that Apis mellifera was the most frequent floral visitor followed
 by wild bees and wasps. Carob flowers were visited by at least 10
 different wild bee species. Open-pollinated flowers produced significantly
 more pods, with the benefit ranging from 4 to 16 times higher production,
 depending on the region. Open pollination led to pods with greater weight,
 length and number of seeds compared to pods derived from wind pollination.
 The results of the current study highlight the importance of animal
 pollination to carob production, as well as the significance of carob
 trees to wild bee conservation.
description: The information on how the data were collected is presented in
 the accompanying manuscript. This is the curated dataset that was used for
 analyses and graph preparation. 
description: OpenOffice can be used to open the CSV and Notepad files. 
description: # Varnava et al. 2023. Assessing the biodiversity and the impact of
 pollinators on carob production *** ## Description of the data and file
 structure The dataset contains 5 CSV files with the data in the Varnava et
 al. 2023 paper on "Assessing the biodiversity and the impact of
 pollinators on carob production " **insect_presence_DRYAD** *** The
 dataset contains data on the presence (1) or absence (0) of Apis
 mellifera, wild bees and wasps. The experiment was carried out in three
 regions in 2016 (S_Plateau, NW_Coast and S. Coast), with two of the
 regions (S_Plateau and NW_Coast) sampled again in 2017. In each region,
 four carob groves (plots) were selected, and within each plot insects
 visiting flowers were recorded on four female and one male carob trees.
 For each tree, observations were made on each of four sides (N,S,E,W) for
 2 minutes per side. The presence of insects belonging to the following
 groups, *A. mellifera*, Wild_bees, Wasps, were recorded with 1 signifying
 the presence of at least one individual of the group and 0 no presence.
 The dataset can also be used for estimating the probability of sighting of
 each group at any sampling point for each year (Fig. 2). The dataframe
 contains the following variables: * Date: Sampling date * Week: Week of
 sampling beginning from the first week of flowering * Region: Where the
 plot was located * Plot: Number of the plot * Tree: Number of the tree *
 Tree_Side: Side of the tree where sampling took place: 1=south, 2=west,
 3=north and 4=east. * Tree_Sex: Male or female * Apis_mellifera: 0 if
 absent, 1 if present (at least one individual) * Wild_bees: 0 if absent, 1
 if present (at least one individual) * Wasps_total:0 if absent, 1 if
 present (at least one individual) **pod_number_analysis** *** The
 pod_number_analysis dataset contains the data on the production of pods
 from groups of inflorescences in the open and wind pollination treatments.
 The experiment was carried out in three different regions, with one carob
 grove per region, with 20 trees per carob grove. In each tree, there were
 two branches, with one open and one wind pollination treatment per branch.
 The variables of the dataframe are as follows: * Region: The region of the
 carob grove. * Tree_no: The number of the individual tree in each orchard
 * Branch: The number of the two branches per tree on which the wind and
 open pollination treatments were applied - each treatment was applied on
 both branches (for reach branch, 1 group of inflorescences bagged = wind
 pollination, and one group of inflorescences left free = open
 pollination). * Treatment: The assigned treatment - wind or open
 pollination. * inter_R_T: A new variable created to ease the use of tree
 as a random effect variable as trees in different regions had the same
 number, which would make the software think that these were the same
 trees. * Inflorescences_no_beg: The number of inflorescences assigned to
 each treatment per branch. Pods_no: The number of pods produced by all
 inflorescences in a group. **pods_weight_data_DRYAD** *** The dataset
 contains data on the number, weight and length of seeds per pod produced
 from carob trees in the open and wind-pollination treatments. The
 experiment was carried out in three different regions, with one carob
 grove per region, with 20 trees per orchard. In each tree, there were two
 branches, with one open and one wind-pollination treatment per branch. The
 data were derived from teh same experiment as the ones contained in the
 dataframe "pod_number analysis". However, some trees did not
 produce pods, and therefore the number of trees in the
 "pod_weight_data_DRYAD" dataset is lower than 20. The variables
 of the dataframe are as follows: * Region: The region of the grove. *
 Tree_no: The number of the individual tree in each grove. * Branch: The
 two branches per tree on which the wind and open pollination treatments
 were applied - each treatment was applied on both branches. * Treatment:
 The assigned treatment - open or wind-pollination * pod_weight_gr: The
 weight of each individual pod in gr * pod_length_cm: The length of each
 individual pod in cm * seeds_per_pod: The number of seeds produced per pod
 * Inter_R_Tree: Variable created to assign an individual label to each
 tree * Inter_R_Tree_B: Variable created to assign an individual label to
 each branch * Inter_mesh_bag: Variable created to assign an individual
 label to each inflorescence group **pollen_trans_DRYAD** *** The dataset
 contains the results of an experiment on pollen transfer via wind.
 Glycerol traps were placed on one male and four female trees, with four
 traps per tree. The distance of each female tree from the male was
 recorded. 24 h later, the traps were collected and the presence of pollen
 was recorded. * Date_in: Date of trap placement * Date_out: Date of trap
 removal * Tree_no: Tree number (1-5) * Tree_sex: Male or Female *
 glycerol_trap_no: Individual trap number * Pollen_presence: 0 if absent, 1
 if present * Distance_m: Distance in meters of the female tree from the
 male tree (set to 0 for male tree). **heatmap_DRYAD** *** The dataset
 contains data on the species of wild bees and wasps recorded from each
 carob grove. The data were collected over five weekly visits to each carob
 grove per year during blooming. The dataset contains the following
 variables: * Species: Each of the 14 species of wild bees / wasps that
 were recorded during the study. * One column for each carob grove and
 sampling year (resulting in a total of 21 carob_grove_year columns). For
 each carob_grove_year column, the integer value shows the number of weeks
 (out of a total of five) each insect species was recorded as present in
 each grove. ## Sharing/Access information The data are available through
 Dryad.