Abstract Habitat remnants act as a source of pollinators potentially relevant for crop pollination and yield. This work analyzes how habitat loss influences pollinators, effective pollination and yield of soybean crops. The study area comprises ten sites adjacent to forest patches surrounded by a soybean matrix in central Argentina (eight sites in the season 2014–2015 and two sites in the season 2015–2016). Pollination was estimated by pollen deposition and frequency of flower visitors. Pollen deposition on stigmas and seed set were measured comparing open plants and plants with pollinator exclusion. These response variables were compared considering increasing distance to the forest edge and an increasing gradient of forest patch size. Bees were the most frequent visitors of soybean flowers, especially honeybees, but also at least three native bee species were recorded. Open plants showed higher rates of stigmatic pollen deposition than plants with pollinator exclusion, but seed set was similar. Total insect visitation rates, especially of native insects, decreased with distance to the forest edge and so did pollen deposition. Pollen deposition and seed set increased with increasing forest patch size for plants located near and far from the forest edge, respectively. Overall, our results suggest that the contribution of native pollinators from local forest patches is important for effective pollination across the landscape. Small patches of forest (approximately 1 ha.) guarantee pollinators to ensure plant yields similar to the yields of plants growing close to large patches, but only at short distances; while larger forest patches provide better pollination services for the crop at larger distances from the forest edge. However, we encourage further studies because results suggest that other factors may also influence soybean pollination and production.

中文翻译：

---

森林碎片影响查科景观中大豆作物的授粉和产量

摘要 栖息地残余物是可能与作物授粉和产量相关的传粉媒介的来源。这项工作分析了栖息地丧失如何影响传粉媒介、有效授粉和大豆作物的产量。研究区包括十个毗邻阿根廷中部被大豆基质包围的森林斑块的地点（2014-2015 季节有八个地点，2015-2016 季节有两个地点）。授粉是通过花粉沉积和来访者的频率来估计的。测量柱头和种子集上的花粉沉积，比较开放植物和排除传粉媒介的植物。考虑到森林边缘距离的增加和森林斑块大小梯度的增加，比较了这些响应变量。蜜蜂是大豆花的常客，尤其是蜜蜂，但也至少记录了三种本地蜜蜂物种。开放植物的柱头花粉沉积率高于排除传粉媒介的植物，但结实率相似。总昆虫访问率，尤其是本地昆虫，随着距离森林边缘的距离而降低，花粉沉积也是如此。对于位于靠近和远离森林边缘的植物，花粉沉积和种子集随着森林斑块大小的增加而增加。总的来说，我们的结果表明，来自当地森林斑块的本地传粉者的贡献对于整个景观的有效授粉很重要。小块森林（约 1 公顷）保证传粉媒介以确保植物产量与靠近大块森林的植物产量相似，但仅限于短距离；而较大的森林斑块为距林缘较远的作物提供更好的授粉服务。然而，我们鼓励进一步研究，因为结果表明其他因素也可能影响大豆授粉和生产。