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Dharini Sudha Venkatesh

Candidature

Dual Award PhD Candidate (Western Sydney University & Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore)

Thesis title

Study of Pollination Efficiency of Native Stingless Bees on Mango Cultivars and the Impact of Climate Change on Phenology of Mango Cultivars and Distribution of Stingless Bees in India and Australia

Research Project

Dharini Sudha Venkatesh Mango is a globally significant fruit crop well adapted to both the tropics and sub-tropics. Insect pollination has been shown to be crucial for mango fruit set and yield. Another emerging major threat to mango production is climate change. Flowering duration, sex ratio of male to perfect flowers and yield of mangoes will be adversely affected by changes in absolute minimum and maximum temperatures in Australia (by NSW govt) and many mango growing regions of the world. Climate change can also bring adverse effects on pollination efficiency such as departure time from hives, searching behavior and floral handling time of bees. My research project in Australia aims to identify the impact of cross pollination on yield and quality of two mango cultivars, Kensington Pride and R2E2. This study also aims to identify bloom per cent coincidence between these two mango cultivars and how distance to co-flowering variety impact cross pollination percentage within the orchards. In India, the project focuses mainly on two parts. The first part is to identify the dominant pollinators on mango trees from floral visitor surveys at spatial and temporal scales within the orchards. The time of their visits are correlated to anthesis and stigma receptivity in mango to indirectly assess their efficiency. The second part of the study focuses on the impact of temperature on flowering duration and initiation time in mango.

Supervisors

Dr James Makinson, A/Professor Robert Spooner-Hart and Professor James Cook