Insect pollination and herbivory are two major Nature's Contributions to People (NCPs) that determine the productivity of most essential crops worldwide. As a result, identifying the factors that significantly disrupt the efficiency of these NCPs are essential in achieving global food security. Surrounding natural environments near farmland, such as forests, grasslands, and flower patches, are important to insect pollinators for habitation and foraging. Consequently, agricultural intensification severely threatens the preservation of these natural spaces and has been known to decrease pollinator visitation and fruit set. On the other hand, surrounding natural environments may also increase pest abundance, decreasing crop production. Therefore, positive or negative consequences of surrounding environments should be quantitatively elucidated to maximize crop productivity without disrupting the surrounding ecosystem. Furthermore, genetic factors in crops could also affect production through interactions with surrounding environments. In particular, productive outputs of crops may vary in different environments due to genotype-by-environment (GxE) interactions. Genetic varieties and polymorphism can impact apparency and exposure to pollinators and herbivores, which in turn may result in different outcomes in crop production depending on the surrounding forest cover. While both environmental factors and plant traits separately play an important role in determining the insect visitor community structure and reproductive success, it has been poorly understood how surrounding natural environments and GxE interactions exactly influence insect pollination and herbivory. Specifically, it is important to measure quantitatively how each factor contributes to these NCP on the field.

In this study, we aimed to quantify to what extent surrounding forest cover and genetic identities of crops influence insect visitation, leaf damage, and reproductive success. We performed surveys on both flower polymorphs of two distylous buckwheat varieties (Fagopyrum escelatum) at six different sites located in Horokanai, Hokkaido. We found that the main insect visitors to the buckwheat field were the members of the order Diptera. The insect community composition changed significantly as forest cover area changes, and that seed set increased as forest area increased. However, herbivore damage did not increase with forest cover. Furthermore, we found evidence that genetic variety contributed significantly to seed development. However, there were no significant relationships between flower morphology and plant reproductive success, and no significant GxE interactions were detected. Overall, the surrounding forest area benefits the nearby farm through increased insect pollination, and observed no significant drawbacks in terms of leaf herbivory.