Landscape configurational heterogeneity by small-scale agriculture, not crop diversity, maintains pollinators and plant reproduction in western Europe
(2018) In Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 285(1872).- Abstract
Agricultural intensification is one of the main causes for the current biodiversity crisis. While reversing habitat loss on agricultural land is challenging, increasing the farmland configurational heterogeneity (higher field border density) and farmland compositional heterogeneity (higher crop diversity) has been proposed to counteract some habitat loss. Here, we tested whether increased farmland configurational and compositional heterogeneity promote wild pollinators and plant reproduction in 229 landscapes located in four major western European agricultural regions. High-field border density consistently increased wild bee abundance and seed set of radish (Raphanus sativus), probably through enhanced connectivity. In particular, we... (More)
Agricultural intensification is one of the main causes for the current biodiversity crisis. While reversing habitat loss on agricultural land is challenging, increasing the farmland configurational heterogeneity (higher field border density) and farmland compositional heterogeneity (higher crop diversity) has been proposed to counteract some habitat loss. Here, we tested whether increased farmland configurational and compositional heterogeneity promote wild pollinators and plant reproduction in 229 landscapes located in four major western European agricultural regions. High-field border density consistently increased wild bee abundance and seed set of radish (Raphanus sativus), probably through enhanced connectivity. In particular, we demonstrate the importance of crop-crop borders for pollinator movement as an additional experiment showed higher transfer of a pollen analogue along crop-crop borders than across fields or along semi-natural crop borders. By contrast, high crop diversity reduced bee abundance, probably due to an increase of crop types with particularly intensive management. This highlights the importance of crop identity when higher crop diversity is promoted. Our results show that small-scale agricultural systems can boost pollinators and plant reproduction. Agri-environmental policies should therefore aim to halt and reverse the current trend of increasing field sizes and to reduce the amount of crop types with particularly intensive management.
(Less)
- author
- organization
- publishing date
- 2018-02-14
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Bee, Compositional heterogeneity, Field size, Hoverfly, Landscape heterogeneity, Pollen transfer
- in
- Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
- volume
- 285
- issue
- 1872
- article number
- 20172242
- publisher
- Royal Society Publishing
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85043575354
- pmid:29445017
- ISSN
- 0962-8452
- DOI
- 10.1098/rspb.2017.2242
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 1cf6b1b0-77d3-49a2-bbd1-7a0b829aad32
- date added to LUP
- 2018-03-27 14:37:34
- date last changed
- 2024-06-25 14:39:56
@article{1cf6b1b0-77d3-49a2-bbd1-7a0b829aad32,
abstract = {{<p>Agricultural intensification is one of the main causes for the current biodiversity crisis. While reversing habitat loss on agricultural land is challenging, increasing the farmland configurational heterogeneity (higher field border density) and farmland compositional heterogeneity (higher crop diversity) has been proposed to counteract some habitat loss. Here, we tested whether increased farmland configurational and compositional heterogeneity promote wild pollinators and plant reproduction in 229 landscapes located in four major western European agricultural regions. High-field border density consistently increased wild bee abundance and seed set of radish (Raphanus sativus), probably through enhanced connectivity. In particular, we demonstrate the importance of crop-crop borders for pollinator movement as an additional experiment showed higher transfer of a pollen analogue along crop-crop borders than across fields or along semi-natural crop borders. By contrast, high crop diversity reduced bee abundance, probably due to an increase of crop types with particularly intensive management. This highlights the importance of crop identity when higher crop diversity is promoted. Our results show that small-scale agricultural systems can boost pollinators and plant reproduction. Agri-environmental policies should therefore aim to halt and reverse the current trend of increasing field sizes and to reduce the amount of crop types with particularly intensive management.</p>}},
author = {{Hass, Annika L. and Kormann, Urs G. and Tscharntke, Teja and Clough, Yann and Baillod, Aliette Bosem and Sirami, Clélia and Fahrig, Lenore and Martin, Jean Louis and Baudry, Jacques and Bertrand, Colette and Bosch, Jordi and Brotons, Lluís and Bure, Françoise and Georges, Romain and Giralt, David and Marcos-García, María and Ricarte, Antonio and Siriwardena, Gavin and Batáry, Péter}},
issn = {{0962-8452}},
keywords = {{Bee; Compositional heterogeneity; Field size; Hoverfly; Landscape heterogeneity; Pollen transfer}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{02}},
number = {{1872}},
publisher = {{Royal Society Publishing}},
series = {{Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences}},
title = {{Landscape configurational heterogeneity by small-scale agriculture, not crop diversity, maintains pollinators and plant reproduction in western Europe}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2017.2242}},
doi = {{10.1098/rspb.2017.2242}},
volume = {{285}},
year = {{2018}},
}