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Pesticides and habitat loss additively reduce wild bees in crop fields

Knauer, Anina ; Adhikari, Subodh ; Andersson, Georg K.S. LU orcid ; Andrieu, Emilie ; Báldi, András ; Batáry, Péter ; Bosch, Jordi ; Bushmann, Sara L. ; Cano, Domingo and Carrié, Romain LU , et al. (2026) In Nature Ecology and Evolution 10(1). p.95-104
Abstract

Pesticide use and habitat loss are major anthropogenic drivers of bee decline, raising global concerns about impaired crop pollination. However, the relative importance of these stressors and their combined impact on bee assemblages comprising species with different traits, such as body size or nesting strategy, remains unknown. Here we addressed these key knowledge gaps in a global quantitative synthesis analysing bee assemblage data from 681 crop fields across three continents. We found that both local pesticide hazards and decreasing proportions of semi-natural habitats in surrounding landscapes negatively affected wild bee abundance and species richness in crop fields, while pesticides additionally reduced functional and... (More)

Pesticide use and habitat loss are major anthropogenic drivers of bee decline, raising global concerns about impaired crop pollination. However, the relative importance of these stressors and their combined impact on bee assemblages comprising species with different traits, such as body size or nesting strategy, remains unknown. Here we addressed these key knowledge gaps in a global quantitative synthesis analysing bee assemblage data from 681 crop fields across three continents. We found that both local pesticide hazards and decreasing proportions of semi-natural habitats in surrounding landscapes negatively affected wild bee abundance and species richness in crop fields, while pesticides additionally reduced functional and phylogenetic diversity. Semi-natural habitat availability did not buffer against these negative pesticide effects, nor did we identify any specific traits rending bees more vulnerable to one of the two drivers. Our findings highlight the pressing need to reduce non-target effects of pesticide use and emphasize that conservation and restoration of semi-natural habitats successfully promote wild bees, but are insufficient strategies to mitigate pesticide-driven losses of wild bee pollinators from crop fields.

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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Nature Ecology and Evolution
volume
10
issue
1
pages
10 pages
publisher
Nature Publishing Group
external identifiers
  • scopus:105024706117
ISSN
2397-334X
DOI
10.1038/s41559-025-02924-z
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2025.
id
a6995502-dcaf-4f9d-80a7-ba38d0ba3604
date added to LUP
2026-01-13 15:03:27
date last changed
2026-01-13 17:26:10
@article{a6995502-dcaf-4f9d-80a7-ba38d0ba3604,
  abstract     = {{<p>Pesticide use and habitat loss are major anthropogenic drivers of bee decline, raising global concerns about impaired crop pollination. However, the relative importance of these stressors and their combined impact on bee assemblages comprising species with different traits, such as body size or nesting strategy, remains unknown. Here we addressed these key knowledge gaps in a global quantitative synthesis analysing bee assemblage data from 681 crop fields across three continents. We found that both local pesticide hazards and decreasing proportions of semi-natural habitats in surrounding landscapes negatively affected wild bee abundance and species richness in crop fields, while pesticides additionally reduced functional and phylogenetic diversity. Semi-natural habitat availability did not buffer against these negative pesticide effects, nor did we identify any specific traits rending bees more vulnerable to one of the two drivers. Our findings highlight the pressing need to reduce non-target effects of pesticide use and emphasize that conservation and restoration of semi-natural habitats successfully promote wild bees, but are insufficient strategies to mitigate pesticide-driven losses of wild bee pollinators from crop fields.</p>}},
  author       = {{Knauer, Anina and Adhikari, Subodh and Andersson, Georg K.S. and Andrieu, Emilie and Báldi, András and Batáry, Péter and Bosch, Jordi and Bushmann, Sara L. and Cano, Domingo and Carrié, Romain and Danforth, Bryan N. and Drummond, Francis A. and Esquerré, Diane and García, Daniel and Gratton, Claudio and Hambäck, Peter A. and Happe, Anne Kathrin and Hederström, Veronica and Holzschuh, Andrea and Jeanneret, Philippe and Kaasik, Riina and Kehinde, Temitope and Knapp, Jessica and Kovács-Hostyánszki, Anikó and Kremen, Claire and Leyer, Ilona and Lüscher, Gisela and Mallinger, Rachel and Marja, Riho and Martínez-Núñez, Carlos and Menalled, Fabian D. and M’Gonigle, Leithen K. and Miñarro, Marcos and Mupepele, Anne Christine and Nicholson, Charlie C. and Otieno, Mark and Ouin, Annie and Park, Mia G. and Pereira-Peixoto, Maria Helena and Pérez, Antonio J. and Potts, Simon G. and Reineke, Annette and Rey, Pedro J. and Ricketts, Taylor H. and Rivers-Moore, Justine and Roberts, Stuart and Roquer-Beni, Laura and Rundlöf, Maj and Samnegård, Ulrika and Samways, Michael J. and Schwarz, Janine M. and Schweiger, Oliver and Smith, Henrik G. and Steffan-Dewenter, Ingolf and Sutter, Louis and Tamburini, Giovanni and Uzman, Deniz and Veromann, Eve and Vialatte, Aude and Viik, Eneli and Brown, Mark J.F. and Klein, Alexandra Maria and Albrecht, Matthias}},
  issn         = {{2397-334X}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{1}},
  pages        = {{95--104}},
  publisher    = {{Nature Publishing Group}},
  series       = {{Nature Ecology and Evolution}},
  title        = {{Pesticides and habitat loss additively reduce wild bees in crop fields}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41559-025-02924-z}},
  doi          = {{10.1038/s41559-025-02924-z}},
  volume       = {{10}},
  year         = {{2026}},
}