Mass-flowering crops dilute pollinator abundance in agricultural landscapes across Europe

Holzschuh, A., Dainese, M., González-Varo, J. P., Mudri-Stojnić, S., Riedinger, V., Rundlöf, M., Scheper, J., Wickens, J. B., Wickens, V. J., Bommarco, R., Kleijn, D., Potts, S. G. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2045-980X, Roberts, S. P. M., Smith, H. G., Vilà, M., Vujić, A. and Steffan-Dewenter, I. (2016) Mass-flowering crops dilute pollinator abundance in agricultural landscapes across Europe. Ecology Letters, 19 (10). pp. 1228-1236. ISSN 1461023X doi: 10.1111/ele.12657

Abstract/Summary

Mass-flowering crops (MFCs) are increasingly cultivated and might influence pollinator communities in MFC fields and nearby semi-natural habitats (SNHs). Across six European regions and 2 years, we assessed how landscape-scale cover of MFCs affected pollinator densities in 408 MFC fields and adjacent SNHs. In MFC fields, densities of bumblebees, solitary bees, managed honeybees and hoverflies were negatively related to the cover of MFCs in the landscape. In SNHs, densities of bumblebees declined with increasing cover of MFCs but densities of honeybees increased. The densities of all pollinators were generally unrelated to the cover of SNHs in the landscape. Although MFC fields apparently attracted pollinators from SNHs, in landscapes with large areas of MFCs they became diluted. The resulting lower densities might negatively affect yields of pollinator-dependent crops and the reproductive success of wild plants. An expansion of MFCs needs to be accompanied by pollinator-supporting practices in agricultural landscapes.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/68149
Item Type	Article
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Life Sciences > School of Agriculture, Policy and Development > Department of Sustainable Land Management > Centre for Agri-environmental Research (CAER)
Publisher	Wiley
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