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A Field Guide to Urban Plants
Have you ever wondered exactly what those 'weeds' are growing along the kerb or between the cracks in the pavement? Not the pampered plants of parks, front gardens and herbaceous borders, but simply those that exist everywhere and nowhere in particular: the true survivors, the botanical opportunists. In this handy guide, we introduce the most commonplace flowers, shrubs, grasses, mosses and ferns that are to be found on the street, and show the main characteristics by which you can recognise them. Soon you'll be more alert than ever to the rebellious species of tarmac, wall and gutter as they defy weedkiller, climate change and dog wee. So you can identify the plants you discover in your tow...
Delivery of Crop Pollination Services is an Insufficient Argument for Wild Pollinator Conservation
Abstract: There is compelling evidence that more diverse ecosystems deliver greater benefits to people, and these ecosystem services have become a key argument for biodiversity conservation. However, it is unclear how much biodiversity is needed to deliver ecosystem services in a cost-effective way. Here we show that, while the contribution of wild bees to crop production is significant, service delivery is restricted to a limited subset of all known bee species. Across crops, years and biogeographical regions, crop-visiting wild bee communities are dominated by a small number of common species, and threatened species are rarely observed on crops. Dominant crop pollinators persist under agricultural expansion and many are easily enhanced by simple conservation measures, suggesting that cost-effective management strategies to promote crop pollination should target a different set of species than management strategies to promote threatened bees. Conserving the biological diversity of bees therefore requires more than just ecosystem-service-based arguments
Wild Insect Diversity Increases Inter-annual Stability in Global Crop Pollinator Communities
Abstract: While an increasing number of studies indicate that the range, diversity and abundance of many wild pollinators has declined, the global area of pollinator-dependent crops has significantly increased over the last few decades. Crop pollination studies to date have mainly focused on either identifying different guilds pollinating various crops, or on factors driving spatial changes and turnover observed in these communities. The mechanisms driving temporal stability for ecosystem functioning and services, however, remain poorly understood. Our study quantifies temporal variability observed in crop pollinators in 21 different crops across multiple years at a global scale. Using data ...
Pollination Supply Models from a Local to Global Scale
Abstract: Ecological intensification has been embraced with great interest by the academic sector but is still rarely taken up by farmers because monitoring the state of different ecological functions is not straightforward. Modelling tools can represent a more accessible alternative of measuring ecological functions, which could help promote their use amongst farmers and other decision-makers. In the case of crop pollination, modelling has traditionally followed either a mechanistic or a data-driven approach. Mechanistic models simulate the habitat preferences and foraging behaviour of pollinators, while data-driven models associate georeferenced variables with real observations. Here, we t...
Linking Farmer and Beekeeper Preferences with Ecological Knowledge to Improve Crop Pollination
Abstract: Pollination by insects is a key input into many crops, with managed honeybees often being hired to support pollination services. Despite substantial research into pollination management, no European studies have yet explored how and why farmers managed pollination services and few have explored why beekeepers use certain crops. Using paired surveys of beekeepers and farmers in 10 European countries, this study examines beekeeper and farmer perceptions and motivations surrounding crop pollination. Almost half of the farmers surveyed believed they had pollination service deficits in one or more of their crops. Less than a third of farmers hired managed pollinators; however, most undertook at least one form of agri-environment management known to benefit pollinators, although few did so to promote pollinators. Beekeepers were ambivalent towards many mass-flowering crops, with some beekeepers using crops for their honey that other beekeepers avoid because of perceived pesticide risks. The findings highlight a number of largely overlooked knowledge gaps that will affect knowledge exchange and co-operation between the two groups
A Novel Method to Measure Hairiness in Bees and Other Insect Pollinators
Abstract: Hairiness is a salient trait of insect pollinators that has been linked to thermoregulation, pollen uptake and transportation, and pollination success. Despite its potential importance in pollination ecology, hairiness is rarely included in pollinator trait analyses. This is likely due to the lack of standardized and efficient methods to measure hairiness. We describe a novel methodology that uses a stereomicroscope equipped with a live measurement module software to quantitatively measure two components of hairiness: hair density and hair length. We took measures of the two hairiness components in 109 insect pollinator species (including 52 bee species). We analyzed the relationsh...
Monitoring Bee Health in European Agro-ecosystems Using Wing Morphology and Fat Bodies
Abstract: Current global change substantially threatens pollinators, which directly impacts the pollination services underpinning the stability, structure and functioning of ecosystems. Amongst these threats, many synergistic drivers, such as habitat destruction and fragmentation, increasing use of agrochemicals, decreasing resource diversity, as well as climate change, are known to affect wild and managed bees. Therefore, reliable indicators for pollinator sensitivity to such threats are needed. Biological traits, such as phenotype (e.g. shape, size and asymmetry) and storage reserves (e.g. fat body size), are important pollinator traits linked to reproductive success, immunity, resilience ...
Pollination and Plant Resources Change the Nutritional Quality of Almonds for Human Health
Abstract: Insect-pollinated crops provide important nutrients for human health. Pollination, water and nutrients available to crops can influence yield, but it is not known if the nutritional value of the crop is also influenced. Almonds are an important source of critical nutrients for human health such as unsaturated fat and vitamin E. We manipulated the pollination of almond trees and the resources available to the trees, to investigate the impact on the nutritional composition of the crop. The pollination treatments were: (a) exclusion of pollinators to initiate self-pollination and (b) hand cross-pollination; the plant resource treatments were: (c) reduced water and (d) no fertilizer. I...
Wild Bee Communities Benefit from Temporal Complementarity of Hedges and Flower Strips in Apple Orchards
Abstract: 1. Wild bees importantly pollinate both crop and wild plants. Yet, in intensive agricultural landscapes, wild bees are rare due to resource limitations of nectar and pollen. Flower strips and hedges are often used as resource enhancements for wild bees to overcome this shortage, but provide floral resources only during specific time periods. To sustain diverse and stable bee communities, bee-attractive flowers need to be available during the entire growing season. This may be achieved by combining flower strips and hedges to complement each other and provide continuous floral resources. 2. Over three subsequent years, we compared the phenology of flower and wild bee communities in ...
