Bees increase seed set of wild plants while the proportion of arable land has a variable effect on pollination in European agricultural landscapes

Abstract

Background and aims – Agricultural intensification and loss of farmland heterogeneity have contributed to population declines of wild bees and other pollinators, which may have caused subsequent declines in insect-pollinated wild plants.

Material and methods – Using data from 37 studies on 22 pollinator-dependent wild plant species across Europe, we investigated whether flower visitation and seed set of insect-pollinated plants decline with an increasing proportion of arable land within 1 km.

Key results – Seed set increased with increasing flower visitation by bees, most of which were wild bees, but not with increasing flower visitation by other insects. Increasing proportion of arable land had a strongly variable effect on seed set and flower visitation by bees across studies.

Conclusion – Factors such as landscape configuration, local habitat quality, and temporally changing resource availability (e.g. due to mass-flowering crops or honey bee hives) could have modified the effect of arable land on pollination. While our results highlight that the persistence of wild bees is crucial to maintain plant diversity, we also show that pollen limitation due to declining bee populations in homogenized agricultural landscapes is not a universal driver causing parallel losses of bees and insect-pollinated plants.

Metadata

Item Type:	Article
Authors/Creators:	Herbertsson, L Ekroos, J Albrecht, M Bartomeus, I Batary, P Bommarco, R Caplat, P Diekotter, T Eikestam, JM Entling, MH Farbu, S Farwig, N Gonzalez-Varo, JP Hass, AL Holzschuh, A Hopfenmueller, S Jakobsson, A Jauker, B Kovacs-Hostyanszki, A Kleve, W Kunin, WE https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9812-2326 Lindstrom, SAM Mullen, S Ockinger, E Petanidou, T Potts, SG Power, EF Rundlof, M Seibel, K Sober, V Soderman, A Steffan-Dewenter, I Stout, JC Teder, T Tscharntke, T Smith, HG
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information:	© 2021 Lina Herbertsson, Johan Ekroos, Matthias Albrecht, Ignasi Bartomeus, Péter Batáry, Riccardo Bommarco, Paul Caplat, Tim Diekötter, Jenny M. Eikestam, Martin H. Entling, Sunniva Farbu, Nina Farwig, Juan P. Gonzalez-Varo, Annika L. Hass, Andrea Holzschuh, Sebastian Hopfenmüller, Anna Jakobsson, Birgit Jauker, Anikó Kovács-Hostyánszki, Wera Kleve, William E. Kunin, Sandra A.M. Lindström, Sarah Mullen, Erik Öckinger, Theodora Petanidou, Simon G. Potts, Eileen F. Power, Maj Rundlöf, Kathrin Seibe, Virve Sõber, Annika Söderman, Ingolf Steffan-Dewenter, Jane C. Stout, Tiit Teder, Teja Tscharntke, Henrik G. Smith. This article is published and distributed in Open Access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work (author and source) is properly cited.
Keywords:	Habitat loss; landscape complexity; landscape simplification; pollinating insects; pollination; semi-natural
Dates:	Published: 23 November 2021 Accepted: 13 September 2021
Institution:	The University of Leeds
Academic Units:	The University of Leeds > Faculty of Biological Sciences (Leeds) > School of Biology (Leeds)
Depositing User:	Symplectic Publications
Date Deposited:	18 Jan 2022 15:00
Last Modified:	18 Jan 2022 15:00
Status:	Published
Publisher:	Meise Botanic Garden and Royal Botanical Society of Belgium
Identification Number:	10.5091/plecevo.2021.1884
Related URLs:	Author
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID):	oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:182552

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Bees increase seed set of wild plants while the proportion of arable land has a variable effect on pollination in European agricultural landscapes

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