Journal Article
Mass‐flowering crops dilute pollinator abundance in agricultural landscapes across Europe
Andrea Holzschuh; Matteo Dainese; Juan P. González‐Varo; Sonja Mudri‐Stojnić; Verena Riedinger; Maj Rundlöf; Jeroen Scheper; Jennifer B. Wickens; Victoria J. Wickens; Riccardo Bommarco; David Kleijn; Simon G. Potts; Stuart P. M. Roberts; Henrik G. Smith; Montserrat Vilà; Ante Vujić; Ingolf Steffan‐Dewenter
Ecology Letters · Vol. 19, Issue 10 · pp. 1228-1236 · 2016
Abstract
Mass‐flowering crops ( MFC s) are increasingly cultivated and might influence pollinator communities in MFC fields and nearby semi‐natural habitats ( SNH s). Across six European regions and 2 years, we assessed how landscape‐scale cover of MFC s affected pollinator densities in 408 MFC fields and adjacent SNH s. In MFC fields, densities of bumblebees, solitary bees, managed honeybees and hoverflies were negatively related to the cover of MFC s in the landscape. In SNH s, densities of bumblebees declined with increasing cover of MFC s but densities of honeybees increased. The densities of all pollinators were generally unrelated to the cover of SNH s in the landscape. Although MFC fields apparently attracted pollinators from SNH s, in landscapes with large areas of MFC s 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 MFC s needs to be accompanied by pollinator‐supporting practices in agricultural landscapes.