Abstract :
[en] Several management practices have been suggested to mitigate the global pollinator decline in agro-ecosystems, including wildflower strips and Farming with Alternative Pollinators (FAP). FAP proposes to dedicate 25% of the field area to seed Marketable Habitat Enhancement Plants (MHEP) around the main crop, occupying 75% of the field. However, wild pollinators may not rely fully on the resources that fields provide due to differences in flying period and host-plant preferences, and need additional resources from wild flowering plant communities. Here we aim to compare wild pollinator communities between FAP fields, monoculture of pollinator dependent crops and the nearby wild flowering plants. We developed two experimental trials with two main crops (faba bean and eggplant) in 16 fields in North-West Morocco and we compared wild pollinator richness and wild pollinator specialization between FAP fields, control fields and the nearby wild flowering plants. We recorded a significantly higher pollinator richness in FAP fields compared to wild flowering plants and monoculture. Pollinator specialization index (i.e. degree of interaction specialization at the species level) did not differ significantly between the three treatments in faba bean trial (i.e. FAP, control and wild plants), whilst in eggplant trial, wild plants harboured significantly more specialist species than FAP fields. Yet, no significant differences in pollinator specialization index were reported between the other treatments in eggplant trial (i.e. FAP vs. control and control vs. wild plants). Moreover, 28% of the pollinator species collected, were only observed on wild plants, particularly thistles. These results highlight the potential of FAP approach as a tool for pollinator conservation in farmlands. However, the FAP approach alone is not sufficient to cater the diverse pollinators present in the agro-ecosystem, and hence, the maintenance of the surrounding wild flowering plants is necessary to support pollinators in farmlands.
Funding text :
We would like to thank all specialists that contributed to the taxonomical expertise required for this work: Holger Dathe (Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Germany) for the genus Hylaeus, Achik Dorchin (Tel Aviv University, Israel and UMons, Belgium) for Eucerini, Denis Michez (UMons, Belgium) for Melittidae, Andreas Müller (ETH Zürich, Switzerland) for Osmiini, Alain Pauly (Royal Belgian Institute of Natural History, Belgium) for Halictidae, Pierre Rasmont (UMons, Belgium) for Anthophorini, Melectini and the genus Bombus, Christian Schmid-Egger (Ökoteam Institute for Animal Ecology and Landscape Planning, Berlin, Germany) for most wasps (Crabronidae, Masaridae, Pompilidae, Scoliidae, Sphecidae, Vespidae), Jakub Straka (Charles University, Czech Republic) for Nomadinae, Thomas James Wood (UMons, Belgium) for Andreninae and Panurgini (partim). We also received a great help from Dimitri Evrard (UMons) for collection management and digitization. This study was conducted within an ICARDA project funded by The German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) within the International Climate Initiative (IKI). AS received a PhD grant from ICARDA (Rabat) and UMons. DM and SR were supported by the Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS, Belgium)/FWO joint program ‘EOS – Excellence of Science’ under the project ‘CliPS: Climate change and its effects on Pollination Services’ (project 30947854).We would like to thank all specialists that contributed to the taxonomical expertise required for this work: Holger Dathe (Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Germany) for the genus Hylaeus, Achik Dorchin (Tel Aviv University, Israel and UMons, Belgium) for Eucerini, Denis Michez (UMons, Belgium) for Melittidae, Andreas Müller (ETH Zürich, Switzerland) for Osmiini, Alain Pauly (Royal Belgian Institute of Natural History, Belgium) for Halictidae, Pierre Rasmont (UMons, Belgium) for Anthophorini, Melectini and the genus Bombus, Christian Schmid‐Egger (Ökoteam Institute for Animal Ecology and Landscape Planning, Berlin, Germany) for most wasps (Crabronidae, Masaridae, Pompilidae, Scoliidae, Sphecidae, Vespidae), Jakub Straka (Charles University, Czech Republic) for Nomadinae, Thomas James Wood (UMons, Belgium) for Andreninae and Panurgini (partim). We also received a great help from Dimitri Evrard (UMons) for collection management and digitization. This study was conducted within an ICARDA project funded by The German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) within the International Climate Initiative (IKI). AS received a PhD grant from ICARDA (Rabat) and UMons. DM and SR were supported by the Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS, Belgium)/FWO joint program ‘EOS – Excellence of Science’ under the project ‘CliPS: Climate change and its effects on Pollination Services’ (project 30947854).
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