5 research outputs found
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Scales matter: maximising the effectiveness of interventions for pollinators and pollination
Evidence of declines in wild and managed pollinators and pollination services is increasingly being documented around the world. This has driven the development of a wide range of practical management and policy responses which were reviewed in the Intergovernmental science-policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) global assessment of ‘Pollinators, Pollination and Food Production’. We take 38 responses from this report as a basis to explore the importance of scale for the effective delivery of an intervention’s benefit to pollinators. We considered five scale categories: Spatial, the spatial scale at which the response is most effective; Temporal, the time scale over which the response is most effective; Actors, the number of actors needed for most effectively implementing a response; Social, the sphere of influence or motivation that determines an effective response; and, Sector, the sector(s) of society which should be involved to increase effectiveness. Each scale category was split into multiple levels and we scored each in terms of how important they
were for determining the effectiveness of a given response option. Using our combined scores, we aim to explore general trends and raise awareness around the main issues
relating to the importance of scale, with illustrated examples from the literature. We show how scales have impacted on the effectiveness of interventions and provide recommendations on how to improve scale matching when planning a response action. While the relative importance of scales and levels for effectiveness was heterogeneous
across response options, there were some general patterns. Interventions were only effective when targeted over the right spatial scales over a sufficient period of time
and involved all relevant social and sectoral groups and actors
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Pollinator monitoring more than pays for itself
1. Resilient pollination services depend on sufficient abundance of pollinating insects over time. Currently, however, most knowledge about the status and trends of pollinators is based on changes in pollinator species richness and distribution only. 2. Systematic, long‐term monitoring of pollinators is urgently needed to provide baseline information on their status, to identify the drivers of declines and to inform suitable response measures. 3. Power analysis was used to determine the number of sites required to detect a 30% change in pollinator populations over 10 years. We then evaluated the full economic costs of implementing four national monitoring schemes in the UK: (a) professional pollinator monitoring, (b) professional pollination service monitoring, (c) volunteer collected pan traps and (d) volunteer focal floral observations. These costs were compared to (a) the costs of implementing separate, expert‐designed research and monitoring networks and (b) the economic benefits of pollination services threatened by pollinator loss. 4. Estimated scheme costs ranged from £6,159/year for a 75‐site volunteer focal flower observation scheme to £2.7 M/year for an 800‐site professional pollination service monitoring network. The estimated research costs saved using the site network as research infrastructure range from £1.46–4.17 M/year. The economic value of UK crop yield lost following a 30% decline in pollinators was estimated at ~£188 M/year. 5. Synthesis and applications. We evaluated the full costs of running pollinator monitoring schemes against the economic benefits to research and society they provide. The annual costs of monitoring are <0.02% of the economic value of pollination services that would be lost after a 30% decline in pollination services. Furthermore, by providing high‐quality scientific data, monitoring schemes would save at least £1.5 on data collection per £1 spent. Our findings demonstrate that long‐term systematic monitoring can be a cost‐effective tool for both answering key research questions and setting action points for policymakers. Careful consideration must be given to scheme design, the logistics of national‐scale implementation and resulting data quality when selecting the most appropriate combination of surveyors, methods and site networks to deliver a successful scheme
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Protecting an ecosystem service: approaches to understanding and mitigating threats to wild insect pollinators
Insect pollination constitutes an ecosystem service of global importance, providing significant economic and aesthetic benefits as well as cultural value to human society, alongside vital ecological processes in terrestrial ecosystems. It is therefore important to understand how insect pollinator populations and communities respond to rapidly changing environments if we are to maintain healthy and effective pollinator services. This paper considers the importance of conserving pollinator diversity to maintain a suite of functional traits to provide a diverse set of pollinator services. We explore how we can better understand and mitigate the factors that threaten insect pollinator richness, placing our discussion within the context of populations in predominantly agricultural landscapes in addition to urban environments. We highlight a selection of important evidence gaps, with a number of complementary research steps that can be taken to better understand: i) the stability of pollinator communities in different landscapes in order to provide diverse pollinator services; ii) how we can study the drivers of population change to mitigate the effects and support stable sources of pollinator services; and, iii) how we can manage habitats in complex landscapes to support insect pollinators and provide sustainable pollinator services for the future. We advocate a collaborative effort to gain higher quality abundance data to understand the stability of pollinator populations and predict future trends. In addition, for effective mitigation strategies to be adopted, researchers need to conduct rigorous field-testing of outcomes under different landscape settings, acknowledge the needs of end-users when developing research proposals and consider effective methods of knowledge transfer to ensure effective uptake of actions
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Establishment and management of wildflower areas for insect pollinators in commercial orchards
Sown wildflower areas are increasingly recommended as an agri-environmental intervention measure, but evidence for their success is limited to particular insect groups or hampered by the challenges of establishing seed mixes and maintaining flower abundance over time. We conducted a replicated experiment to establish wildflower areas to support insect pollinators in apple orchards. Over three years, and across 23 commercial UK orchards with and without sown wildflowers, we conducted 828 transect surveys across various non-crop habitats. We found that the abundance of flower-visiting solitary bees, bumblebees, honeybees, and beetles was increased in sown wildflower areas, compared with existing non-crop habitats in control orchards, from the second year following floral establishment. Abundance of hoverflies and other non-syrphid flies was increased in wildflower areas from the first year. Beyond the effect of wildflower areas, solitary bee abundance was also positively related to levels of floral cover in other local habitats within orchards, but neither local nor wider landscape-scale context affected abundance of other studied insect taxa within study orchards. There was a change in plant community composition on the sown wildflower areas between years, and in patterns of flowering within and between years, showing a succession from unsown weedy species towards a dominance of sown species over time. We discuss how the successful establishment of sown wildflower areas and delivery of benefits for different insect taxa relies on appropriate and reactive management practices as a key component of any such agri-environment scheme
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Addressing pollination deficits in orchard crops through habitat management for wild pollinators
There is increasing evidence that farmers in many areas are achieving below maximum yields due to insufficient pollination. Practical and effective approaches are needed to maintain wild pollinator populations within agroecosystems so they can deliver critical pollination services which underpin crop production. We established nesting and wildflower habitat interventions in 24 UK apple orchards and measured effects on flower-visiting insects and the pollination they provide, exploring how this was affected by landscape context. We quantified the extent of pollination deficits and assessed whether the management of wild pollinators can reduce deficits and deliver improved outcomes for growers over three years. Wildflower interventions increased solitary bee numbers visiting apple flowers by over 20% but there was no effect of nesting interventions. Other pollinator groups were influenced by both local and landscape-scale factors, with bumblebees and hoverflies responding to the relative proportion of semi-natural habitat at larger spatial scales (1000 m) while honeybees and other flies responded at 500 m or less. By improving fruit number and quality, pollinators contributed more than £15k per hectare. However, deficits (where maximum potential was not being reached due to a lack of pollination) were recorded and the extent of these varied across orchards, and from year to year, with a 22% deficit in the worst (~£11k/ha) compared to less than 3% (~£1k/ha) in the best year. Although no direct effect of our habitat interventions on deficits in gross output was observed, initial fruit set and seed set deficits were reduced by abundant bumblebees, and orchards with a greater abundance of solitary bees saw lower deficits in fruit size. The abundance of pollinators in apple orchards is influenced by different local and landscape factors which interact and vary between years. Consequently, pollination, and the extent of economic output deficits, also vary between orchards and years. We highlight how approaches, including establishing wildflower areas and optimising the ratio of cropped and non-cropped habitats can increase the abundance of key apple pollinators and improve outcomes for growers