Response of wild bee diversity, abundance, and functional traits to vineyard inter-row management intensity and landscape diversity across Europe

Agricultural intensification is a major driver of wild bee decline. Vineyards may be inhabited by plant and animal species, especially when the inter-row space is vegetated with spontaneous vegetation or cover crops. Wild bees depend on floral resources and suitable nesting sites which may be found in vineyard inter-rows or in viticultural landscapes. Inter-row vegetation is managed by mulching, tillage, and/or herbicide application and results in habitat degradation when applied intensively. Here, we hypothesize that lower vegetation management intensities, higher floral resources, and landscape diversity affect wild bee diversity and abundance dependent on their functional traits. We sampled wild bees semi-quantitatively in 63 vineyards representing different vegetation management intensities across Europe in 2016. A proxy for floral resource availability was based on visual flower cover estimations. Management intensity was assessed by vegetation cover (%) twice a year per vineyard. The Shannon Landscape Diversity Index was used as a proxy for landscape diversity within a 750 m radius around each vineyard center point. Wild bee communities were clustered by country. At the country level, between 20 and 64 wild bee species were identified. Increased floral resource availability and extensive vegetation management both affected wild bee diversity and abundance in vineyards strongly positively. Increased landscape diversity had a small positive effect on wild bee diversity but compensated for the negative effect of low floral resource availability by increasing eusocial bee abundance. We conclude that wild bee diversity and abundance in vineyards is efficiently promoted by increasing floral resources and reducing vegetation management frequency. High landscape diversity further compensates for low floral resources in vineyards and increases pollinating insect abundance in viticulture landscapes.AustrianScienceFund,Grant/AwardNumber:I2044-B25;BundesministeriumfürBildungundForschung;UnitateaExecutivapentruFinantareaInvatamantuluiSuperior,aCercetarii,DezvoltariisiInovarii;MinisteriodeEconomíayCompetitividad;AgenceNationaledelaRecherchePeer Reviewe

Assistance- and knowledge-services for smart production

The transformation towards Smart Manufacturing results in machines that are increasingly complex to use and to maintain, as well as in ever-complicated production processes. Coupled with a continuing reduction of staff, this leads to an increasing demand for information needs and work expertise. At the same time, these challenges offer the opportunity to enhance the employee's leeway with respect to designing and organizing their work. The project APPsist focuses on how this transformation can be supported technically and organizationally. This paper presents the technical approach: an architecture for intelligent-adaptive assistance and knowledge services. The paper describes how process mapping identified the requirements of the APPsist system, and presents the identified services and their communication, as well as the intelligent-adaptive functionality of the services

Tillage intensity or landscape features: What matters most for wild bee diversity in vineyards?

Vineyard inter-rows can provide habitats for a range of plant and animal species especially when covered with vegetation. However, frequent tillage results in the degradation of habitat quality and the provision of biodiversity-based ecosystem services. Wild bees are important pollinators of crops and wild plants and depend on both, floral resources and suitable nesting sites, which are influenced by the landscape configuration. We examined effects of field and landscape parameters on wild bee species’ richness, abundance and functional traits in Austrian vineyards over two years using Generalised Linear Mixed models, Detrended Correspondence Analysis and Random Forests. Alternating tillage was compared with no tillage in two inter-rows per vineyard. Forage availability in these inter-rows was estimated by flower coverage at each sampling date, and landscape features were analysed within a radius of 750 m around the vineyards. Across all vineyards we found 84 wild bee species with a mean abundance (±SD) of 29 (±16.6). Forage availability had the strongest positive effect on wild bee diversity and abundance. In comparison to no tillage, alternating tillage slightly increased wild bee diversity and abundance. Eusocial wild bees were more abundant in untilled inter-rows, whereas solitary wild bees were more closely associated with alternating tilled vineyards. At the landscape scale, the percentage of artificial areas (mostly villages) and distance to semi-natural elements raised wild bee diversity and abundance. The proportion of woodland increased the abundance of wild bees, in particular of eusocial taxa. Solitary wild bee abundance was enhanced by the number of solitary trees. Pollination provided by wild bees in viticultural areas can be enhanced by maintaining a diversity of different soil management strategies to improve forage availability in vineyards. Furthermore, semi-natural elements such as fallows or solitary trees providing floral resources and nesting habitat should be preserved within viticultural landscapes.This research is part of the BiodivERsA project VineDivers (www.vinedivers.eu) and was funded through the BiodivERsA/FACCE JPI (2013-2014 joint call) for research proposals, with the national funders: Austrian Science Fund (grant number I 2044-B25FWF), French National Research Agency (ANR), Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO), Romanian Executive Agency for Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation Funding (UEFISCDI) and Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF/Germany). The open access funding was provided by the Austrian Science Fund: I 2044-B25. We are grateful to Johann Grassl and to the winegrowers in the Neusiedlersee-Hügelland and Carnuntum region for allowing us to study their vineyards.Peer Reviewe