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Karin Hall

Professor

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The value of small arable habitats in the agricultural landscape : Importance for vascular plants and the provisioning of floral resources for bees

Author

  • Annika M.E. Söderman
  • Therese Irminger Street
  • Karin Hall
  • Ola Olsson
  • Honor C. Prentice
  • Henrik G. Smith

Summary, in English

Small remnants of non-arable habitat within the farmland mosaic are considered important for the conservation of farmland biodiversity, but their contribution to landscape-scale species richness is poorly understood. In the present study, we examined the relative contributions of different habitat types to the landscape-scale species richness of vascular plants within farmland of varying landscape complexity. We also analysed pollen collected by bees to examine the extent to which the different habitat types contributed towards the provisioning of floral resources for three taxa (Bombus terrrestris, Megachile sp. and Osmia bicornis). We found that plant species richness increased with landscape complexity (defined as the proportion of semi-natural habitats). The relative contribution of small fragments of non-arable habitat to total plant species richness was high within all landscape types, especially in relation to the small area they covered. The importance of small non-arable fragments for the provisioning of floral resources to bees varied over time and between taxa. Bombus terrestris used the different habitat types differently during different parts of the growing season: arable fields were important early in the season, leys late in the season, and small non-arable habitat fragments during the mid-season when no mass-flowering crops were in bloom. In contrast, Megachile sp. and O. bicornis mainly foraged on plants occurring within grasslands. We conclude that small fragments of non-arable habitat are important for plant species richness at the landscape-scale and that their importance for plants may cascade to the bees that use them as foraging resources. Consequently, it is important to consider the entire landscape mosaic when taking actions to conserve farmland species.

Department/s

  • Centre for Environmental and Climate Science (CEC)
  • Biodiversity
  • Dept of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science
  • BECC: Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate
  • Biodiversity and Conservation Science

Publishing year

2018-01-01

Language

English

Pages

553-563

Publication/Series

Ecological Indicators

Volume

84

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Elsevier

Topic

  • Environmental Sciences related to Agriculture and Land-use

Keywords

  • Habitat specificity
  • Landscape complexity
  • Pollen
  • Pollinators
  • Resource plants
  • Small biotopes
  • Vascular plants

Status

Published

Research group

  • Biodiversity and Conservation Science

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1470-160X