There is worldwide concern about the environmental costs of conventional intensification of agriculture. Growing evidence suggests that ecological intensification of mainstream farming can safeguard ...food production, with accompanying environmental benefits; however, the approach is rarely adopted by farmers. Our review of the evidence for replacing external inputs with ecosystem services shows that scientists tend to focus on processes (e.g., pollination) rather than outcomes (e.g., profits), and express benefits at spatio-temporal scales that are not always relevant to farmers. This results in mismatches in perceived benefits of ecological intensification between scientists and farmers, which hinders its uptake. We provide recommendations for overcoming these mismatches and highlight important additional factors driving uptake of nature-based management practices, such as social acceptability of farming.
Ecological intensification aims to harness ecosystem services to sustain agricultural production while minimising adverse effects on the environment.
Ecological intensification is championed by scientists as a nature-based alternative to high-input agriculture but meets with little interest from growers.
Scientific evidence underlying ecological intensification is often unconvincing to growers, as it is based on small-scale studies of ecological processes unlinked from agricultural production.
Grower interest can be enhanced by evidence of the agronomic and economic benefits most relevant to farmers and measured at the scales of operation of farm enterprises.
In addition to concrete benefits, concerns of the general public about adverse effects of industrial farming can promote adoption of ecological intensification, both directly and indirectly, by enhancing political will to use regulatory instruments.
The sustainability of agriculture can be improved by integrating management of ecosystem services, such as insect pollination, into farming practices. However, large‐scale adoption of ecosystem ...services‐based practices in agriculture is lacking, possibly because growers undervalue the benefits of ecosystem services compared to those of conventional management practices. Here we show that, under representative real‐world conditions, pollination and plant quality made similar contributions to marketable seed yield of hybrid leek (Allium porrum). Relative to the median, a 25% improvement of plant quality and pollination increased crop value by an estimated $18 007 and $17 174 ha−1 respectively. Across five crop lines, bumblebees delivered most pollination services, while other wild pollinator groups made less frequent but nevertheless substantial contributions. Honeybees actively managed for pollination services did not make significant contributions. Our results show that wild pollinators are an undervalued agricultural input and managing for enhancing pollinators makes sense economically in high‐revenue insect‐pollinated cropping systems.
One major, yet poorly studied, change in the environment is nocturnal light pollution, which strongly alters habitats of nocturnally active species. Artificial night lighting is often considered as ...driving force behind rapid moth population declines in severely illuminated countries. To understand these declines, the question remains whether artificial light causes only increased mortality or also sublethal effects. We show that moths subjected to artificial night lighting spend less time feeding than moths in darkness, with the shortest time under light conditions rich in short wavelength radiation. These findings provide evidence for sublethal effects contributing to moth population declines. Because effects are strong under various types of light compared with dark conditions, the potential of spectral alterations as a conservation tool may be overestimated. Therefore, restoration and maintenance of darkness in illuminated areas is essential for reversing declines of moth populations.
Ecological intensification has been proposed as an alternative paradigm for intensive agriculture to boost yield sustainably through utilizing ecosystem services. A prerequisite to achieving this is ...to understand the relations between multiple ecosystem services and production, while taking growth conditions such as nutrient availability into consideration. Here, we conducted a pot-field experiment to study the interactive effects of soil organic matter (SOM) content and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) inoculation on the production of raspberry (Rubus idaeus L.) under four levels of fertilizer application. Raspberry flower number, fruit number and yield only significantly increased with fertilizer inputs but were not impacted by SOM content or AMF inoculation. Fruit set and single berry weight were influenced by both SOM content and AMF inoculation, in complex three-way interactions with fertilizer application. Fruit set of AMF inoculated plants increased with fertilizer inputs in low SOM soils, but decreased with fertilizer inputs under high SOM soils, with the highest fruit set occurring at no fertilizer inputs. In low SOM soils, the relation between single berry weight and fertilizer application was more pronounced in inoculated plants than in non-inoculated plants, while in high SOM soils the relative benefits of AMF inoculation on single berry weight decreased with increasing fertilizer inputs. We attribute the lack of effects of AMF inoculation and SOM content on flower number, fruit number and yield mainly to potential tradeoffs between the experimental variables that all influence resource uptake by plant root systems. Our results suggest that potentially beneficial effects of AMF and SOM can be offset by each other, probably driven by the dynamic relations between AMF and the host plants. The findings reveal fundamental implications for managing AMF inoculation and SOM management simultaneously in real-world agricultural systems.
Conserving and restoring semi-natural habitat, i.e. enhancing landscape complexity, is one of the main strategies to mitigate pollinator decline in agricultural landscapes. However, we still have ...limited understanding of how landscape complexity shapes pollinator communities in both crop and non-crop habitat, and whether pollinator responses to landscape complexity vary with their association with mass-flowering crops. Here, we surveyed pollinator communities on mass-flowering leek crops and in nearby semi-natural habitat in landscapes of varying complexity. Surveys were done before and during crop bloom and distinguished between pollinators that visit the crop frequently (dominant), occasionally (opportunistic), or not at all (non-crop). Forty-seven per cent of the species in the wider landscape were also observed on leek flowers. Crop pollinator richness increased with local pollinator community size and increasing landscape complexity, but relationships were stronger for opportunistic than for dominant crop pollinators. Relationships between pollinator richness in semi-natural habitats and landscape complexity differed between groups with the most pronounced positive effects on non-crop pollinators. Our results indicate that while dominant crop pollinators are core components of crop pollinator communities in all agricultural landscapes, opportunistic crop pollinators largely determine species-richness responses and complex landscapes are local hotspots for both biodiversity conservation and potential ecosystem service provision.
Bumblebees are one of the most commonly studied pollinators, but they are declining in large parts of their distribution. Whether bumblebees can cope with anthropogenic disturbances such as climate ...change and habitat loss depends largely on their dispersal capacity. While bumblebee queen dispersal is estimated to be only a few kilometres, bird migration sites have documented mass‐migration events with peak migration of 70 bumblebee queens per minute, indicating that bumblebees can migrate over larger distances than previously thought.
The open‐access database trektellen.org contains 10 daily counts of >1,000 migrating queens past single points in the Netherlands, and one in the United Kingdom (total bumblebee records 65,430; range 1–11,142 individuals), mostly in early spring. Such mass‐migration events are poorly documented in the scientific literature, and usually when describing migrations of other insects such as syrphids and social wasps.
Most common European bumblebee species were documented to migrate. Bumblebees were observed flying at sea, coming from sea and flying towards the sea, showing that they can cross large water bodies. The wind direction might have helped to concentrate migration at landscape bottlenecks. On 1 day, bumblebee mass‐migration was documented on two sites located 200 km apart. Together with the concentrated and directional flight this suggests that they can migrate for several hundreds of kilometres.
Because most mass‐migration events occur in spring, large‐scale shortage in suitable nesting sites may be the trigger for mass‐migration (e.g. due to high queen survival or low vole numbers). Future studies should test whether this is the case, or whether bumblebees show annual seasonal migration.
Synthesis and applications. Much remains unclear about bumblebee migration, but it may have large consequences for the conservation of bumblebees and the ecosystem services they provide. For example, bumblebees in highly disturbed areas like agricultural landscapes may be continuously supplemented by queens from far‐away productive natural areas. This suggests that large‐scale conservation initiatives are required to maintain viable populations of common and endangered species. Structured observations and modern‐day technology, like isotope analyses or radar monitoring, may shed light on the drivers and consequences of the overlooked phenomenon of bumblebee migration.
Much remains unclear about bumblebee migration, but it may have large consequences for the conservation of bumblebees and the ecosystem services they provide. For example, bumblebees in highly disturbed areas like agricultural landscapes may be continuously supplemented by queens from far‐away productive natural areas. This suggests that large‐scale conservation initiatives are required to maintain viable populations of common and endangered species. Structured observations and modern‐day technology, like isotope analyses or radar monitoring, may shed light on the drivers and consequences of the overlooked phenomenon of bumblebee migration.
Foragers whose energy intake rate is constrained by search and handling time should, according to the contingency model (CM), select prey items whose profitability exceeds or equals the forager's ...long-term average energy intake rate. This rule does not apply when prey items are found and ingested at a higher rate than the digestive system can process them. According to the digestive rate model (DRM), foragers in such situations should prefer prey with the highest digestive quality, instead of the highest profitability. As the digestive system fills up, the limiting constraint switches from ingestion rate to digestion rate, and prey choice is expected to change accordingly for foragers making decisions over a relative short time window. We use these models to understand prey choice in crab plovers (Dromas ardeola), preying on either small burrowing crabs that are swallowed whole (high profitability, but potentially inducing a digestive constraint) or on larger swimming crabs that are opened to consume only the flesh (low profitability, but easier to digest). To parameterize the CM and DRM, we measured energy content, ballast mass and handling times for different sized prey, and the birds' digestive capacity in three captive individuals. Subsequently, these birds were used in ad libitum experiments to test if they obeyed the rules of the CM or DRM. We found that crab plovers with an empty stomach mainly chose the most profitable prey, matching the CM. When stomach fullness increased, the birds switched their preference from the most profitable prey to the highest-quality prey, matching the predictions of the DRM. This shows that prey choice is context dependent, affected by the stomach fullness of an animal. Our results suggest that prey choice experiments should be carefully interpreted, especially under captive conditions as foragers often 'fill up' in the course of feeding trials.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the abundance and distribution of many central Asian steppe birds have been affected by changes in agricultural land management, such as the ...abandonment of large areas of cropland and changing grazing patterns. However, the underlying population processes that drive patterns of abundance and distribution are poorly understood. We compared the population ecology of the Black Lark
Melanocorypha yeltoniensis
on natural steppe and abandoned cropland. Between 2009 and 2013, we used distance sampling to quantify Black Lark population density, monitored 220 nests to assess reproductive performance, and modelled habitat selection at several scales. Arthropod food availability was compared using pitfall traps. Mean population densities were three times higher on abandoned cropland compared to those in steppe, and varied with time since abandonment. Nest survival rates were significantly lower on abandoned cropland compared to steppe, probably due to higher predation pressure. Chick growth rates were also lower on abandoned cropland, despite higher insect availability in this habitat. Habitat selection was strongly influenced by grazing intensity and vegetation structure. We suggest that Black Larks are generally attracted to abandoned cropland because of its suitable vegetation structure and higher food availability. The results of a fecundity model suggested that the number of breeding attempts on abandoned cropland necessary to produce the same number of fledglings as one nesting attempt in steppe habitat was 2.04 in 2011 and 3.62 in 2013. However, a phenological analysis revealed that there were only two peaks in first egg dates, making more than two re-nesting attempts per year unlikely. Therefore, abandoned cropland could, at least in some years, be an ecological trap for the species. Our results illustrate that the effects of land-use change on animal populations should not only be assessed using species densities, but also incorporate detailed demographic analyses. If current densities in steppe habitat corresponded to maximum carrying capacity, overall population densities of Black Larks are likely to decline in the near future as availability of abandoned cropland as nesting habitat is currently decreasing.
Arctic and subarctic ecosystems are changing rapidly in species composition and functioning as they warm twice as fast as the global average. It has been suggested that tree-less boreal landscapes ...may shift abruptly to tree-dominated states as climate warms. Yet, we insufficiently understand the conditions and mechanisms underlying tree establishment in the subarctic and arctic regions to anticipate how climate change may further affect ecosystem structure and functioning. We conducted a field experiment to assess the role of permafrost presence, micro-topography and shrub canopy on tree establishment in almost tree-less subarctic peatlands of northern Finland. We introduced seeds and seedlings of four tree-line species and monitored seedling survival and environmental conditions for six growing seasons. Our results show that once seedlings have emerged, the absence of permafrost can enhance early tree seedling survival, but shrub cover is the most important driver of subsequent tree seedling survival in subarctic peatlands. Tree seedling survival was twice as high under an intact shrub canopy than in open conditions after shrub canopy removal. Under unclipped control conditions, seedling survival was positively associated with dense shrub canopies for half of the tree species studied. These strong positive interactions between shrubs and trees may facilitate the transition from today’s treeless subarctic landscapes towards tree-dominated states. Our results suggest that climate warming may accelerate this vegetation shift as permafrost is lost, and shrubs further expand across the subarctic.
The loss of floral resources is a leading cause of wild bee decline in agricultural landscapes, but little is known about the temporal aspects of floral resource limitation for both social and ...solitary bees. Understanding when floral resources are most needed is crucial for the optimal design of pollinator conservation measures.
We surveyed bees and flowers in 160 semi‐natural habitat patches multiple times per year (May–July) for 5 years. We identified the seasonality of floral resources and wild bees and examined inter‐ and intra‐annual patterns of floral resource limitation at both local and landscape scales.
Floral resource availability varied across years but generally peaked in late May, after which it declined and remained low through July.
Bumblebee and solitary bee abundances increased across the season, leading to stronger floral resource limitation for both groups later in the season. Bumblebee abundance was marginally positively associated with the cumulative amount of landscape‐scale floral resources as well as the floral resources of the previous year. Solitary bee abundance was only predicted by local‐scale floral resources.
Synthesis and applications: Our results indicate that agri‐environmental management should target the provision of summer floral resources for both social and solitary bees. Local‐scale enhancement of floral resources can likely benefit solitary bees, but bumblebees probably require the management of floral resources at the landscape scale. Increasing the floral resources and the flowering period of herbaceous habitats that cover large proportions of the landscape, such as pastures, has the greatest potential to improve summer floral resources for bees.
Our results indicate that agri‐environmental management should target the provision of summer floral resources for both social and solitary bees. Local‐scale enhancement of floral resources can likely benefit solitary bees, but bumblebees probably require the management of floral resources at the landscape scale. Increasing the floral resources and the flowering period of herbaceous habitats that cover large proportions of the landscape, such as pastures, has the greatest potential to improve summer floral resources for bees.
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