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Plant Biodiversity Enhances Bees and Other Insect Pollinators in Agroecosystems

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Plant Biodiversity Enhances Bees and Other Insect Pollinators in Agroecosystems Plant biodiversity enhances bees and other insect pollinators in agroecosystems. A review Clara Nicholls, Miguel Altieri To cite this version: Clara Nicholls, Miguel Altieri. Plant biodiversity enhances bees and other insect pollinators in agroe- cosystems. A review. Agronomy for Sustainable Development, Springer Verlag/EDP Sciences/INRA, 2013, 33 (2), pp.257-274. 10.1007/s13593-012-0092-y. hal-01201380 HAL Id: hal-01201380 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01201380 Submitted on 17 Sep 2015 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Agron. Sustain. Dev. (2013) 33:257–274 DOI 10.1007/s13593-012-0092-y REVIEW ARTICLE Plant biodiversity enhances bees and other insect pollinators in agroecosystems. A review Clara I. Nicholls & Miguel A. Altieri Accepted: 25 March 2012 /Published online: 14 June 2012 # INRA and Springer-Verlag, France 2012 Abstract Thirty-five percent of global production from crops specific cropping systems. (3) More research is warranted to including at least 800 cultivated plants depend on animal advance knowledge on identifying beneficial weed species pollination. The transformation of agriculture in the past and ways to sponsor them to attract pollinators while not half-century has triggered a decline in bees and other insect reducing yields through interference. (4) In areas of intensive pollinators. In North America, losses of bee colonies have farming, field margins, field edges and paths, headlands, accelerated since 2004, leaving the continent with fewer man- fence-lines, rights of way, and nearby uncultivated patches aged pollinators than at any time in the past 50 years. A of land are important refuges for many pollinators. (5) Main- number of factors linked to industrial modes of agriculture tenance and restoration of hedgerows and other vegetation affect bee colonies and other pollinators around the world, features at field borders is therefore essential for harboring ranging from habitat degradation due to monocultures with pollinators. (6) Appropriate management of non-cropped consequent declines in flowering plants and the use of dam- areas to encourage wild pollinators may prove to be a cost- aging insecticides. Incentives should be offered to farmers to effective means of maximizing crop yield. restore pollinator-friendly habitats, including flower provi- sioning within or around crop fields and elimination of use Keywords Pollinators . Habitat management . Weed of insecticides by adopting agroecological production meth- manipulation . Hedgerows . Agroecosystems ods. Conventional farmers should be extremely cautious in the choice, timing, and application of insecticides and other chem- Contents icals. Here, we review the literature providing mounting evi- dence that the restoration of plant biodiversity within and Abstract ............................................................................1 around crop fields can improve habitat for domestic and wild bees as well as other insects and thus enhance pollination 1. Introduction ................................................................2 services in agroecosystems. Main findings are the following: 2. Ecological interactions among crops, weeds and (1) certain weed species within crop fields that provide food beneficial insects .......................................................6 resources and refuge should be maintained at tolerable levels 3. Effects of agricultural practices on wild pollinators .....2 within crop fields to aid in the survival of viable populations 4. Farming practices .......................................................4 of pollinators. (2) Careful manipulation strategies need to be 5. Agronomic strategies to encourage weeds beneficial to defined in order to avoid weed competition with crops and pollinator ....................................................................7 interference with certain cultural practices. Economic thresh- 6. Maintaining tolerable levels of weed densities in the olds of weed populations, as well as factors affecting crop– field ............................................................................8 weed balance within a crop season, need to be defined for 7. Practical tips for encouraging pollinator friendly weeds .......................................................................12 8. Costs-benefits to crop productivity of promoting : * C. I. Nicholls M. A. Altieri ( ) pollinator friendly weeds .......................................13 University of California, 9. Berkeley, CA, USA Conclusions ..............................................................14 e-mail: [email protected] 10. References ..............................................................15 258 C.I. Nicholls, M.A. Altieri 1 Introduction 2 Effects of agricultural practices on wild pollinators Agriculture poses many threats to insect pollinators such as Natural pollination systems are characterized by broad flow- changes in land use, loss and fragmentation of habitat, intro- er types exhibiting particular reward patterns as to attract duction of exotic organisms, modern agricultural practices, particular kinds of pollinators. Different kinds of flowers of and pesticide use. Removal of weeds that provide forage for varying phenologies attract different visitors cementing the pollinators is a major factor in the decline of native pollinators mutualisms and by implication tending to make flowers in agroecosystems (Richards 2001; Steffan-Dewenter et al. increasingly specialist and visitors more and more selective 2005). A pioneering study by Benedek (1972) was among (Willmer 2011). Such co-evolutionary processes have been the first to report a dramatic change in the structure of Lucerne interrupted in modern agroecosystems dominated by a uni- wild bee populations between the 1950s and 1960s linked formity of flowers with similar sizes, shapes, and colors. with a rapid increase in field size and an increased use of These flowers usually bloom massively in synchronous mechanical weed control along the field’s road sides associ- periods only lasting a few weeks so that peak numbers of ated with enhanced use of herbicides within crop fields. pollinators are needed in a short time. The floral diversity Because of the ecological link between plant resources formerly provided by hedges, weed patches, field margins, and insect biology, entomologists have long noted the pos- and uncultivated land that could sustain abundant and di- itive role of weeds in enhancing beneficial insect survivor- verse pollinator assemblages to cover such periods have ship in crop ecosystems (van Emden 1963, 1965). For more been eliminated in intensive agricultural systems. than 45 years, biological control practitioners have been Several features associated with modern agriculture make aware that the manipulation of specific weed species and/ farms poor habitat for wild bees and other pollinators, and or the use of a particular weed control practice in a cropping many agricultural practices impact directly or indirectly polli- system can affect the ecology of insect pests and associated nator populations (Kremen et al. 2002). Agricultural intensi- natural enemies (Altieri et al. 1977; Altieri and Whitcomb fication has led to a more homogeneous landscape 1979a; Thresh 1981; William 1981; Norris 1982). These characterized by large weed-free fields and fewer non culti- studies helped establish the foundations for strategies to vated habitats. Habitat loss and degradation, e.g., loss of manipulate natural enemies via weed management (Altieri complex landscape structures between farmland and adjacent et al. 1977; Altieri and Whitcomb 1979a). ecosystems, as well as the increased use of agrochemicals, Despite the fact that pollinators share similar habitat and have been linked to the reduction in beneficial arthropod resource requirements provided by flowers as arthropod natural species richness in agricultural landscapes (Kevan 1999) enemies, very few studies have explored the potential to utilize weed vegetation management as a tool to enhance pollinator 2.1 Vegetational simplification of agroecosystems diversity and abundance in agroecosystems. In an attempt to fill this gap in knowledge, this paper explores the multiple inter- Crop monocultures sacrifice floral diversity and, conse- actions among crops, weeds, and insect pollinators and, in quently, diversity of pollinating insects, over large areas. A particular, how weed ecology and management can affect the large body of research shows that cultivated fields sur- dynamics of insect pollinators as well as natural enemies and rounded by simple habitats (i.e., other monocultures) have hence benefit both crop health and yields. A challenging task significantly fewer bees than crops surrounded by unculti- addressed in the paper is to define a habitat management vated land, and the number of bumblebees on crops strategy in which weed manipulation plays a key role in en- increases with proximity to natural habitats (Ockinger and hancing key pollinator and natural enemy species, thus
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