The need for weeds: Man-made, non-cropped habitats complement crops and natural habitats in providing honey bees and bumble bees with pollen resources

Abstrakt

In Europe, honey bees and bumble bees are among the most important pollinators, and there is a growing interest in understanding the effects of floral resource availability on their survival. Yet, to date, data on nectar and pollen sup- plies available to bees in agricultural landscapes are still scarce. In this paper, we quantify species-, habitat- and landscape-scale pollen production in the Lublin Upland, SE Poland. The production per unit area was highest (mean = 2.2–2.6 g/m2) in non-forest woody vegetation, field margins and fallows, whilst significantly lower pollen amounts were shown to be available in road verges and railway embankments (mean = 1.3–1.6 g/m2). At landscape scale, natural and semi-natural areas (forests and meadows/pastures) offered ca. 44% of the total pollen resources dur- ing the year. Relatively high amounts of pollen (ca. 35% of the year-round total pollen resources) were from winter rape, but this resource was short-term. Man-made, non-cropped habitats added only ca. 18% of the total pollen mass offered for pollinators during flowering season. However, they provided 66–99% of pollen resources available from July to October. There exists an imbalance in the availability of pollen resources throughout the year. Hence, a diversity of natural, semi-natural and man-made, non-cropped areas is required to support the seasonal continuity of pollen resources for pollinators in an agricultural landscape. Efforts should be made to secure habitat heterogeneity to enhance the flower diversity and continual pollen availability for pollinators.

Autorzy

Małgorzata Wrzesień
Małgorzata Wrzesień
Elżbieta Ziółkowska
Elżbieta Ziółkowska
artykuł
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
Angielski
2022
840
156551
otwarte czasopismo
CC BY 4.0 Uznanie autorstwa 4.0
ostateczna wersja opublikowana
w momencie opublikowania
2022-06-07
200
9,8
0
3