Our last article has been published last week in Ecology and Evolution.
In this study, we tested how wildflower strips (WFS) can impact plant-pollinator networks. We found that increasing flower provision in 10 UK farms increases abundance of bees, and importantly, both flower density and flower species richness can increase the number of visiting pollinators.
We also found, as main result of our study, that sown flowers along field margins modify the structure of pollinator networks. In flower with higher flower diversity, we found networks with lower connectance and lower niche overlap. Our results suggest that careful design of WFS seed mixes may potentially reduce competition and disease transmission between bees -hypotheses that remain to be tested.
We also recommend to extend the use of wildflower strips into the crucial spring period, when bumble bee queen are establishing their colonies.
The reference:
Doublet V, Doyle T, Refoy I, Hedges S, Carvell C, Brown MJF, Wilfert L (2022) Increasing flower species richness in agricultural landscapes alters insect pollinator networks: implications for bee health and competition. Ecology and Evolution, 12(10): e9442. doi:10.1002/ece3.9442
Vincent Doublet 