Mass flowering crops enhance pollinator densities at a landscape scale Export

@article{citeulike:5382681, abstract = {To counteract the decline of pollinators in Europe, conservation strategies traditionally focus on enhancing the local availability of semi-natural habitats, as supported by the European Union's Common Agriculture Policy. In contrast, we show that densities of bumblebees, an important pollinator group in agroecosystems, were not determined by the proportion of semi-natural habitats in agricultural landscapes. Instead, bumblebee densities were positively related to the availability of highly rewarding mass flowering crops (i.e. oilseed rape) in the landscape. In addition, mass flowering crops were only effective determinants of bumblebee densities when grown extensively at the landscape scale, but not at smaller local scales. Therefore, future conservation measures should consider the importance of mass flowering crops and the need for management schemes at landscape level to sustain vital pollination services in agroecosystems.}, address = {Department of Agroecology, University of Gttingen, Waldweg 26, 37073 Gttingen, Germany}, author = {Westphal, Catrin and Steffan-Dewenter, Ingolf and Tscharntke, Teja}, citeulike-article-id = {5382681}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1046/j.1461-0248.2003.00523.x}, citeulike-linkout-1 = {http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/abstract/118853103/ABSTRACT}, doi = {10.1046/j.1461-0248.2003.00523.x}, issn = {1461-0248}, journal = {Ecology Letters}, keywords = {bumblebees, landscape, pollination}, number = {11}, pages = {961--965}, posted-at = {2009-08-06 15:20:43}, priority = {2}, title = {Mass flowering crops enhance pollinator densities at a landscape scale}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1046/j.1461-0248.2003.00523.x}, volume = {6}, year = {2003} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:5382681 L3 - citeulike-article-id:5382681 N2 - To counteract the decline of pollinators in Europe, conservation strategies traditionally focus on enhancing the local availability of semi-natural habitats, as supported by the European Union's Common Agriculture Policy. In contrast, we show that densities of bumblebees, an important pollinator group in agroecosystems, were not determined by the proportion of semi-natural habitats in agricultural landscapes. Instead, bumblebee densities were positively related to the availability of highly rewarding mass flowering crops (i.e. oilseed rape) in the landscape. In addition, mass flowering crops were only effective determinants of bumblebee densities when grown extensively at the landscape scale, but not at smaller local scales. Therefore, future conservation measures should consider the importance of mass flowering crops and the need for management schemes at landscape level to sustain vital pollination services in agroecosystems. IS - 11 JF - Ecology Letters SN - 1461-0248 AD - Department of Agroecology, University of Gttingen, Waldweg 26, 37073 Gttingen, Germany EP - 965 TI - Mass flowering crops enhance pollinator densities at a landscape scale VL - 6 SP - 961 KW - bumblebees KW - landscape KW - pollination AU - Westphal, Catrin AU - Steffan-Dewenter, Ingolf AU - Tscharntke, Teja PY - 2003/// UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1046/j.1461-0248.2003.00523.x ER -