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Hover flies are efficient pollinators of oilseed rape

  • Plant-Animal Interactions - Original Paper
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Abstract

Understanding the consequences of declining diversity and abundance of pollinators for crops and floral biodiversity is a major challenge for current conservation ecology. However, most studies on this issue focus on bees, while other invertebrate taxa are largely ignored. We investigated the pollination efficiency of the globally abundant hover fly Episyrphus balteatus on the common crop, oilseed rape (Brassica napus). The study was conducted over a period of 2 consecutive years by means of enclosure experiments at an agricultural site located in Central Hesse (Germany). E. balteatus significantly increased both seed set and yield. This effect was very constant in the 2 years, despite considerable interannual differences in total seed numbers and seed mass. It highlights the important role of hover flies as pollinators of arable crops under varying environmental conditions. In contrast to bees, the effect of E. balteatus was lower at high pollinator densities than at low pollinator densities. This suggests adverse effects of density-dependent factors on pollination efficiency at high densities. Thus, models ignoring the modulating effect of biotic interactions by generally assuming a simple positive relationship between pollinator density and pollination efficiency might not apply to a vital component of the pollinator community.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the staff of the Rauischholzhausen field station, especially Mechthild Schwarte, for assisting in the management of the rape plants, and the Institute of Plant Breeding, Justus-Liebig-University of Giessen (Head of Department: Prof. Wolfgang Friedt) for permission to conduct this study on their field sites and for providing the flight cages. Tim Diekötter and Klaus Birkhofer provided statistical advice and valuable comments on the manuscript. James Cresswell, Birgit Meyer, and Ingolf Steffan-Dewenter made valuable comments on an earlier draft of this manuscript. This work was funded by the German Environmental Foundation (DBU) with a doctoral scholarship to F. Jauker. This study complies with the current laws of Germany.

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  1. Department of Animal Ecology, Justus Liebig University, Heinrich-Buff-Ring 28-32, 35392, Giessen, Germany

    Frank Jauker & Volkmar Wolters

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  1. Frank Jauker
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  2. Volkmar Wolters
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Correspondence to Frank Jauker.

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Communicated by Roland Brandl.

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Jauker, F., Wolters, V. Hover flies are efficient pollinators of oilseed rape. Oecologia 156, 819–823 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-008-1034-x

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