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Pollination efficiency in farmland landscapes: exploring the relative roles of spillover, dilution and complementarity between habitats

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Abstract

Context

Recognized as a critical ecosystem service in farmland, pollination is threatened by the decline of pollinators, notably due the homogenization of the landscape and the decline of floral resources. However, there is still a limited understanding of the interplay between landscape features and the pulses of floral resources provided by mass-flowering crops.

Objective

The goals of this study were to (i) determine how pollination efficiency varies with the amount of floral resources at field and landscape scales through the oilseed rape (OSR) flowering period and (ii) quantify the magnitude of the pollination processes involved.

Methods

Pollination efficiency (fruiting success) was measured using OSR plant phytometers placed in grasslands, cereals and OSR fields varying in quantity of floral resources at both field and landscape scales. The individual contributions of different processes to pollination were determined using a bagging experiment on plant phytometers.

Results

Pollination efficiency was enhanced during both the temporal period and in landscapes with a high amount of OSR flowers, and semi-natural habitats as a result of higher pollinator presence. The bagging experiment also supported a complementarity between habitats for pollinators, as insect-pollination in grasslands and cereals was higher after OSR flowering, especially in OSR-rich landscapes, in regard to large-insect-pollination.

Conclusions

The floral resource availability drives insect-pollination through attraction, spillover, and spatial and temporal complementarities between habitats. These results suggest that maximizing pollination efficiency in farmland landscapes partly consisting of OSR fields should include a combination of habitats that provide continuous floral resources.

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Availability of data and material

The datasets generated and used for the study are available (except confidential data such as landscape information) from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Code availability

The code performed to analyse the dataset is available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

References

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Acknowledgements

We would like to express our thanks to Marilyn Roncoroni, Alexis Saintilan, Quentin Van Hecke and Anthony Stoquaert for their help with the OSR phytometer experiment and pollinator trapping and identification (Marilyn Roncoroni). We also sincerely thank the farmers of the LTSER ‘Zone Atelier Plaine & Val de Sèvre’ for their involvement in our research programmes. MR was supported by a PhD grant from INRAE (Metaprogram SMACH) and the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region’s Birdland project. SG, TP, OM, and FC are funded by INRAE, and VB by CNRS. The authors are grateful to the two anonymous reviewers whose comments greatly improved the manuscript.

Funding

This project was supported by the French Ministry of Ecology project (2017–2020 “Pollinisateurs”), the ANR IMAGHO (ANR-18-CE32-0002) and the INRAE projects “ESPACE” and “INITIATE” (MP SumCrop). This project also received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement SHOWCASE No 862480.

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Authors

Contributions

VB and SG conceived the study and were in charge of overall direction. VB and SG designed and planned the field work. JG worked in the field and in the laboratory for yield component quantification with the help of TP and MR. JG entered the data. MR analysed the data. SG, FC, OM, VB, and TP provided feedback and helped improve analyses. MR, SG, VB, FC, OM, and TP discussed and interpreted the results. MR, SG, VB, and FC wrote the paper. TP and OM commented and helped shape the manuscript. All authors approved the final version of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sabrina Gaba.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Ragué, M., Bretagnolle, V., Martin, O. et al. Pollination efficiency in farmland landscapes: exploring the relative roles of spillover, dilution and complementarity between habitats. Landsc Ecol 37, 2413–2433 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-022-01482-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-022-01482-0

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